How to experience less deadnaming at the University of Paderborn

  • 7/4/2023
  • 2-minute read

Please note that this is a translation of the original German post found here. If you speak German, consider reading the German version

Update (2023-05-13):
The situation at University of Paderborn has changed since I wrote this post. The informations in this post are no longer up to date.

At the University of Paderborn many services run via the IMT account. Which proves to be an advantage for many things, as there is a central login for almost all services, it is a problem for some students. Trans students often have to deal with deadnaming, since the name that is stored in the system is also displayed in PANDA, PAUL and other systems. This causes them to be outed to their fellow students and faculty when you need to use these services.

I have managed in some places to change my name without having done a legal name change. However, this is not possible everywhere, nor is it always easy to accomplish.

In this post, I’ll explain on which services this is possible to avoid a bit of deadnaming. If you know of any other services/possibilities, feel free to email me at blog@marlena.app so I can update this post.

IMT-GitLab (git.uni-paderborn.de)

Here you can easily change the name in the settings under “profiles”. It is also possible to add pronouns.

IRB-GitLab (git.cs.uni-paderborn.de)

see IMT-GitLab

IRB-Element (element.cs.uni-paderborn.de)

If the name has already been changed in IRB-GitLab before setting up the service, it will be used here as well. Otherwise the name can be changed in the settings in the “Profile” section.

Horde Webmail (webmail.uni-paderborn.de)

Here the name can be changed in the settings under “Personal details”.

Roundcube Webmail (roundcube.uni-paderborn.de)

Roundcube uses by default only the IMT username as sender name. This can be changed in the settings under “Identities”.

Zoom

In Zoom the display name can be changed permanently under Settings > Profile > Edit my profile. After entering a meeting, this can also be changed for the duration of the meeting. To do this, in the participant view, go to “More” and then to “Rename”.

List of services where the name can not be changed (or I don’t know how this is possible)

Uni PaderborntransselbstbestimmungNamensänderungIMT