SUNY Cobleskill recognizes that some individuals wish to use a name other than their legal or official name of record to identify themselves in day-to-day use. The College acknowledges that a Chosen First Name can and should be used where possible in education, business, and communication settings. A Chosen First Name is a name that you choose to be called. It is different from the name assigned to you at birth. Chosen First Names are also different from your legal or official name of record. SUNY Cobleskill recognizes that some individuals may use “chosen name,” “lived name,” and/or “preferred name.” Regardless of the reason an individual has for a Chosen First Name, the College and its policies communicate to individuals that they are recognized and celebrated on our campus.
SUNY Cobleskill has a process by which you can easily supply your Chosen First Name, Pronouns and/or Gender, and be recognized and referred to as such as a member of our campus community.
Request Chosen First Name, Personal Pronouns, and Gender
Review the College’s Chosen First Name Policy here.
Chosen Name FAQs:
Students should fill out the Chosen Name, Pronoun, and Gender Change Request form to submit their Chosen Name. A Chosen First Name is one that you choose to be called that is different from your legal first name.
This process allows non-legal changes to be made to first names (it's not applicable to last name changes). If you have legally changed your name, you should instead submit a Personal Data Change Request along with documentation to have this reflected across college systems.
SUNY Cobleskill recognizes that some individuals wish to use a name other than their legal or official name of record to identify themselves in day-to-day use. The College acknowledges that a Chosen First Name can and should be used where possible in the course of college education, business, and communication. This policy is limited to first names and not surnames or family names.
This policy is in line with SUNY’s Chosen Name and Pronoun Resolution.
Students
This process may be used by any student who would benefit from it.
Under this policy, only the student can modify their own Chosen First Name, Personal Pronouns, and Gender.
Faculty/Staff
Please note that the Chosen First Name, Personal Pronouns, and Gender form will update Banner and integrated systems but not the HR system at this time. Please contact HR in addition to completing this form. Human Resources - 518-255-5423.
Students who wish to add a Chosen First Name or change an existing Chosen First Name should submit the Chosen Name, Pronoun, and Gender Change Request form.
Campus services and systems including:
Coming Soon:
Your full legal name will be used for official College correspondence and all legal purposes including transcripts, enrollment verification, financial records, dean's list announcements.
Official transcripts, enrollment verifications, third-party database systems, paychecks, medical records, financial aid documents, federal immigration documents, all external communications, such as hometown newspapers (dean's list announcements, etc.), or any other College business requiring legal needs will continue to use your legal name/official name of record. The College will attempt to display Chosen First Names to the College community where feasible and make a good faith effort to update reports, documents, and systems accordingly.
Coming Soon! New students can request that their CobyCard show their Chosen First Name. The Chosen First Name will appear on the front of the card, while the legal name will appear on the back. Students who fill out the Chosen First Name, Personal Pronouns, and Gender Request form can contact CAS to request that a new ID card with their Chosen Name be issued.
Currently, Banner allows for the input of the following three options:
he, him, his
she, her, hers
they, them, theirs
As SUNY and Ellucian work together, more options will be made available in the future.
It does not allow for manually entered pronouns at this time.
Contact the Chief Diversity Officer & Executive Director of Educational Support Services: Derwin Bennett, bennetdd@cobleskill.edu