Email users on campus may have noticed the appearance of middle initials in one of the UO's main email systems in October. Now those middle initials will be disappearing again starting Jan. 23 following feedback from campus.
Information Services introduced middle initials into the Exchange email system last fall as part of a shift in the way names were displayed across several UO services.
That shift came out of a policy to allow people to specify a preferred first name in directories, on class roll sheets and elsewhere where a legal first name is not required. The university initially opted to display middle initials to help distinguish among members of the campus community whose names would otherwise appear identical — for example, "Puddles A. Duck" and "Puddles T. Duck." Middle initials were introduced into Webmail, the Find People directory and the older online directory last spring.
The change in the way names were displayed in Exchange, which is used by about half of UO employees, led to confusion and complaints from people who were concerned about having their middle initials revealed in email or who use a middle name as their preferred name. Also, people who were accustomed to looking up a colleague's email address by doing a simple search for the first and last name in the main email address book discovered that method no longer worked.
"I eventually figured out a different way to search for people in email by using the advanced search features, but it required extra steps on my part and was inefficient," said Sandee Bybee of Human Resources.
"Folks do not want their middle initial on their email names," said Jay Butler in payroll, whose office fielded several dozen calls and emails about the change. "I might add, I don’t want my middle initial in my email either. I feel I should have the choice in that."
In response to the feedback about the change, Human Resources and the Office of the Registrar, acting on behalf of the Preferred First Name Task Force, decided to remove middle initials from all public directories.
The removals will begin Monday, Jan. 23, and will affect Exchange email, Webmail, the two online directories noted above and possibly other services. It will take about a week to process the names of everyone on campus.
Members of the UO community who would like their middle initials to continue appearing in these services can specify a preferred first name in the format "Puddles A" (instead of just "Puddles") by logging in to DuckWeb, selecting "Personal Information," then selecting "Enter/Update Preferred First Name" and following the directions.