Due to recent system changes, Southeast Missouri State University now offers preferred names on student identification cards.

Senior Rane Belling has been pushing toward this change since sometime last year when he came out with his name.

Belling is an LGBTQA student on Southeast’s campus and has been taping over their legal name to replace it with their preferred name on his Southeast ID. Belling prefers to be identified by the pronouns they/them.

“That’s why I changed my name, I didn’t want people to automatically assume what my gender identity and expression was,” Belling said. “I wanted that to be up to me. When people look at my ID they just get to choose.”

Belling said before the preferred name option was allowed, it was hard having to live by the legal name given to them. Changing your name legally is a long and costly process, something a lot of LGBTQA students do not want to go through.

“My teacher printed the roster from the registrar instead of the roster from Moodle so it pulled my legal name and she continuously kept calling my legal name out loud,” Belling said. “I broke down and walked out of class because it hurt so bad that she just kept doing that.”

Not only can the university supply a Southeast ID with your preferred name, but it also shows up in Moodle, banner and class rosters. The only place a legal name is kept is within financial services.

The project to take on this initiative was stemmed from the President’s Leadership Academy, where students assisted Belling in planning the change.

“Luckily the university was already undergoing a change in system, so really we just had to push them along and give them more reasons why we need preferred names,” Belling said.

This change affects many more students than just those of the LGBTQA community. Any student who goes by an alternative name can now get the name they identify with on their Southeast ID.

Anyone who wishes to replace their current Southeast ID card with one that has their preferred name on it can do that for free at ID Services.

Refer: To get your student ID with a preferred name, follow these steps given by the preferred name guidelines:

1. Verify that your Preferred Name appears in the personal information system (Portal). If you have not entered a preferred name in Banner via the Portal, please visit either the Student SS or Employee SS tab. Then under the Personal Information Section, please select Update Preferred First Name to check, change or add a preferred name to your University record.

2. Once that is completed, visit the ID Services desk, located in the Main Lobby of the third floor of the University Center, to request a Redhawks ID with your Preferred Name.

3. If you want to double check that your Preferred Name appears in the ID system prior to coming in person to request your card, please call the main ID Services number is (573) 339-4636. The secondary number is (573) 651-2280 for summer and break periods. Names cannot be edited in any way by the ID Services staff.