Communicating with Students

Confirming a Student's Identity

You must verify a student's identity before releasing nondirectory information to them.

In Person Over Email Over Phone or Chat
In Person

If a student comes to you in person and wants to discuss their nondirectory information:

  1. Unless you know the student, ask for a photo ID to verify their identity.
  2. If they don't have one, ask them to state their established security passphrase. Verify it in Campus Solutions or the  Faculty Center (under "Faculty Toolkit," click "Go to Faculty Center").
  3. If they haven't established a passphrase yet, you may ask them to do so while you wait.
Security Passphrase Business Practices 
 
Student-Facing Information 

If a student contacts you over email and wants to discuss their nondirectory information:

  1. If they're using their colorado.edu email address, then a security passphrase is not required (see Sending Student Data Electronically).
  2. If they're using another address, ask them to provide their established security passphrase. Verify it in Campus Solutions or the  Faculty Center (under "Faculty Toolkit," click "Go to Faculty Center").
  3. If they haven't established a passphrase yet, you may ask them to do so while you wait.
Security Passphrase Business Practices 
 
Student-Facing Information 

If a student contacts you over the phone or online chat and wants to discuss their nondirectory information:

  1. Ask them to provide their student ID number and established security passphrase.
  2. Look up the student's record in Campus Solutions or the  Faculty Center (for step-by-step instructions, see Security Passphrase Business Practices).
  3. If the passphrase...
    • Matches, you may provide the requested information.
    • Doesn't match, see if the student has a red privacy flag on their record.
      • If they do, you must respond, "We have no information about this person."
      • If they don't, do not reveal that the password is incorrect. Instead, tell the student how to look up their passphrase (see Set Your Security Passphrase for step-by-step instructions).
    • Doesn't exist, see if the student has a red privacy flag on their record.
      • If they do, you must respond, "We have no information about this person."
      • If they don't, you may ask the student to set one while you wait or call back once they have.
Security Passphrase Business Practices 
 
Student-Facing Information 

Hosting a Virtual Advising Session

In a virtual advising environment, it’s important to take steps to ensure the privacy of your advising sessions. FERPA restricts the sharing of student educational records (i.e., records in any medium that contain personally identifiable student information) without permission, except as allowed under certain exemptions.

We recommend taking the following steps when scheduling an online advising session:

  Leverage Buff Portal Advising user preferences (or other school/college applicable appointment system) to indicate the Zoom link you will be using for meeting with students.

  Ask the student to schedule their appointment through Buff Portal Advising (or other school/college applicable appointment system).

  Use the waiting room feature for all of Zoom advising appointments and admit only one student at a time.

  In the meeting invitation, tell the student to join the session from a private location, away from roommates, family members or others. When the meeting begins, confirm with the student that no one can overhear your conversation.

FERPA Guidance for Online Advising Sessions (PDF) 

Addressing Students Inclusively

¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ recognizes that students’ legal information doesn't always align with how they identify. To support diversity, equity and inclusion, CU systems allow students to specify their gender identity, name pronunciation, preferred name, pronouns and/or sexual orientation.

If provided, students’ personal information is protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and access to it is restricted to staff who have a legitimate educational interest and have completed student data privacy training.

Name Pronunciation

What It Is Where to Find It (Class Rosters) How to Use It (Events)
What It Is

¾«Æ·SMÔÚÏßӰƬ offers NameCoach, a tool that allows users to record themselves saying their name. We encourage you to listen to your students' recordings to help you address them appropriately.

Student-Facing Information 

Once a student has recorded their name or provided the phonetic spelling, that information will be available to instructors through Canvas.

In the future, we plan to integrate the pronunciation tool into additional on-campus systems, including class listings, the campus directory and commencement proceedings.

If this integration could be useful in other campus platforms or use cases, please email us your ideas.

If your department or unit meets regularly with groups of students or is planning to host an event, consider using NameCoach to share name pronunciations.

Request a name page (a list of names along with audio recordings of name pronunciations) before your event. This can be shared with event participants ahead of time to help them feel more comfortable addressing one another and foster inclusion. 

Consider requesting a name page in preparation for:

  • Department recognition ceremonies 
  • Student organization events or meetings
  • Inviting guests to campus for small-scale conferences 

If you have questions and want to discuss your event in more detail, email registrar@colorado.edu.

Note: Recordings are best used as a preparation tool by speakers before the event. (I.e., name recordings shouldn't be used in lieu of someone calling names live.)

 

To request a name page, submit a file via Large File Transfer to registrar@colorado.edu with the subject NameCoach and include the follow details:

  • Email
  • First_name
  • Middle_name
  • Last_name
  • SID
  • Preferred pronouns 

Custom fields can be added to the name page and can be used to collect additional information and foster connection among participants. Please include any desired custom fields in the name page creation file, as they can only be added when initially generating the name page. Details such as areas of study or major should be provided by departments when submitting the name page creation file, while fields for phonetic spelling can be left blank to be filled out by students.

