An aerial photo of the University of Kansas campus in August 2015.

The pronouns he/she and they/them are still prohibited in the email signature blocks of University of Kansas employees, but now KU is getting more specific about how those signatures must be constructed.

“Employee email signature blocks shall contain only the information listed below,” KU administrators wrote in bold type in a revised policy document that was released this week.

The revision comes about a month after KU — falling in line with a new law governing state employees — told faculty and staff that preferred pronoun listings no longer would be allowed as part of work-related emails.

The template provided in the revised policy provides a spot for the common pieces of information found in most signature blocks — name, title, office, contact information and other such details — but the template has no area for a listing of the sender’s preferred pronouns. That was a primary objective of Senate Bill 125, approved by the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature earlier this year when the national GOP was pushing back on a host of diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives.

But if a recent email from the president of KU’s University Senate is any indication, you don’t exactly have to be an English major to pick up on the creative pronoun usage that still populates some staff and faculty emails.

In response to a question, University Senate President Poppy DeltaDawn sent an email this week to the Journal-World that said University Senate had not taken a stance on the pronoun issue, and that she didn’t have any particular comment to offer on the most recent policy change.

But her email did include — right below her name but above her email signature line — the following sentence, in bold type: “My feminine pronouns have been erased from my emails due to Kansas SB 125 bill which censors state employees’ freedom of speech and expression. Please contact Kansas Loud Light to join the mobilization.”

Kansas Loud Light is a nonprofit that frequently advocates for a number of progressive causes in the state. Exactly what type of mobilization Loud Light is undertaking on the issue isn’t clear. The organization didn’t respond to an email seeking more information. The organization was an active opponent to SB 125 when it was considered by the Legislature earlier this year.

KU opponents, however, may not want to get their hopes up that the administration-approved signature blocks are going away anytime soon.

An attorney for FIRE — the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression –told the Journal-World this week that the university is within its legal rights to restrict what is included in email signature lines of employees.

“It’s reasonable for universities like KU to require uniform signature formats in employee emails,” Ross Marchand, program counsel for FIRE, told the Journal-World via email. “Standard signatures are a routine way for universities to maintain and strengthen their brands.”

FIRE, one of the country’s top advocacy groups for freedom of expression, came out against KU’s pronoun policy when it was announced in July. Marchand said the organization still has a problem with KU’s position on the issue because KU could do more to clarify that the university is not banning all speech related to gender ideology.

“The problem is that KU still has policy language on its website forbidding “gender ideology” in any “forms of university communication,” Marchand said. “As FIRE has noted before, this broad and vague language threatens a wide array of protected speech, from garden-variety titles like ‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs.’ to maternity leave announcements to mentions of pronouns.”

The revised policy released this week does not delve into the issue of “gender ideology” in the same ways the previous policy did. The revised policy also makes clear that it is the signature lines — for email, Zoom and Microsoft Team accounts — that are subject to the policy, rather than the actual body of a message itself.

But Marchand noted that KU’s website still has a July message from the chancellor that is directing employees to remove “gender-identifying pronouns or gender ideology” from signature blocks and “other forms of university communication.”

FIRE said KU needs to further clarify the expectations, and the organization also renewed its call for the Kansas Board of Regents to update its guidance to all the state’s public universities.

“FIRE calls on KU to remove this language from its website, and continues to urge the Kansas Board of Regents to revise its guidance proscribing “gender ideology” in any “form of communication,” Marchand said via email.

In a message to staff and faculty this week, KU Chancellor Doug Girod, along with KU Provost Barbara Bichelmeyer and KU Medical Center executive vice chancellor Steve Stites, said the revised policy was in response to a number of questions employees had asked since the change was made in late July. They also said the revised policy better aligns with guidance provided to all state agencies through the Kansas Department of Administration.

While the pronoun policy has been denounced by many individual members of KU’s faculty and staff, some of the larger employee governance groups haven’t taken a position on the matter. In addition to University Senate not taking a position, KU’s Faculty Senate also has not adopted a stance on the policy.

Misty Heggeness, president of Faculty Senate, told the Journal-World via email that the group is expected to discuss the topic at next month’s meeting. She said she has seen multiple faculty members writing statements at the end of their signature lines related to the pronoun issue.

While Faculty Senate has no official position on the matter, yet, Heggeness issued a personal statement that called the situation unfortunate.

“It is unfortunate opportunities of inclusion have become politicized in today’s hyper-political environment and overarching culture wars in the news and social media,” Heggeness said via email. “At KU, as a faculty member, I am committed to making sure that faculty, staff, and students all show respect for each other, appreciate our differences, and stand up for our neighbors. As a society, that is what we should all be doing every single day. To that end, my hope is that our political representatives will come around to supporting the students in their state, state employees, neighbors, and communities. That is what we should all aspire to and what we should demand from our elected officials.”