Colorado State Walks Back Recommendation to Not Say ‘America’ or ‘American’
“some critics had plenty to say about the draft version of the document”
The school received a lot of heat for this and has decided maybe it wasn’t such a great idea.
FOX News reports:
‘America’ and ‘American’ potentially offensive words? Maybe not, university decides
Are the words “America” and “American” potentially offensive? Maybe not, a university in Colorado has decided.
According to reports, a draft version of Colorado State University’s “Inclusive Language Guide” included “America” and “American” among words deemed to be non-inclusive.
The argument: Inside the U.S., “America” and “American” typically refer to the United States. But outside the U.S., both terms are also used in reference to other countries in North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
The suggested alternative: Refer to an American as a “U.S. citizen” or “person from the U.S.,” the draft said.
Using “America” or “American,” the draft argued, “erases other cultures and depicts the United States as the dominant American country.”
Although the university, based in Fort Collins, ultimately changed its mind, some critics had plenty to say about the draft version of the document.
For example, former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took issue with it in an op-ed for The Washington Times this week.
“Instead of spending so much time worrying about ways not to offend anyone, it would be nice if our colleges and universities actually worried about teaching our students,” Walker wrote. “Since 1978, college tuition has gone up 1,125 percent — four times the rate of inflation, while actual time in the classroom by tenured professors teaching undergraduates has gone down.”
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Comments
These idiots are offensive.
I was just doing this math last night for my son. When I attended Oberlin from 95-79 the total cost IIRC was 6200, 6500, 6800, and 7000 for the 4 years. In the summers of 1976, 77, and 78 I earned 2700, 3000, and 3000 respectively. Yeah, I worked my butt off. But the point is that I was able to make about 42% of the total costs with just a summer job. But now, with Oberlin’s total costs at $72,000, I would need to find a summer job that paid $30,000 just to stay even with 40 years ago. My son is actually doing much better than his 16yo peers with a 40 hr/wk gig at $580/wk. But even 12 weeks of this would only get him to about 10% vs my 40%. About 10 years ago I mentioned this disparity between inflation and college charges to Krislov at an alumni event and he basically gave me a forgettable non-answer. I guess a college education is just like the current state of health care. It isn’t that some can’t afford it, but more that none of us can afford it. For any system, the second that an intermediate pay-layer gets between the customer and the product, costs will skyrocket. I do not see a good future for private liberal arts colleges that aren’t able to pare costs big time.