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 (University of California) systems of record. As part of UCOP's Gender Recognition and Lived Name (GRLN) Policy, the process for employees and affiliates to set their Lived Names is changing.
What is GRLN?
University leadership charged a committee to develop implementation plans that align the UC Merced 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 UC Merced Gender Recognitiation and Lived name (GRLN tas force was formed to begin implementation of the University of California Gender Recognition and Lived Name (GRLN) policy following its issuance in November 2020.
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.
What is changing?
As part of the UC GRLN policy implementation, UCPath is being upgraded to display an employee’s lived name throughout the system.
Beginning June 20, labels in UCPath for these name fields will change from “Preferred Name” to “Name”. For employees who do not have a lived/preferred name, "Name" fields will be populated with their legal name. The "Name" in UCPath will then populate the lived name field in UC Merced’s Identity Management System (IDM).
To Change/Update a Lived Name in UCPath
- All employees who wish to add a lived name can do so in UCPath online.
- Log into UCPath
- Select Employee Actions > Personal Information > Personal Information Summary
- In the Legal/Lived Name section, select the arrow to expand the box.
- Select Add Lived Name
- Enter your information and click Save.
- Student system records will not change. Information regarding GNRL for Student records can be found here.
