Penn State Faculty Mulls Routine Pronouns And Terms Like ‘Junior’ Or ‘Senior’ Are Too Strong, Male-Centric, Binary

Whatever else they are, America’s college campuses are not bastions of common sense.

Take Penn State University, for instance.

Last week, Penn State’s Faculty Senate took steps to further “the Senate and the University’s ongoing commitment to enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion,” the school newspaper reported.

One such item, as the conservative group Campus reform pointed out, was to abandon language relative to the students’ years in school because they exhibit a “strong, male-centric, binary character.”

Thus, according to a resolution adopted by the Senate, one step is to “replace he/him/his and she/her/hers with they/them/theirs or use non-gendered terms such as student, faculty member, staff member.”

Next, “Replace freshman/sophomore/junior/senior with first-year (1st-year), second-year (2nd-year), third-year (3rd-year), fourth-year (4th-year), and beyond.”

Junior and senior are problematic because they “are parallel to western male father-son naming conventions,” the resolution states. So much for senior citizens or Junior Mints.

The Senate also seeks to “replace ‘underclassmen’ and ‘upperclassmen’ with ‘lower division’ and ‘upper division.’”

But even this presents a challenge.

Some academic programs, the resolution notes, “run beyond the typical timeframe, resulting in the nickname ‘super-senior’. This would be replaced with fifth-year (5th-year), and beyond, as needed.”

Still, the “super-senior” can “perhaps negatively reflect on students who, for various reasons, are taking longer to complete their (typically) four-year programs, … In this case, the term does often carry a slightly negative connotation.”

The solution: “Students in such situations beyond the fourth (4th) year could instead be referred to as ‘advanced standing students.”

“We suggest that the University consider changes to all written materials, including recruiting materials, admissions materials, scholarship information, housing materials, other outward-facing documents, internal documents, and websites,” the resolution adds.

Of course. Meanwhile, offering an education seems to be the thing American colleges are least interested in.  

Related: Check out our ‘Cancel Corner‘, a section we launched in February, where we report on the latest Cancel Cases and stories from around the globe.