Some U.S. universities have released guides to what they call "inclusive language." For example, Springfield College in Massachusetts offers pronoun "guidelines" in its quest to create "gender-inclusive academic, living, and work environments." The school's guidelines recommend using nouns "sibling" (instead of sister or brother), "first-year student" (instead of freshman), and "people, human beings, or humanity" (instead of mankind) – among others.
Springfield also suggests discarding the titles "father" and "mother" and only using the word "parent." Adam Ellwanger, a professor of English at University of Houston-Downtown and a writer for Campus Reform, warns about the dangers of tossing the titles aside.
"By policing language about fatherhood and motherhood, the universities are degrading that role," he tells AFN.
![Ellwanger, Adam (univ prof)](/media/fkldcm3w/adam-ellwanger.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=85&height=125&rnd=133638642378800000&format=png)
Ellwanger cites statistics that reveal a father's role a mother's role are both important.
"We know that 85% of youths in prison come from fatherless homes," he offers, continuing: "We know that 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes; 90% of homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes; [and] 60% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes."
Ellwanger acknowledges that children in a single-parent home can and have overcome those outcomes, but notes that such social pathologies are more likely to occur in a home with one parent.
Campus Reform reports that Springfield's gender pronoun guidelines were based on two sources: The Stonewall Center (an LGBTQIA+ resource center at UMass Amherst) and the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals.