It turns out that “Name” is complicated business. For all the official purposes, we use the legal name. When someone begins at Wellesley, this name is recorded in Banner, our ERP and is used to generate a username and email aliases. This then propagates through integration to several other systems, some internal and some external. In other words, the fist instantiation of this official name becomes pervasive.

There are many reasons why the legal name is not enough. Many use their middle name instead of their first name and would prefer that this is properly noted and used in some fashion. There are several others who would prefer to use a nickname. For example, several of us from Southeast Asian countries prefer this approach as a way to spare the rest of the world from the agonies of learning to pronounce our complicated names. There are many cases where our given names, when not correctly pronounced, may mean something totally inappropriate either in English or in our own languages! I strongly recommend that you read this article titled “Personal names around the world“.

(more…)

I really liked the piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “The Administration Vacation“. I think the paragraph “In short, we as faculty members and administrators have to stop viewing one another as monolithic and antagonistic entities, and instead begin seeing ourselves as dedicated individuals and shared stakeholders working toward a common good.” captures the current situation in Higher Ed accurately.

Each of us is on the “inside” in several aspects of our work and life and “outside” in others. And our view points differ so drastically depending on the view that we have. The article suggests that we should have the faculty shadow an administrator for a few weeks and vice versa as a way to get a better understanding and appreciation of the other side. This is the same as moving someone from the “outside” to go “inside” to get a better understanding of the situation.

The practicality of this is a serious issue, but we all can benefit from trying to find some common ground, whatever the path is. (more…)