CUNY: Don’t Call Students ‘Mr., Mrs. or Ms.’ Because That’s Maybe Disrespectful

National Review ^ | 01/28/2015 | Katherine Timpf

[SeekAndFind]

The Graduate Center of the City University of New York issued a memo advising staff not to address any students as “Mr., Mrs. or Ms.” beginning this spring because some could find it disrespectful.

The policy is intended to “ensure a respectful, welcoming and gender-inclusive learning environment . . . and to accommodate properly the diverse population of current and prospective students,” according to the memo, signed by interim provost Louise Lennihan.

School spokeswoman (wait – can I call her that?) Tanya Domi said the initiative was also part of the school’s “working within a regulatory framework to comply with Title IX legal principles,” which forbid discrimination based on sex at any institution receiving federal funding.

(Yes, the viewpoint that calling someone “Mr.” could ever be considered a violation of federal policy is terrifying.)

But attorney and Title IX consultant Saundra Schuster insisted to the Wall Street Journal that CUNY’s new policy isn’t necessary for complying with the law. ”They are not mandated to do this,” she said.

That isn’t stopping CUNY from requiring it. Linguistics professor Juliette Blevins told the Journal: “My interpretation was that I was being asked to adhere to this policy, as were the professors who received the letter.”

The idea behind all of it is to protect students who identify as a different gender from what their professors might expect.

Of course, all students have always had the ability to tell the school how they prefer to be addressed. It is not clear what the procedure will be for any student who does prefer to be addressed as Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. – especially considering that these salutations have traditionally been seen as a sign of respect and not the opposite.

— Katherine Timpf is a reporter at National Review Online.

[SeekAndFind]

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY AT THE CITY UNIVERSITY...

[yldstrk]

what bee ess, have these morons lost their minds?

[Savage Beast]

Every time you think these people couldn't possibly get any stupider...

...they manage to do it anyway.

[jalisco555]

The world is going insane.

[Steely Tom]

CUNY: Don’t Call Students ‘Mr., Mrs. or Ms.’ Because That’s Maybe Disrespectful...

Unless you've got tenure, in which case you can call them anything you like because nothing can be done to stop you.

Thereby creating a class system here at CUNY, which should cause your head to explode because you've believed that class distinctions are evil and must be destroyed ever since you first cut your teeth as a pseudo-intellectual way back in eighth grade.

[Colonel_Flagg]

The Graduate Center of the City University of New York issued a memo advising staff not to address any students as “Mr., Mrs. or Ms.” beginning this spring because some could find it disrespectful.

"Hey, idiot" is much better.

[Blennos]

what bee ess, have these morons lost their minds?

Yes.

[KosmicKitty]

Is “Hey, youse” allowed?

[deoetdoctrinae]

MR. T

Click the Pic

Support Free Republic

[FlingWingFlyer]

Call them all what they are, “sh*thead”.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

They Call Me Cisgender Tibbs!

To Trans Person, With Love.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

They Call Me Cisgender Tibbs!

To Trans Person, With Love.

[paint_your_wagon]

And don’t say yes or no ma’am to Feinstein because she certainly is not a lady.

[deoetdoctrinae]

They call me... just plain old Tibbs.

[miss marmelstein]

Stop the world, I want to get off.

[miss marmelstein]

Once the Jewel in the Crown of New York education. My father graduated from Queens College in the late 40s. Wrecked by open admissions and pc propaganda.

[Cowboy Bob]

No more MR Bean?

[deoetdoctrinae]

And here's to you... uhh, ummm, ah, well, uhh

[Dr. Sivana]

The Graduate Center of the City University of New York issued a memo advising staff not to address any students as “Mr., Mrs. or Ms.” beginning this spring because some could find it disrespectful.

Agreed. The proper options (not including clerical, royal or professional) are "Mr., Mrs. and Miss", out of respect for a proper description of female marital status.