Self-Definition is perhaps most simply understood as an outward expression of your identity - how you choose to identify yourself.
You can self-identify in many ways, for example, gender, sexuality, race, and disability. Whether you see yourself as a woman or not, or with a disability or not, giving your members the ability to self-define enables you to ask that any candidates or voters participating with certain roles are a part of that group. For example, if you self-define as transgender, you can vote for the Trans Students' Officer role, but those who do not can't.
If you are electing roles requiring self-definition, by adding a self-defining group as a requirement to those posts, a candidate or voter is asked to update their self-defined status as part of the nomination or voting process. They can select or deselect the checkbox(es) against any relevant self-defining groups and update their self-defined status. Alternatively, if no self-defining groups are relevant to them, they can skip this step and participate in any remaining posts they are eligible for.
You may require self-definition from candidates for roles such as Women's Officer or Black Students' Officer, but not from voters during the polling period. If so, you can remove the self-defining group requirement before polling opens without affecting any of the nominations. For further information, see How to Remove a Self-Define Requirement from a Post.
As well as being built into the elections process, you can direct your members throughout the year to the Elections Profile page at https://[domainname]/elections/profile/. All self-defining groups are displayed, so your members can update their self-defined status whenever they like.
Self-Definition is used primarily for Elections, but you may want to ask your members to self-define before they can join your Student Communities, Liberation and Campaign Groups. You could direct your users to the Elections Profile page or display your self-defining groups on another page by adding a Mailing Lists widget to the content.
You can access this feature from your MSL website. Only Content Editors with access to Elections Admin can manage Elections via the Elections Admin window.
All sensitive personal data belonging to your members is kept securely within the MSL System. Please ask your Contractual System Admin to regularly review the list of Super Admins who have access to your MSL System Admin site where this data is accessed.
For further information, see Elections Overview and Elections Admin.
Elections Admin Profile Page Fields
This table lists and explains the fields in the Profile Page section.
| Field Name | Definition |
|---|---|
| Help Text | Content added to this text field is displayed to users on the Election Profile page above the Eligibility section. The Help Text might include information about how you use self-defined data to facilitate your elections, for example, "We do not assume our member’s personal information and adopt a self-definition process. This enables you to self-define information such as your sexual orientation. This information is kept strictly confidential and is used to determine your eligibility to participate in the election process for particular roles. These roles typically represent self-defined members of our student community." This field is displayed only in the Add Election and Edit Election windows. |
| Self-Definition Help Text | Content added to this text field is displayed to users on the Election Profile page in the Eligibility section where users can update their self-defined status, replacing the default "Some positions may require you to self-define your eligibility. Select all that apply." message. If left blank, the default text is displayed. This field is displayed only in the Add Election and Edit Election windows. |
For further information, see How to Add Self-Define Instructions to an Election.