To campus faculty and staff,
We want to honor all employees’ lived identities. This includes enabling employees to set their Lived Name (sometimes referred to as Preferred Name) in the main UC systems of record. As part of UCOP’s Gender Recognition and Lived Name (GRLN) Policy, the process for employees and HR affiliates to set their Lived Names is changing. You are receiving this email because you are a faculty member, staff member, or HR affiliate in the UCPath system and these upcoming changes may impact you.
Effective June 20, 2023, Lived Names for employees and HR affiliates will no longer be set through the UC Berkeley campus directory. Instead, Lived Names set in UCPath will be used in campus systems such as bMail, bCourses, and Campus Solutions.
What is GRLN?
In August of 2018, Chancellor Christ charged a committee to develop implementation plans that align the UC Berkeley campus with the spirit of the Gender Recognition Act (California Senate Bill 179). That bill contributed to university discussions already taking place about revising procedures and practices to be more gender inclusive. The Berkeley SB 179 Committee’s accomplishments paved the way to begin the implementation of the University of California Gender Recognition and Lived Name (GRLN) Policy following its issuance in November of 2020.
Requirements of the policy include providing the minimum three equally recognized gender options — woman, man, and nonbinary — on university-issued documents and information systems, and an efficient process for current students and employees and UC alumni and affiliates to retroactively amend their gender designations and lived names on university-issued documents, including eligible academic documents, and in information systems.
Within the University community, offering a nonbinary gender option acknowledges that the binary options are not sufficient to recognize gender diversity. The designation of a lived or preferred name further recognizes the lived experiences of University community members who are transgender or nonbinary, whose gender identity differs from that indicated on official documents, who are survivors of abuse and/or trafficking, whose lived or preferred name is a variation or a shortened version of their legal name, and those who have married and have had a legal name change but wish to retain the name under which they have published academic works. You can read more about GRLN in this campus-wide message shared last month.
What changes will happen June 20?
Starting on June 20, 2023, employees and HR affiliates that have not added a Lived Name in UCPath will have their Legal Name sent to campus and displayed in campus systems as their Lived Name. This will overwrite any name you have previously set using the UC Berkeley campus directory.
Update your Lived Name in UCPath by June 15
To prevent your Legal Name from overwriting your existing Lived (Preferred) Name at UC Berkeley, you must update your Lived Name in UCPath by June 15, 2023. To update your Lived Name, follow these steps:
- Log into UCPath
- Navigate to Employee Actions > Personal Information > Personal Information Summary
- Update your Legal/Preferred Name (this form field will be updated on June 20 to “Legal Name/Name”)
What are the impacts of this change?
- This change impacts all active employees and HR affiliates at UC Berkeley.
- After June 15, Lived Names entered into UC Path will overwrite the name you see displayed in the Campus Directory as well as most campus applications. Updates may take up to 48 hours to appear in UC Berkeley systems.
- You will no longer be able to set honorifics or generational titles (such as Ph.D., or Jr.) as a distinct field in your Lived Name.
- The UCPath system will be unavailable from Friday, June 16 at 3 p.m. until Monday, June 19 at 9 p.m. Please plan to submit any name changes prior to or after these dates.
- Students, student employees, and other types of affiliates are not impacted at this time.
If you have questions about this policy, please visit UC Berkeley's Gender Recognition and Lived Name Policy information page at grln.berkeley.edu. Questions about UCPath should be directed to the support team
In community,
Jenn Stringer
she/her/hers
Associate Vice Chancellor for IT and Chief Information OfficerExecutive Sponsor of the Gender Recognition and Lived Name Policy
Dania Matos
she/her/ella
Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion
Executive Sponsor of the Gender Recognition and Lived Name policy
Related links: UC Berkeley GRLN website | UCOP Gender Recognition and Lived Name Policy
This message was sent to all faculty and staff campus-wide. If you are a manager who supervises UC Berkeley employees without email access, please circulate this information to all.