Vanderbilt’s Gender-Neutral Nonsense

Too many U.S. colleges and universities are obsessed with the pronouns students and faculty use to address each other — and it’s getting downright ludicrous.

The most recent example is Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee — a college started in the late 1870s by shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt. It has taken just a little over 200 years for this business tycoon’s gift to the South to descend into politically correct craziness.

“Vanderbilt is focusing not on education to get through life, but on ridiculous PC ‘manners’ just to get through the day,” said one Tennessee resident.

Vanderbilt University has decorated its campus with large posters entitled, “WHAT SHOULD I CALL YOU?” These posters indicate that asking someone which pronoun they would like to go by is the most critical component of any human interaction on campus.

The posters are courtesy of the “Faculty Senate Gender Inclusivity Task Force” with input from “LGBTQI Life,” according to The Daily Caller.

The PC posters advise a student to say to someone else, upon meeting that person for the first time, “I’m Steve and I use he/him/his pronouns. What should I call you?”

[lz_infobox]Vanderbilt’s tuition, room and board, and fees total $60,572.[/lz_infobox]

While it sounds like verbiage from outer space, there is instruction on the poster for two sets of pronouns the Vanderbilt community needs to use: “ze, zir, zirs” and “ze, hir, hirs.”

The poster then walks readers through proper pronoun usage, with such babyish sentences as, “I support zir in the classroom by honoring zirs pronouns.” There’s also, “I support hir in the classroom by honoring hirs pronouns.”

One landscape foreman in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, said this craziness generally does not extend to the Nashville community at large.

“I have found people here to be more on the traditional side — courteous, kind, and strong in their beliefs. This is a great example of lunacy attaching to one community — the collegiate community — and focusing not on education to get through life, but on ridiculous PC ‘manners’ just to get through the day,” he said.

Related: Gender Neutrality for the Almighty Dollar

Incredibly, if a student makes the ghastly mistake of forgetting to ask the all-important identity questions of another — or even worse, use the wrong pronoun — there is to be an immediate apology/groveling which the task force is pleased to micro-manage for the offender.

“Graciously accept correction,” the poster instructs students and faculty after incorrect pronoun usage. “Apologize and learn for next time. Take initiative. Do not expect others to remind you of their name and pronouns.”

And finally, you are to say, “Thank you for reminding me. I apologize and will use the correct name/pronoun for you in the future.”

The pompous pronoun posters admonish students and professors alike to start introducing themselves with their “name and pronouns — even to familiar colleagues and students.”

The posters also direct professors to clearly state the pronouns they prefer at the very top of their syllabi, apparently in bold. For example: “Dr. Jo Jones, Pronouns: she/her/hers.”

The whole idea is to wipe away traditional group salutations.

If the wrong pronoun is used, there is to be an immediate apology/groveling.

“Consider substituting language such as ‘everybody,’ ‘folks,’ or ‘this person’ for gender binary language: ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, he or she,'” the poster reads.

Vanderbilt University is clearly letting transgender student special-interest groups rule the roost. “The poster, the result of a grassroots, student-led partnership with our faculty, is intended to provide awareness and education about gender identity,” Vanderbilt spokeswoman Princine Lewis told TheDC.

“This is not only stupid, but awkward,” said the Murfreesboro landscaper. “How does this make the bulk of the student body feel? It’s certainly not like their university is looking out for their interests in any way.”

Or, as Vanderbilt University creator Cornelius Vanderbilt himself once said — “I am not afraid of my enemies, but by God, you must look out when you get among your friends.”