Carnegie Mellon University

Enrollment Services

Information for Faculty & Staff

NameCoach

February 07, 2019

Name Pronunciation & Pronoun Tool Introduced in S3

We are pleased to introduce a new tool that students and their academic and administrative advisors can use to promote a more inclusive environment at CMU. Through NameCoach, students can: 

  • Record the pronunciation of their name
  • Store a phonetic spelling of their name
  • Store their pronouns

NameCoach removes the guessing game of how to correctly address students and allows us to support our students’ identities, while encouraging a culture of respect.

If a student chooses to use NameCoach via Student Information Online (SIO) to store the information listed above, it will be shared with authorized academic and administrative advisors on the S3 Admin Console student summary header. Faculty will be able to access this information through Canvas, too. Additional details and instructions, as well as strategies and resources, may be found on the Enrollment Services website.

In addition to the implementation of NameCoach, student gender will no longer be visible in the S3 Admin Console student summary header. This decision was made after consultation with several academic committees and student advocacy groups on campus.

NameCoach was made available through a joint effort by the University Registrar’s Office, Enrollment Services, the Office of the Vice Provost for Education, Heinz College, and Tepper School of Business. Feedback regarding NameCoach may be submitted via the feedback link in the S3 Admin Console. Teaching instructors with questions regarding NameCoach in Canvas may contact the Eberly Center