Names on Mail Sent Home
We've been working to find out how OIT handles legal and preferred names on physical mail sent to a student's mailing address. There is no comprehensive list of when preferred names vs legal names are used in OIT correspondence.
Our concern is that students who have set a preferred name may not be ready for that preferred name to appear on mail sent home, where it might be seen by parents/guardians or whomever that student is living with. We also want to support students who prefer that their preferred name is used everywhere possible.
Where Preferred Name Appears
We’ve been informed that if you set a preferred name, your preferred name appears on items such as:
• Student email
• Course and grade rosters
• In-School Directory listings
• Advisor lists
• Student identification cards
• Diplomas
Where Legal Name Appears
Your legal name will appear on transcripts and similar academic records. One of our student members let us know that their W-2's sent by OIT for their school employment had their legal name, and not their preferred name.
We've been informed that other systems in various departments around campus could possibly pull either your legal or preferred name from OIT’s student and finance information system; it would depend on whether those system are configured to pull your legal name, or your preferred name.
Our club is currently looking into this in greater detail. If you have a preferred name set, please contact us, we'd love to know about mail you've received from OIT, and which name was used.
Housing and Names
When OIT's Housing & Residence Life sends mail home, they use the student's legal name. Housing's internal digital system 'pulls' the student's name from OIT's Admissions system. This is done by the Housing system essentially asking the Admissions system "Hey, what is the name associated with this Student ID 918 number?"
Housing does allow students to set what Housing calls 'nicknames' for themselves with Housing. Any student can contact Housing and ask that Housing use this 'nickname' when addressing the student through e-mail or by phone or in person.
By e-mail in January 2021, Tiffany Virtue stated that if students are concerned about their nickname accidentally being used in mail, Housing could make a note of this concern in the student's file, and she can guarantee it won’t go out in a mailing.
This Housing 'nickname' system is separate from OIT's 'Preferred First Name' change system. That is, if you use OIT's Biographical Changes Form to set your Preferred First Name, OIT will make changes, but Housing will not, unless they hear about this preferred name preference somehow.