Penn St. Nixes Labels Such As ‘Freshman,’ ‘Senior,’ Citing Lack Of Gender Inclusivity

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Pennsylvania State University’s faculty senate passed a resolution on “inclusive language” that will rid the university of alleged paternalistic labels such as “freshmen,” “junior,” “senior,” “upperclassmen,” and “underclassmen.”

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“The University … has grown out of a typically male-centered world. As such, many terms in our lexicon carry a strong, male-centric, binary character to them,” the resolution reads. “Terms such as ‘freshmen’ are decidedly male-specific, while terms such as ‘upperclassmen’ can be interpreted as both sexist and classist.”

Terms such as “junior” and “senior” “are parallel to western male father-son naming conventions, and much of our written documentation uses he/she pronouns,” according to the resolution.

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Another goal of the resolution is to replace gendered pronouns such as “he/him/his” and “she/her/hers” with vague pronouns such as “they/them/their” or other “non-gendered terms such as student, faculty member, staff member, etc.”

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