Mizzou removes inclusivity guide following heat from Hindus

After receiving pressure from a Hindu statesman earlier this week, the University of Missouri has removed its “Inclusive Terminology Guide.”

Campus Reform outed the guide for lacking full inclusivity of religious groups and asking the campus community to refrain from using words such as “Oriental,” “Indian,” and “ethnic.”

In a press release provided to Campus Reform, Rajan Zed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that Mizzou needed lessons in “diversity and inclusivity before it embarked upon talking about ‘productive dialogue about diversity and inclusion’ and launching an ‘inclusive terminology’ guide.”

“Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in an email last night to Mizzou Interim Chancellor Dr. Hank Foley and Provost Dr. Garnett S. Stokes, urged them to issue an official apology and create an ‘honestly inclusive’ ‘inclusive terminology’ guide,” the press release reads.

Zed questioned the school’s motives in ignoring Hinduism, the oldest and third largest religion in the world, while creating their purportedly inclusive guide. He argued that the university’s incomplete guide sheds doubt on Mizzou’s commitment to creating an inclusive campus community.

Mizzou Diversity’s webpage (where the inclusivity guide was originally found) now gives an error message in place of the guide. Several other links on their “Tips for Using Respectful and Inclusive Language” page also lead to error messages.

The guide made news last December for using terms such as “adultism” and “minoritized,” neither of which appear in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary according to The Daily Caller. It wasn’t until this week, though, that the school acted on the public criticism.

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