Oh, and the university database also contained a history of previous names, if for instance a student had changed her name upon getting married, divorced, adopted, etc.

Which leads me to a story—

One day one of my co-workers (who was a bit naive, in my opinion) said, "Oh my gosh! A student changed her name to Minnie Mouse!"

I looked at my co-worker's computer screen, and sure enough, it said a certain student was named Minnie Mouse Johnson. ("Johnson" is fictional—I don't remember the actual surname.) The student's name had been changed that morning.

I said, "Nah, somebody's just fooling around." Supposedly only the workers in the Registrar's office—and, I suppose, IT—had the ability to change names in the database. We were in a different office.

"No, that's got to be real," my co-worker said confidently. "You can't change your name unless you show them your marriage license, or a court order, or something."

"We'll see," I said.

The next day the student's name had been changed back to whatever it was before. And there was no history of any change.