1. I would bet that the "Graduate School of Education & Information Studies" is already one of the most left-wing, pro-"diversity" parts of UCLA, and that is saying something. So that the demonstration occurs here is instructive.
2. Language evolves like a lot of social institutions, so I don't mind acknowledging new usage patterns, such as this one. But every term I teach a first-year writing-intensive course, and about 20% of my students simply cannot write an intelligent paragraph. One reads it and has no idea what was meant. The problems do not just involve grammatical rules, although those are legion, but seemingly randomly chosen words and word sequences. It simply has to be read to be believed, and I was shocked when I first started teaching that one could graduate high school writing like that. Some of these graduate students probably fall into this category. I am irritated to have to be the bearer of the bad news that some people just cannot use the English language well enough to get a college degree, but have to because those are the students I am presented with.
Since you teach English, perhaps you will answer some questions that have been bothering me for the last few years.
Whatever happened to the use of the word “whom”? I never hear, or read, it any more.
What about the subjunctive after a phrase starting with “if”, as in “If I were...”? People now seem to all be saying “If I was...” (grates on the ears.)
Why do so many people (especially those Ivy League-educated news readers on TV) get away with saying “me and him” instead of “he and I” and other such offenses? Or, “John gave it to Brian and I” instead of “John gave it to Brian and me”?
Once English forms pass out of common usage, are they passe? I won’t even touch the mis-use of the apostrophe, my personal crusade.
And then there is “my bad”. Really!
It sho do! I was looking at a reproduction of an early 15th century bible, hand written in English. Unrecognizable as English.