They are saying this new policy isn’t mandatory, but they expect people will follow the policy anyway.
Campus Reform reports:
University of South Carolina drafts new pronoun policy, opens door for punitive measuresNew gender pronoun policies being prepared by the University of South Carolina’s (USC) Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion might open the door for punitive measures.The new policies are being drafted by USC’s Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Julian R. Williams.According to an article in USC’s student newspaper The Daily Gamecock, the pronoun policy will offer guidelines to set “expectations for the USC community,” but it will not “mandate that faculty and staff members must use a student’s preferred name and pronouns.”Under Williams’ leadership, the DEI office is also “launching a website for the guidelines and will set expectations for community members for pronoun usage and how the DEI office will implement these guidelines,” The Daily Gamecock explains.“We will provide guidance and education to community members as to why we think it’s important that they [use preferred pronouns]…But we can’t mandate that a faculty member utilize that information. From my perspective, I think most of our faculty and staff members will do so,” Williams stated.It has yet to be announced when exactly the new policy will be implemented.Although Williams insists that professors using a student’s preferred pronouns will not be mandatory, this appears to conflict with USC’s official policy regarding what constitutes a “bias” or “hateful” incident.The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a free speech watchdog, flagged USC’s policy in this area as problematic.
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