Affirmed/Preferred First Name

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Affirmed/Preferred First Name

In 2018 William Paterson University began implementing the use of affirmed/preferred first name, recognizing that individuals use or may prefer to be known by a name other than their legal name.

Students and Employees who wish to use an affirmed/preferred first name may now do so by updating their information in the “My Profile” page in WPconnect. After updating in WPconnect it may take a full business day to propagate to the systems that support the affirmed/preferred first name.

Prospective students may provide an affirmed/preferred first name on the admissions application.

Places Where Affirmed/Preferred First Name is Displayed

  • WPconnect
  • Email Display Name
  • Blackboard
  • WPconnect Faculty and Advisor Dashboard including the advisee listing
  • Banner Query Pad
  • Housing Management System
  • Banner 9 Self-Service
  • Student ID Cards upon request
  • Degreeworks
  • Starfish
  • CBoard ID Card System
  • Campus Labs Engage (student clubs and activities)
  • Digital Measures
  • Hiretouch
  • Parlance Phone System
  • Qualtrics Course Evaluations
  • Maxient Student Conduct System
  • CPU Deployment Application
  • Custom wpunj.edu Search

Places Where Legal First Name is Used and Displayed

Note: The individual’s legal first name will continue to be used for these records, which include but are not limited to, the following:

  • Admissions records
  • Paychecks and tax documents
  • Official transcripts
  • Financial aid records
  • Enrollment verifications
  • Medical records
  • Employment records
  • Law enforcement records
  • Third party developed or cloud applications where the vendor has not implemented an affirmed/preferred first name solution


The University reserves the right to deny requests in the following circumstances: The name is intended to misrepresent the person’s identity and/or misappropriate the identity of another person or organization; is an attempt to avoid a legal obligation; is derogatory, obscene or otherwise inappropriate. It is important to note that any affirmed/preferred first name deemed inappropriate will result in the denial of the use of a affirmed/preferred name.