An email from no-reply@name-coach.com will be sent to everyone on the provided file with a deadline for participants to submit their recordings. 

We recommend setting this date based on the number of users invited to the name page to accommodate time for faculty/staff to review the recordings prior to the event:

  • Commencement events: on or before the Last Day to Submit a Graduation Application to Get Your Name in the Commencement Program deadline date as outlined in the Academic Calendar. 
  • Non-commencement events:
    • 50 users or less: two weeks before the event
    • 100 users or less: three weeks prior to the event
    • 100+ users: one month prior to the event

The sample invitation email below can be modified as needed when submitting your request through OnBase.

Our office will send departments their name page file on the business day following the deadline provided in the Invitation Email. 

Subject:  Spring 2023 Commencement - Namecoach name registration

Hi there {{first_name}}!

You've been invited to voice-record your name for Spring 2023 Commencement at the Law School. This means recording your name on our site to help ensure that it's announced or pronounced correctly.

Please click on the link - it's fast and easy: Record your name

Please be sure to provide your name pronunciation by [deadline].

(If you have previously registered on our site, please follow the link and sign in with your original email address and password under the 'Already Registered on our Site?' section.)

Thank you! - The team at NameCoach

If you're familiar with the process of requesting a name page, submit a file via Large File Transfer to registrar@colorado.edu to submit your file and invitation email.
 

Preferred Names

What They Are Where to Find Them
What They Are

A student's preferred name is one that differs from their legal name. It could be a nickname, professional name, anglicized name or name that better aligns with the student's gender identity.

Student-Facing Information 

Where technically and legally feasible, preferred names are displayed instead of primary (legal) names in university systems and records and are used to identify students in the classroom and other places on campus.

After a student designates a preferred name, you'll see it used in the following university systems and records:

  • Class and grade rosters (used by faculty)
  • Advisee rosters (used by advisors; also displays primary name)
  • Unofficial transcripts
  • Degree audits
  • Buff Portal
  • Learning management systems (Canvas)
  • Housing systems (StarRez)
  • Health & Wellness Services

Preferred names are not used in external or third-party communications.

Pronouns

What They Are Where to Find Them How to Use Them How They're Protected
What They Are

Personal pronouns are used in place of specific nouns for people, places and things. For example, we refer to a group of people with the pronouns they (subjective case), them (objective case) and their (possessive case).

To refer to an individual, it's respectful to use whichever pronouns they prefer. For example, someone who identifies as transgender may prefer the pronouns ze, zir and zirs, rather than those associated with their legal sex.

Student-Facing Information 

Student-identified pronouns are available to authorized faculty and staff members in Campus Solutions in the following areas:

  • Admin Class Rosters (Curriculum Management > Class Roster > Class Roster)
  • Admin Grade Rosters (Curriculum Management > Grading > Grade Roster)
  • Faculty Toolkit Class Rosters ( Teaching Tools tab)
  • Faculty Center Class and Grade Rosters ( Teaching Tools tab > "Go to Faculty Center" link)
  • Advisee Roster (Self Service > Advisor Center > My Advisees)
  • Buff Portal Advising (In the advisor flyout next to the student's name; if the student has not identified their pronouns, that area will be blank.)

If you don't have access to this information, it's appropriate to ask the student what pronouns they use.

When provided, it's important for faculty and staff to know and use a student's identified pronouns rather than make an assumption based on the student's name or appearance.

Asking for and correctly using someone's pronouns shows your acknowledgment and respect for their gender identity.

If a student provided their pronoun information to the university and you or another faculty or staff member forgot to use it, simply apologize and remember to use their correct pronouns moving forward. Encourage others to do the same (e.g., in class, in student groups).

Center for Inclusion & Social Change: Pronouns Guidance 

Although CU doesn't consider pronouns to be highly sensitive data, only authorized school officials (e.g., staff, advisors and others with a legitimate educational interest) have access to view them.

If a third party contacts CU and requests your pronouns, we won't release that information unless you've provided explicit consent for us to do so.

Gender Identity & Sexual Orientation

What They Are How They're Protected
What They Are

CU students have the option to identify their gender identity (which may or may not match their sex assigned at birth) and their sexual orientation in their self-service portal. By understanding our student population, we can better promote and foster an environment that helps all students feel comfortable and succeed.

Student-Facing Information 

If students choose to provide this information, only faculty and staff with both a legitimate educational interest and provisioning approval at the  may view it.

Contact Us

   registrar@colorado.edu
   303-492-6970

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