The College acknowledges that an individual’s gender identity, pronouns, and chosen name should be used whenever possible in the course of a student’s education to ensure a supportive living and learning environment that will facilitate a welcoming educational and personal experience for all at the College. The College of Wooster is committed to using the gender, pronouns, and chosen name of all members of the community in all materials to the extent that the College is not legally required to use that person’s legal name or legal sex.
Process to Change Personal Records
All students, faculty, and staff are welcome to change their Display Name, Chosen Name, Pronouns, and Gender Identity in the Self-Service college system at any time. For step-by-step instructions, please see the images below. Once changes are saved, they will appear on your profile as well as in Colleague, ScotWeb, and other college systems within 24 – 48 hours.
Once you have updated your information in Self-service, you are able to update your COW Card (College ID) as well as your first initial in your Wooster Username/email. To update the name on your COW Card, you will need to stop by Campus Access; the fee to replace your card will be waived in this instance. To update your Wooster Username/email, you will need to email IT at helpdesk@wooster.edu.
If you have any questions, contact SGI@wooster.edu.
Where Will My Legal Name Appear?
Changing your chosen first name for certain records does not change your legal first name at The College of Wooster. Regardless of the location to which information is sent, the College uses legal name where legal name is required and chosen name where legal is not required. This means that some of the correspondence that is sent to your primary residence may include your chosen name. Unfortunately, systems do not allow for creating specific rules on name use in different contexts. The College’s priority is to not include pronouns in any written correspondence, so letters and other documents should not include these.
Your legal name will appear on:
- Your official College transcript page(s)
- Tax forms used in the course of student employment such as I-9, W-4, M-4, etc.
- Tax forms issued by the college such as W-2, 1098-T, 1095-C, etc.
- Any other place where we are compelled to do so by law
- Any checks issued to you by the College
- Any financial aid documents
- Any insurance and billing information
- Anywhere a legal name is required
Your chosen name will appear on:
- Your Wooster email name
- Your Wooster username/email first initial (if you choose to update this)
- The College of Wooster directory
- Faculty course rosters
- Residence Life information
- Anywhere your name is displayed in Moodle course websites
- The Ohio Five Consort library system
- The campus organization platform being used by Student Life
- Within Maxient (used by the Office of Rights and Responsibilities, Title IX, and Bias Incident Reporting)
- College of Wooster websites (If your name is already listed on a website prior to changing this, you may need to contact the owner of that site)
- On the materials presented to you at ARCH, New Student Orientation (NSO), and your COW Card, which will be presented to you during ARCH and NSO. (If you have already received your COW Card, you will need to contact Campus Access to have this changed)
- your unofficial transcripts
- Anywhere a legal name is not required
If you notice your legal name being used somewhere and you believe your chosen name should be used instead, contact SGI@wooster.edu so that we may look further into this.
Respecting Names & Pronouns
If a member of the community does not wish to change their official College records to reflect their identity, the College will endeavor to ensure the person’s name and pronouns will be respected in non-official capacities. It is expected that members of the Wooster community respect and refer to a person by the identity that they have shared with others. Non-official capacities include, but are not limited to: verbalizing in a class, group, or individual setting; writing on lists, attendance sheets, or other documents that are able to be altered; email communication to or about the person.
In addition to respecting names, pronouns, and gender identities, members of the community should also respect the restrooms that folks use. To learn more, visit our site on restrooms.
For more information on the full College of Wooster policy, please see the Scot’s Key on Preferred Primary Display Name, Gender, and Pronouns identity documents and Access and Use of Facilities and Grounds: Restrooms.