Using students’ preferred first names

To the Lafayette community:

As many of you may recall, last spring the College established a policy for members of the campus community to have preferred first names printed on Lafayette identification cards. This was an initial phase of a larger effort to reflect and affirm all community members’ preferred first name and identity in our data systems. Through continued discussion and collaboration between various College offices and guided by input from the Faculty Committee on Diversity, we have expanded where preferred first names are incorporated.

I am happy to announce that effective today, preferred first names will be a data field supported in Moodle, Spaces, and the MyLafayette portal. This means, for example, that students’ preferred first names will appear on welcome screens, in forums, and in the gradebook in Moodle. Our entire campus will have access to preferred first names through the campus online directory.

This makes it possible and convenient for faculty to refer to the preferred first name appearing in the Moodle roster, rather than the roster in Banner, which still uses students’ legal names.

Any student or employee wishing to submit a change or remove their preferred first name can do so on this web page.

This initiative is part of the College’s ongoing commitment to more accurately reflect the individual identities of all members of our community.  I want to thank the talented and dedicated staff in the ITS Division for pulling the technical pieces together and all the members of the community who continue to support these efforts.

Sincerely,