Banner General Person Standards

The following guidelines apply for all person records added to the Banner system. It is recognized that many General Person records will be added to Banner as electronic data loads from outside sources. When possible and appropriate, Drake University will request that data files adhere to Banner Standards.  

Data Change/Update Guidelines

Staff with security access to create or update General Person/Non Person information shall consider the systems in which additional data about General Persons are stored. The chart below outlines the “principal owner(s)” of GP data by person category. Caution should be maintained and follow-up may be necessary when data is updated by staff outside of the “principal ownership” areas.

Rules for Clean and Accurate Records

• SEARCH FIRST. Before you create a new record for a person, vendor or organization, you MUST conduct an ID and name search to make sure that the person or organization does not already exist in Banner. Each user in every office MUST conduct a thorough search to prevent creating a “duplicate” record. Thorough searches always begin with the broadest reasonable search criteria.
• Data changes. Users make data changes ONLY when they have the authority and they follow the procedures established by the Banner Data Custodian/Owner of the data they wish to change.
• Remember – some data fields have specific data entry rules. See the specific section under General Person Information for those data entry rules.

Identification Number Standards/Creating New Persons

The following identification numbers will be used:

1. Person

Use the previously established Banner identification number to access a person record or (after a thorough search), create a new person record using the identification number generated by the system on any Identification Form (xxxIDEN).  Many of these IDs are Social Security Numbers; Legacy IDs created via the Alumni conversion are identified by the leading “A” in the alternate ID (example: A00000111).

Every reasonable attempt should be made to obtain and enter unique identifiers for all persons (birth date and/or social security number). With hundreds of thousands of persons in Banner, name matches are frequent making unique identifiers very important in ensuring that information about a person is being entered and stored in the correct person record.

2. Non-Person

Enter the previously established Banner identification number or use the system generated ID number.

General Name Standards

DO NOT enter the pound sign (#) and/or percent sign (%) in any data field since they may cause Oracle database errors. Enter prefixes and suffixes ONLY into the field designed for such data. DO NOT enter a prefix in the first name field or a suffix in the last name field. Names (last, middle, first, suffix, etc.) should be entered into Banner using mixed case and without punctuation except in cases where punctuation exists as a part of the name (for example, a legal last name of Jones-Smith).

1. Last Name

In all cases (as possible given common courtesy), persons should be advised that their legal name will be used as their name in Banner. Given that persons have maintained the appropriate updates with other agencies, the legal person name and the social security card name should be the same. Required federal reporting to the Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, and other federal and state agencies requires that persons provide their social security number and social security card name.

All information entered by hand should use mixed case (standard combination of upper and lower case letters). Enter the legal spelling and format of the last name as supplied by the person.

Hyphens may be used to separate “joined” last names (for example, persons who have legally combined their birth and married last names into a new legal last name). However, if the legal last name contains two non-hyphenated names (example: Monica Lou Creton Quinton), Monica would be entered as the first name, Lou would be entered as the middle name and Creton Quinton would be entered as the last name.

Spaces are permitted only if the legal spelling and format of the name includes spaces (examples: St John, Del la Rosa, Van der Linder).

2. First Name

Enter the legal spelling and format of the first name as supplied by the person. If no first name exists, leave the field blank. 

A single character first name should be entered as such. In cases where a single character first name is designated as the first name and followed by a middle name, place the single character in the first name field, and the middle name in the middle name field.

Hyphens MAY be used to separate double first names if the punctuation is a legal part of the first name.

Spaces are permitted if the legal spelling and format of the name includes spaces (examples: Mary Ann, Bobby Joe).

3. Middle Name

Enter the legal middle name or middle initial as supplied. Middle initial should NOT be followed by a period. If no middle name exists, leave the field blank. Hyphens MAY be used to separate double middle names and spaces are permitted if the legal spelling and format of the name includes spaces.

4. Prefixes and Suffixes

Prefixes: Prefixes will not be entered except as deemed necessary for General Person/Alumni Constituent or Prospect records. Institutional Advancement will enter and maintain prefixes in mixed case, without punctuation, in accordance with general data standards. DO NOT enter prefixes for faculty or staff even if such persons are also alumni, constituents, or prospects.

Suffixes: All suffix codes entered by hand should use mixed case (standard combination of upper and lower case letters). Enter the suffix in the suffix field, not in the last name field. Below are examples of commonly used suffixes and recommended abbreviations:

5. Preferred First Name

All data entered by hand should use mixed case (standard combination of upper and lower case letters). A preferred first name (if supplied by the person) should be entered into the preferred first name field. For example, a person with the legal/social security card name of Christopher (first name) Paul (middle name) Smith (last name) wishes to be called Chris. Chris should be entered into the preferred name field. If no preferred name is provided, leave the field blank.

6. Non-Person and Name/Vendor 

All information data entered by hand should use mixed case (standard combination of upper and lower case letters). Enter the vendor’s name as supplied to you by the vendor.

Hyphens may be used to separate double names, and spaces are permitted if the legal spelling and format of the name includes spaces.

The ampersand (&) can be used only when part of a formal name (example: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad). Use ‘and’ in all other cases.

Abbreviations are allowed for company, corporation, limited or incorporated (Co, Corp, Ltd, or Inc) when used after the name of a corporate entity. No forms of abbreviations should be used for the corporate entity name.

