Chosen Name project kicks off at Columbus State

Update | Tuesday, September 1, 2020

After four years of planning, the Chosen Name project is underway. Chosen Name allows members of the Columbus State community to provide a chosen name, pronouns, and gender identity. This information will be used as data in as many places as appropriate.

The College laid extensive groundwork for the project with representation from the Faculty Diversity Committee, Enrollment Service Operations, Global Diversity & Inclusion, Information Technology (IT), Equity & Compliance, and Human Resources. The project team researched what other institutions were doing across the state and country. A 30-page Student Identity report from the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) was used as a guide.

The project got an early start four years ago as a response to the Department of Education’s “Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students.” In this letter, the DOE suggested it was the responsibility of educational institutions to protect transgender students’ sensitive information under Title XI. For example, schools could protect someone’s sex assigned at birth by allowing them to self-report their own gender identity and use a chosen name instead of a legal name. 

Columbus State will now align with best practices taking place around the country. Recent IT systems updates allow for this new data to be stored. Colleague has recently added fields to store the chosen name, pronouns, and gender identity data. 

If you are interested in making changes to your name, pronouns, or gender, you will find instructions at cscc.edu/chosennames.

The Faculty Diversity Committee developed a video on the project. You can view it at this link.

 

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