UNC drops term ‘freshman’ in favor of ‘gender inclusive language’

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
1

<p>" '... Consistent with that commitment, gender inclusive terms (chair; first year student; upper-level student, etc.) should be used on University Documents, websites and policies ... ' "</p>

<p>What about "freshperson"?</p>

<p>UNC</a> drops term ?freshman? in favor of ?gender inclusive language?</p>

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<p>Been using “frosh” for years . . .</p>

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<p>UK calls them freshers.</p>

<p>Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using CC</p>

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<p>Like we don’t have enough problems to fix now we have to make up problems to fix. I can not believe anyone would think that freshman means you are male. So stupid!</p>

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<p>Is it the “fresh” part or the “man / men” part that’s deemed offensive?
And for that matter, why aren’t sophomores offended by the connotation that they are sophomoric?
Juniors also might feel belittled, and seniors might feel scorned as out of date.
Geez people, get over yourselves.</p>

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<p>And what difference does it make to you? There’s a large lgbtq community on campus, and I know there’s been a push through them to use gender neutral language. It’s not like they’re enforcing anything. With official UNC business, they’re gender neutral. When giving tours, we’re supposed to say first years instead of freshmen. The vast majority of everybody on campus still says freshmen in daily conversation. If it doesn’t hurt you and it makes someone else feel better, what’s the problem?</p>

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<p>Many campuses, including UNC, now use “first years”. Part of that is to be gender-inclusive. Part is the acknowledgment that many students at those universities come in with enough AP credits that they technically aren’t freshmen in number of hours, but calling them sophomores isn’t accurate either because they are new students. “First years” seems to take care of both concerns.</p>

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<p>While I applaud the effort, everyone does realize that the school grants the “Bachelor of” Arts/Science/Science in Business Administration/Science in Nursing/Science in Public Health degrees? There’s no Bachelorette degree.</p>

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<p>Not if these “Gender neutral” people get ahold if it. We will have to stop getting a Bachelor’s and get some other weird name. Why not worry about real problems in the world, not terms. After all if you look up freshman in the dictionary it means: </p>

<p>a student in the first year of the course at a university, college, or high school. </p>

<p>Sounds gender neutral to me.</p>

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<p>The only people turning it into a huge deal are you guys. It’s a very small simple thing to change the term, so what’s the problem?</p>

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<p>UVA has been ahead of this curve from its onset; we have first years, second years, thirds years, etc. Thirty years ago and possibly since the beginning, that is how it has been done. Score another for THE university! ;)</p>

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<p>I think it is very big for UNC to go ahead with this. It is a progressive way of thinking if you ask me. No gender should dominate our society, whether that be through old traditions or things that are just subliminally implied.</p>

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<p>I have strong ties to UVA and it is my understanding, and I could be wrong, but that Jefferson decided on calling 1st year, 2nd year…etc, because these are the learning years of life. It doesn’t stop at 3, 4,8,15,35 years: you learn all your life—that is the point to UVA’s reference to the student years of study. Jefferson was not doing the gender political argument ----he was emphasizing years of learning. WahooWa!!</p>