Forget 'He' Or 'She;' U.S. Universities Asking Students To Use Gender-Inclusive Pronouns
(KCBS) -- More American colleges are asking students to use gender neutral pronouns to boost inclusion.
The University of Tennessee and American University have recently created new guidelines for students and teachers.
"Transgender people and people who do not identify within the gender binary may use a different name than their legal name and pronouns of their gender identity, rather than the pronouns of the sex they were assigned at birth," the University of Tennessee's Pride Center Director, Donna Braquet, wrote on the university's website Wednesday.
Some examples of what students should say or write includes replacing man or men with human being, humankind or just people.
Braquet said students and teachers can also use pronouns like ze, hir, hirs, or xe.
But Naomi Baron professor of linguistics at American University says it's going to be hard for students to follow those guidelines.
"We use so much the core parts of the language with just pronouns without thinking about it," she said. "And for us to have to stop every time we want to use a pronoun in third person singular is tough to do."
UC Berkeley adopted its own gender neutral language three years ago as well as creating LGBT housing and restrooms.
Students are also able to identify their gender preferences on campus registration forms.
