English pronouns are only gender-specific in the third person singular. When a person's gender is binary, use she, her and her(s) for female gender and he, him and his for male gender.
When someone’s gender is non-binary, use that person’s self-identified pronouns, meaning the pronouns with which the person wants to be referred. In English, some people self-identify with the pronouns they, them and their(s), while others use sets of pronouns that have been introduced into the language to make it more gender-inclusive, like ze, hir and hir(s), or like hen, henom and hen(s). In the example below, the writer respects two people’s use of self-identified pronouns.





When the person’s gender is not known or not relevant, as is usually the case for institutional texts at the UB, use they, them and their(s).





Alternatively, rephrase the sentence so that the pronoun is unnecessary or pluralize the subject.





Finally, when there is no way of knowing the person’s gender, also use they, them and their(s). This may happen when you only know the person’s name and that name is a shortened form (Alex for Alexandra or Alexander, or Pat for Patricia or Patrick), a gender-neutral name (Amal, Cameron, Kazumi, Sasha) or a name with different gender associations in different countries (Andrea, Jean, Joan).