Give me a break!

Is your son or daughter going off to start college at Penn State in September? Yes? Well, be sure you don’t call him or her a “freshman.” If they make any friends among “upperclassmen,” be sure not to refer to them that way. In fact, you’d better not refer to your daughter as “her” or your son as “him.” Now, you’ll need to refer to your one child as “they.”

Have things gotten this insane?

The short answer is “yes.”

I wonder what word they will come up with when they want the Nittany Lion faithful to show up dressed in white for a football game with Ohio State. For fear that the term might have racial overtones, perhaps “whiteout” will join the political correctness scrapheap. I guess that will also go for that stuff we used years ago to blot out a mistake on a letter or term paper or the meteorological term.

Let’s see: I also am going to have to come up with new words for manhole, manager, mankind, manpower, manicurist, manhandle, maneuver and manly, among many more Too sexist? Man, this is too much for my brain to embrace.

If you do any of these things, the politically correct police might slap you on the wrist, or worse - compel you to write the correct term on a blackboard 100 times. Darn. Can I say “blackboard” since mine is baby blue?

What’s going on, you ask? Penn State’s Senate faculty voted earlier this month to no longer use gender-type pronouns when referring to students, faculty, staff and guests in course and degree program descriptions. It revealed these proposed changes in a faculty memo.

The problem, the Senate faculty noted, is that our current word references reflect a primarily male-centric academic history.

According to the memo, terms such as “freshmen” are “decidedly male-specific,” while terms such as “upperclassmen” can be interpreted as “both sexist and classist.”

Terms like “junior” and “senior” are “parallel to western male father-son naming conventions, and much of our written documentation uses he/she pronouns.”

Instead of “freshmen,” “sophomores,” “juniors” and “seniors,” students will instead be referred to as first-year, second-year, third-year and fourth-year.

Since many students do not graduate in four years, I guess we will call them “fifth-year,” which might be really confusing. Concerns have been raised that numbering years beyond the fourth would perhaps negatively reflect on students who, for various reasons, are taking longer to complete their usual four-year programs.

“In this case, the term does often carry a slightly negative connotation. Students in such situations beyond the fourth year could instead be referred to as ‘advanced-standing’ students,” the faculty memo said.

In a number of colleges and universities, these fifth-year or beyond students are referred to euphemistically as “super-seniors,” which to my way of thinking is really disingenuous.

The university also will replace “underclassmen” and “upperclassmen” with “lower division” and “upper division.” Now, this one makes no sense to me, because “lower division” students may have to seek counseling since they might feel inferior because of their implied inferior status.

There is no date for the changes to be implemented.

When I read the memo announcing the proposed changes, I was curious about the justification. The memo provided me with it: “It is time to close the loop and ensure that all people are not only able to choose their name and gender identity within our systems, but that these documents and systems are also structured to be inclusive from the start.”

The plan includes replacing the use of he/him/his and she/her/hers with they/them/theirs. A nongendered term such as student, faculty member or staff member will be acceptable, too. What’s behind this change? Some transgender students prefer the plural pronoun or possessive adjective, rather than the male or female specific.

All written materials - including those for recruiting, admissions, scholarship information, housing, internal documents and websites - should be updated with the changes, the Senate faculty recommends.

Penn State is not the only entity going down this road. Berkeley, California, has replaced all gendered words in its city codes - such as “manpower” and “manhole” - with gender-neutral terms such as “human effort” and “maintenance hole.”

This famous city, which houses the main campus of the University of California, will also replace all gender-specific pronouns. The new ordinance passed easily and without discussion. “There’s power in language,” said Berkeley City Council member Rigel Robinson, the main author of the bill. “This is a small move, but it matters.”

Sorry, I disagree. There are way more important issues when it comes to race, gender, ethnicity and sexuality. It seems to me that these are the ones that should be addressed by officials, not monkeying around with established language, which is only going to muddy the waters of understanding and be a barrier to compliance.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.