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The House of Representatives has adopted changes to its standing rules that include thirteen pages of amendments replacing terms like “he,” “him,” and “his” with gender-neutral language.
I’m particularly pleased by the change of “chairman” to “chair,” outlined here:
(1) In the standing rules —
(A) strike “chairman” each place it appears and insert “chair”; and
(B) strike “Chairman” each place it appears and insert “Chair” (except in clause 4(a)(1)(B) of rule X).
As someone who’s spent a lot of time over the years in academia and activist circles, I’ve chaired my share of meetings, committees, and boards, and it seems like I always have at least one well-intentioned colleague to whom insisting on referring to chairs as chairmen is a point of honor.
I’ve never been a chairman of anything. I’ve always referred to myself as a chair. But I’ve found “chairman,” sitting as it does at the place where process geekery and language geekery collide, one of the toughest bits of gender-exclusive language to dislodge.
So the next time that comes up, this will be a nice data point to have on my side. If “chair” is good enough for Barney Frank, John Conyers, and Henry Waxman (not to mention Louise Slaughter and Nydia Velasquez), it’s good enough for me.
(If you’re curious about why clause 4(a)(1)(B) of Rule X was an exception, by the way, it refers to “the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.”)
For two months, a strike by Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3903 has shut down Toronto’s York University.
The strike, by teaching assistants and other employees, has left the university’s 50,000 students unable to return to class, and some of them are beginning to take matters into their own hands:
- On Sunday, a group of several dozen students launched a sit-in outside the university president’s office, demanding that he hold a public forum to answer students’ questions about the strike. (The sit-in is a continuation of a four-day protest that was held before the Christmas break.)
- On Tuesday, the university’s student government presented administrators and union officials with a 4000-signature petition urging both sides to reach an agreement that addresses students’ needs.
- Today, the student government is holding a board meeting to discuss the creation of an emergency relief fund to provide financial assistance to students experiencing hardship as a result of the strike.
After weeks away from the table, university and union officials began negotiating over the weekend. Talks continue, but there has been no breakthrough so far.
January 11 Update: If you arrived at this post directly from a search, click through to (or bookmark) the blog’s main page to see all posts on this subject.
“Student government is a broken reed. If actual, it is capricious, impulsive, and unreliable; if not, it is a subterfuge and pretense.”
— Andrew S. Draper, President of the University of Illinois, 1904.
The Rutgers Daily Targum may take a financial hit soon, if the university enacts a student senate proposal to allow students to opt out of paying the fee that funds it.
The Targum is independent of the university and the student government, but receives about a third of its funding from a $9.75 per student per semester designated fee. Currently, students can request a refund of the newspaper fee at the end of the semester, but the student senate proposal would allow them to opt out in advance by checking a box when they pay their tuition bill.
The newspaper’s editor says that about one half of one percent of students currently opt out, and that if the check-box system caused that figure to rise as high as ten percent, the paper would likely be forced to eliminate one edition per week, ending its run as a daily newspaper.
The Targum is one of two organizations on the Rutgers campus funded through such a designated fee. The other, the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG), already has an opt-out check-box provision.
Rutgers’ president is expected to make a decision after the end of the semester.
I recently stumbled across an interesting study of hazing in American colleges and universities, released earlier this year. I haven’t had the chance to fully digest it yet, but I thought I’d pass it along.
A few highlights of the executive summary:
55% of college students involved in clubs, teams, and organizations experience hazing.
Hazing occurs in, but extends beyond, varsity athletics and Greek-letter organizations and includes behaviors that are abusive, dangerous, and potentially illegal.
Alcohol consumption, humiliation, isolation, sleep- deprivation, and sex acts are hazing practices common across types of student groups.
In more than half of the hazing incidents, a member of the offending group posts pictures on a public web space.
More students perceive positive rather than negative outcomes of hazing.
In 95% of the cases where students identified their experience as hazing, they did not report the events to campus officials.
Nine out of ten students who have experienced hazing behavior in college do not consider themselves to have been hazed.
The study defines “hazing” quite broadly, and I’m not sure I buy all of its premises, but it’s certainly worth a peek.
studentactivism.net 
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