DRAFT – Gender Recognition & Lived Name Policy
About and Background
Across the University of California, students, staff and faculty have advocated for changes to make UC more equitable and inclusive. In a significant step toward this goal, President Michael V. Drake, M.D., has announced a new presidential policy to ensure that all individuals are identified by their accurate gender identity and lived or preferred name on university-issued documents and in UC’s information systems.
“The University of California continues to fully embrace diversity in our country,” said UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D. “We believe this policy is a step toward an even more inclusive community and, in turn, will help build a stronger, more vibrant society.”
UC’s clear policy requiring identification by a lived or preferred name will relieve a substantial burden on many members of the UC community, including but not limited to individuals who are transgender, 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 or those who have married and have had a legal name change but wish to retain the name under which they publish academic works.
The implementation of this policy officially began on Nov. 6, 2020, the day it was issued, and full implementation of the policy and procedures must be completed no later than Dec. 31, 2023. Additional details for our campus will be provided as they are available.
Policy Requirements
The GRLN policy requires UC to provide:
- At least three equally recognized gender options in university information systems — woman, man and nonbinary.
- An efficient process for current students, faculty and staff, and for UC alumni and affiliates, to retroactively amend their gender designations and lived or preferred names on university-issued documents, including eligible academic documents, and in information systems.
Implementation Updates
June 21, 2024
Review your name in the Campus Directory
We encourage you to review your listing in the Campus Directory to ensure your name and other information is accurate.
July 14, 2024
UCPath Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, and Pronouns Update
UCPath has introduced enhanced features that support the university’s diversity initiatives and align with the Gender Recognition and Lived Name (GRLN) policy.
Guidance for Campus Units
If you are a UCSC community member (staff, faculty, students, volunteers, et cetera) collecting, processing, or reporting on gender and/or names through any systems or forms, you need to ensure the systems and the forms are in compliance with the University of California’s Gender Recognition and Lived Name (GRLN) policy. Compliance with the policy requires:
- Providing a minimum of three equally recognized gender options: woman, man, and nonbinary.
- Only collecting lived names of students, employees, alumni, and affiliates (e.g., on documents, in communications, and name displays in systems), except when legal names are required by regulations.
Legal names must be kept confidential and accessible only to users who have a legitimate business need.
Generally, documents that the university provides to the federal government or in conjunction with Social Security Numbers require the use of legal names. This may include but is not limited to financial aid documents, payroll records, medical identification and records, federal immigration documents, and tax forms.
While legal names may be collected for reporting to third parties, only communicate to the individual using their lived name.
This flowchart provides a reference for you to check if an IT system storing names is in compliance with the GRLN policy.
This flowchart provides a reference for you to check if a form collecting names is in compliance with the GRLN policy.
Request for Policy Compliance Extension
If the system or form you use has extenuating circumstances that hamper full compliance with the GRLN policy by December 31, 2023, please fill out this GRLN Request for Policy Compliance Extension form. The GRLN Steering Committee will review the requests and the Chancellor or their designees will determine if limited extension is granted.
Record a Required Use of Legal Names
If you believe that the system or form you use has to use legal names, please fill out this GRLN Record a Required Use of Legal Names form that helps track these cases.
Managing Your Name and Gender Data
Please refer to the following pages:
- Information Technology Services: Managing Your Name and Identity Data at UC Santa Cruz
- Office of the Registrar: FAQs for Students: Personal and Privacy Information
- Office of the Registrar: FAQs for Faculty: Personal Information
- Office of the Registrar: FAQs for Staff: Personal Information
Report an Issue
How to file a report:
If you’ve noticed a possible violation of the Gender Recognition and Lived Name policy, use this form to file a report.
Please note that the GRLN policy pertains to systems or forms that collect or use gender and name data. If you have experienced any incidents or interactions of discrimination, bias, hate, intimidation, dehumanization or exploitation from an individual, please consider contacting the Equity & Equal Protection Office or submitting a Bias Report Form instead.
Steering Committee
To guide our campus in reviewing and implementing this policy, Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer has asked Assistant Vice Chancellor for the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Judith Estrada, and Assistant Dean of Students for Strategic Initiatives and Policy Analysis, Travis S. Becker, to lead a Steering Committee in examining the current use of gender in systems across campus, and to provide guidance to campus units on steps to incorporating a nonbinary category into these systems should one not already be present.
Committee Members
- Travis S. Becker, Assistant Dean of Students, Strategic Initiatives & Policy Analysis (Co-chair)
- Judith Estrada, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Co-chair)
- delfín bautista, Director, Lionel Cantú Queer Center
- Laurie Carnahan, Enterprise Applications Service Manager, Information Technology Services
- Frank Dang, Clinical Information System Analyst, Student Health Center
- Detmar Finke, Web Developer – Digital Communications Specialist, Staff Human Resources
- Dadao Hou, Director of Policy and Planning, Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
- Aisha Jackson, Vice Chancellor of Information Technology, Information Technology Services
- Sterling Nicholson, Business Process Analyst, Staff Human Resources
- Elvia Ontiveros, Director of Business Administrations, Policy, Project & Resources, Staff Human Resources
- Tchad Sanger, University Registrar, Office of the Registrar
Contact Us
Please email the Steering Committee directly grln@ucsc.edu if you have any comments and/or feedback.