Penn State faculty vote to end terms 'freshman,' 'sophomore' & others

Faculty at Pennsylvania State University have voted to replace traditional descriptors like “freshman” and “sophomore” with “1st year" or “2nd year,” citing the former's “male-centric academic history."

The introduction states that "[t]he University, as with most all academic institutions world-wide, has grown out of a typically male-centered world." "As such, many terms in our lexicon carry a strong, male-centric, binary character to them.  Terms such as ‘freshmen’ are decidedly male-specific, while terms such as ‘upperclassmen’ can be interpreted as both sexist and classist.  Terms such as ‘junior’ and ‘senior’ are parallel to western male father-son naming conventions, and much of our written documentation uses he/she pronouns."