About Name Changes
At Concordia University, we have a complex system of interconnected servers and computer information systems that are all tied to network user names. Due to this complexity, changing a username is a very difficult and time consuming process, therefore it is the policy of the ITS department that network usernames will not be changed except for a few specific conditions, these conditions will be explained below.
Display Name Change
The first steps is to get your name officially changed in our database. To change your official name of record as an employee or student, please contact Human Resources or the Registrar's Office respectively.
ITS will provide a display name change to any active network user upon E-mail request to support@cu-portland.edu , once the name has been changed in our Database.
Display name appears upon logging into a campus workstation or accompanying your E-mail address when sending E-mail from campus E-mail systems.
All reasonable display name changes will be accommodated and ITS administrators will verify that the display name matches or is reasonably consistent with your official name of record as an employee or student.
Blackboard Display Name
We have updated the functionality of Blackboard to allow you to change your first name to whatever name you wish. This change ONLY affects Blackboard, and allows you greater freedom over how you present yourself online.
Please Note: Updating your preferred name in Blackboard is not submission of a name change, updating your official academic record. For information on legal name changes to your Concordia University academic record, contact the Office of the Registrar.
E-mail Alias
While usernames do not change, Employees may receive an additional E-mail alias under certain conditions. Employees should first make their official name change request with Human Resources before requesting an E-mail alias from ITS via E-mail to
Example of an Alias
Tina Jones, username TJones and email TJones@cu-portland.edu, changes their last name to Turner. Their network account will always be TJones, but their Display name in the Outlook Address Book can be changed to Tina Turner and a TTurner@cu-portland.edu alias can be attached to the account. The original alias will remain active, so inbound mail to either tjones@cu-portland.edu or tturner@cu-portland.edu will end up in the same inbox. Email aliases are still restricted to the standard Concordia username naming convention, the first initial of the first name plus the last name, if an account already exists with this name then the first two or more letters of the first name will be used until a unique username is reached. Users may not request usernames outside of this naming convention.
E-mail aliases are not available for student accounts. Students may still request a Display Name change.
Exceptions
As mentioned above, there are some specific conditions in which we will change the actual username. They are as follows:
- The name is correct but was misspelled or incorrectly entered into our system by the fault of ITS or a Concordia University staff person.
- Legal name change was made due to reasons of personal security and/or privacy and it is imperative that the name be changed for the personal safety of the user. Please provide the court order or legal documents supporting this type of change.
To enact a name change for either of the exceptions above, the user account must be DELETED and recreated with the new name. Please be aware this may result in loss of data (present or historical) or may result in loss of access to certain resources that will need to be re-established under the new username. ITS personnel will work with the affected user to minimize these impacts as much as possible but some impact will be unavoidable.
Questions or Request
For any questions about the policy, or if you would like to request a name change or alias, please email support@cu-portland.edu
Updated by B. Metzler 17 February 2016