What’s in a name?  SIS will enable use of both ‘legal’ and ‘preferred’ names

Mike Stearney, dean of enrollment services, wants members of the campus community to know that, like many universities across the UW System and beyond, UW-Green Bay is moving toward full development of functionality in the Student Information System (SIS) that will allow students to use their preferred name — as opposed to their legal name — for selective applications.

There are some places such as class rosters, grade rosters and the campus directories where the use of a preferred name is appropriate. There are other places, such as financial aid and forms related to employment or taxes, where a legal name must be used.

At this point, the limited use of a preferred name is available to students on request to the Registrar’s Office, and with appropriate rationale. Later, as full functionality for the use of preferred name is developed in SIS, the intent is to make this option available to all students through a self-service tool and to incorporate the use of preferred name into other campus applications, including the campus ID card system.

Faculty and staff are advised that, for a small number of students, they will see preferred name in the SIS Student Center, on various rosters (class, grade and D2L)  and in the campus Outlook and online directories. Both preferred and legal names will appear in the SIS Advisor Center. For any service office, department or faculty member, if there is any question or ambiguity about a student’s identity, students have been advised that they may be asked to authenticate themselves with other identifiers, such as legal name or student ID number. Your patience is requested until all necessary policies and technical challenges associated with this issue are fully resolved.