Words Hurt: Language Guidelines for University Housing

In order to be more inclusive to our residents and staff, there are some terms and slang that we need to eliminate from our lexicon. This becomes critically important for our future and to live up to our value of Social Justice. Challenge yourself to understand these terms and suitable replacements in addition to those terms that society as a whole would clearly understand to avoid and eliminate (i.e. racist, sexist, homophobic, ageist, etc.).
Words to Avoid Reason Kids Girls/Boys Instead Try

Adults/Students Women/Men

In the University setting, we work with adults almost exclusively. If we treat students regardless of their age as adults, we can hold them to higher levels of accountability rather than having a relationship with a child which requires a hierarchal relationship. Retarded People with disabilities

When they were originally introduced, the terms mental retardation or mentally retarded were medical terms with a specifically clinical connotation; however, the pejorative forms, retard and retarded have been used widely in todays society to degrade and insult people with intellectual disabilities. Additionally, when retard and retarded are used as synonyms for dumb or stupid by people without disabilities, it only reinforces painful stereotypes of people with intellectual disabilities being less valued members of humanity. Thats so gay Thats not good

Society always picks a word that they deem represents something less than the norm to also mean "stupid". When teenagers say "That's so 'gay'" they mean "That is stupid". Further, to compare gay with bad/stupid is degrading for those who are LGBT-identified. Gay When referring to someone who is same-sex attracted, use LGBT unless you know they identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual.

Every person might use a different term to refer to their identities allow for them to define their identity rather than you. If you do not know for sure, it is best to say LGBT-identified.

You guys

You all, Folks

The term makes women invisible by lumping them in with men. You wouldnt refer to a group of men by saying, You gals so why not eliminate this euphemism. Handicapped Person with a physical disability

The term handicap is a barrier or circumstance that makes progress or success difficult, such as an impassable flight of stairs or a negative attitude toward a person who has a disability. Dorm Residence Hall

Dorm comes from the Latin word "dormus" which means "to sleep." University Housing wants our students to get more than just sleep out of their campus living experience. We believe that a residence hall is a home away-from-home, a campus community and a place where our students can live, learn, and grow. Freshman First-Year Student

The word freshman is slowly being replaced by the term first-year student on college campuses. As more and more nontraditional students enroll in college, the word freshman does not adequately describe new students on campus. First year is a much more encompassing and flexible term. Freshman refers to the traditional, fresh-out-of-high-school student. It is also important to note that some consider the word freshman to be a sexist term, because it is not gender inclusive. Rush Recruitment

Recruitment has been used on many campuses instead of rush because of the history with the term and its contextual and perceptual ties to movies like Animal House. Essentially, the Greek system wants to move beyond the stereotype of the past and reestablish its image. Frat Fraternity/Fraternal Organization

Similar to above, the term frat tends to create a perception of organizations similar to Animal House. Upperclassman Upper -division student

The term is considered gendered, and therefore not gender inclusive

Man (ex: man the desk)

Leave man off and insert work (ex. work the desk or staff the desk)

There are many words and phrases in the English language that are gendered. They can be nouns like freshman, delivery-man, or mailman or as a verb like I am going to man the table. Find ways to make these terms gender inclusive such as first-year student, delivery-person, mail carrier or I am going to staff the table. Tranny or Transvestite Transgender or Transsexual

Tranny is an offensive term along with transvestite, so avoid these terms. Each persons identity is different, so if you know someone identifies as Transgender or Transsexual, it is okay to call them by their preferred label. Homo LGBT or lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender

Homo is an offensive term to LGBTQ-identified people because it can be seen as homophobic. Queer LGBT

While some folks identify as queer, some folks may find this offensive. Avoid the term until you know for sure that it is okay to use as someones sexual orientation. Homosexual LGBT or lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender

While some people may still say homosexual, many people find homosexual to be offensive. The term homosexual is not inclusive of the variety of identities prevalent in the LGBTQ community. Homosexual is also seen as pathological by insinuating that LGBTQ-identities are sick or wrong. Using LGBTQ allows for more inclusivity and respects the persons sexual orientation or gender identity. Lame bad, boring, dull, not worth your time

Lame, derived from a word which literally means broken, is an original Old English word. Lame is an ableist word. Its an ableist word because it assumes that having difficulty walking is objectively bad, and that therefore, a word which is used to describe difficulty walking can be safely used as a pejorative to mean this is bad. Using lame reinforces ableism in our culture by reminding people that disability is bad, and that its so bad that it can be used as a shorthand code to talk about bad things in general.

Ghetto

Economically disadvantaged area

The historical context of the term ghetto is heavily influenced by economics. After 1970, there were no longer as many jobs for unskilled workers. Companies began to manufacture outside of the U.S. for a cheaper cost of labor. The loss of jobs in the ghetto meant a loss in wages which meant a loss in taxes which meant a loss in quality of education. It ends up being a never ending cycle as the lack of jobs for laborers with no skills and education contributes to more laborers with no skills and education and on and on and on. Unfortunately, people begin to utilize terms in which they have no historical context for and use it out of context which can offend if not alienate those who do understand that historical context.

A final thing to avoid Generalizations Many times, people will share generalizations which create stereotypes or reinforce stereotypes. Examples would be things like All women are, Asian-Americans dont, or Every Catholic is Because generalizations are never entirely true and exceptions are always possible if not likely find ways to make statements that dont characterize an entire group. Find ways of owning your statement like In my experience, the women that I have interacted with have tended to be

A final note You can offend without intent, remember the impact of your words and understand how people like to be characterized.

Listen to what you say and consider your audience. You might be offending someone without them knowing and therefore encouraging someone to not want to live or work with us.