Acronyms – Companies that are recognized by their acronyms should be entered using their acronym (examples: IBM, SCT, and ITT).

Address Standards

Addresses are entered into Banner using mixed case and without punctuation except in cases where punctuation exists as a part of the name.

Multiple active addresses can be maintained for a person or vendor using different address types. Address standards have been established cooperatively so that address types are used consistently. The MA (Mailing) address type is the basic mail type for Banner persons and non-persons. The MA address reflects the location to which mail should be sent. Use the appropriate address type codes from STVATYP.  

Existing addresses may be changed for corrections or additions but should not be removed. Previous addresses that are no longer in use should be marked as inactive, and a new address of that type inserted if available. When a person is noted as deceased, all address types except the RC address should be inactivated.

1. Street Standards

All information data entered by hand should use mixed case (standard combination of upper and lower case letters. See US Postal Service standards at this URL: http://pe.usps.gov/text/pub28/welcome.htm 

Do NOT leave blank lines between street lines. ‘In care of’ should be entered as ‘c/o’.

The Banner address format allows three lines of street address information (Street Line 1, Street Line 2, and Street Line 3). If possible, it is best practice to enter the entire address in ‘Street Line 1’. However, if the person has an actual street address along with a Post Office Box, and both won’t fit in ‘Street Line 1’, place the Post Office Box in ‘Street Line 2’ and the numbered street address on ‘Street Line 1’. In this example for the mail output, ‘Street Line 2’ will show directly above city, state, and ZIP+4 Code. Typically, the P.O. Box address will be the standard delivery point for the postal carrier. See example below:

John Doe
100 Major St  (Street Line 1)
PO Box 200   (Street Line 2)
New York NY 10001 

Please note the following approved Banner abbreviations for “street” designators:

2. Unit Numbers such as Apartment, Building, Suite, etc.

All information data entered by hand should use mixed case (standard combination of upper and lower case letters). If the given address does not fit within ‘Street Line 1’, place secondary address information on the line immediately above the actual street address. For example, any apartment, building or suite (using standard abbreviation as shown above) should be entered in ‘Street Line 1’ and the actual street address should be entered in ‘Street Line 2’. Therefore, the actual street address will show on the mailing output directly above the city, state and zip code and meet Postal requirements for their automated processing system. See example:

If Apt, Bldg, or Suite fits in the Delivery Address Line then enter as follows:

3. City Standards

All information data entered by hand should use mixed case (standard combination of upper and lower case letters). DO NOT abbreviate unless limited by number of characters in the field.

4. State Standards

Select the correct codes as defined in STVSTAT. Please note that STVSTAT will include both United States and Non-U.S. states and provinces.

5. Zip Code Standards

Zip codes MUST be entered for all United States and Canadian addresses.

United States – Use the searchlight to query and return the zip. This action will populate additional address fields (state, county, etc.) or enter the 5- digit zip code.  When the 9-digit zip code is available, place a hyphen between the first 5 and last 4 digits. Information Technology Services (ITS) loads the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) zip code table into Banner and maintains upgrades.

Canadian – Enter the six-character zip code without hyphens or spaces.

International Postal Code – Enter the international address as supplied to you by the student. Put foreign postal codes (per guidance provided by the USPS) in front of the city/town name and on the same line. Place the city/town name and the province or state name on the next line after the street address information. For example:

6. Nation Codes

Codes should only be added for non-US addresses. The “nation table” [STVNATN] is created using the official U.S. State Department listing. 

Email Address Standards (GOAEMAL)

1. Only Drake email addresses (fname.lname@drake.edu) may be stored as email addresses for the DRAK email type. Current faculty, staff, and students have the DRAK email type selected as the preferred email type.
   1. NOTE: Students will be provisioned an email formatted user name upon admission to Drake and will be recorded as Active, but not preferred. Once a student registers for a course, their email account will be activated using the previously generated email user name and marked as preferred in GOAEMAL.
2. Drake email addresses (fname.lname@drake.edu) may also be stored as a PERS email type. This occurs most frequently in Advancement and Student Admission/Recruiting. 
3. If a Drake email address is present in any GOAEMAL, it must also be present as a DRAK type.
4. DRAK type emails will remain active and preferred as long as a student is enrolled or a staff person is employed at Drake. Once enrollment and/or employment is terminated, the preferred trigger will be de-activated and the DRAK email type will become inactive.   
5. Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) stored in GOAEMAL must be listed as the URL email address type.

Date Standards 

Dates are to be entered in the format of mmddyyyy. All dates will be displayed as dd-mm-yyyy. For example:

Birth Date Standards

Enter the date of birth according to the above Date Standards. If no birth date is given, leave this field blank (as allowed).

Confidential Information Indicator Standards

This field will be left blank unless a student requests the University not release any Directory Information (see Requests for Information in catalog) at which time this box will be checked. If checked, no Directory Information will be released.

“Blanket” Updates to General Person

No individual department/school or college may execute general updates to multiple person records (for example, a purchased update of addresses for a file of general person records) without prior approval from the Team Leaders Group. The Team Leaders Group consists of at least one representative from each of the product areas (Admission, Student Records and Registration, Student Accounts, Student Life, Finance, HR/Payroll, Financial Aid, and Institutional Advancement) and at least one representative from ITS.