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Project Overview

Project Goal

Update Northwestern's online systems for students, faculty and staff (including temporary staff) to be able to provide their name as they would like it to be displayed in University systems (e.g.,display name”) and their pronouns.

Project Partners

This project is the result of the collaborative work of campus partners from the Office of the Registrar, Human Resources, Information Technology, the Women's Center, the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, the Office of Global Marketing and Communications, and the Office of the Provost. For questions about this project, please contact any of the following members of the task force.

Project Phase

The early phase of this initiative focused on Northwestern’s major systems, and additional systems will be updated in future phases. The columns below indicate which systems are currently receiving name, pronouns, and gender identity data. Please note that changing your name, adding your pronouns, and adding your gender identity in NUValidate will not result in changes across all university systems. We are working to get additional systems updated as quickly as possible.

Phase One (January 2023-July 2024)

Enable name and pronoun updates in the following systems: 

  • NUValidate (display name; pronouns) 
  • myHR (display name; pronouns) 
  • CAESAR (display name; pronouns) 

This led to the corresponding changes within the following systems and services: 

  • RMS Mercury (Residential Services) 
  • Northwestern People Directory (display name only) 
  • Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive) (display name only). Note: Microsoft 365 has enabled a local pronoun feature. To add, change, or delete your pronouns on your Microsoft 365 profile, follow these instructions [https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/pronouns-on-your-profile-in-microsoft-365-232c3bfb-a947-4310-86db-b22d63663d85] 
  • Google G Suite (display name only) 
  • Workforce Software (Timekeeping) (display name only) 
  • NUFinancials (display name only) 
  • Library Systems (display name only) 
  • Health Services—PNC & Epic (display name only) 
  • ConnectNU (pronouns only) 
  • iBuyNU (display name only) 
  • Canvas (display name; pronouns) 
  • Wildcard. Upon request the Wildcard Office will issue a Wildcard with a chosen name/display name. Please bring the card you were initially issued to exchange for a new card in order to avoid a replacement fee. 

Phase Two (August 2024)

Disambiguating sex and gender and enabling gender identity updates in the following systems: 

  • NUValidate  

This will lead to the corresponding changes within the following systems and services: 

  • CAESAR  

FUTURE PHASES (2025+) 

Additional systems will be updated to receive display name and pronoun data.