University of South Carolina drafts new pronoun policy, opens door for punitive measures

New gender pronoun policies being prepared by the University of South Carolina’s (USC) Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion might open the door for punitive measures. 

The new policies are being drafted by USC’s Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Julian R. Williams. 

According to an article in USC’s student newspaper The Daily Gamecock, the pronoun policy will offer guidelines to set “expectations for the USC community,” but it will not “mandate that faculty and staff members must use a student’s preferred name and pronouns.”

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Under Williams’ leadership, the DEI office is also “launching a website for the guidelines and will set expectations for community members for pronoun usage and how the DEI office will implement these guidelines,” The Daily Gamecock explains.

“We will provide guidance and education to community members as to why we think it’s important that they [use preferred pronouns]...But we can’t mandate that a faculty member utilize that information. From my perspective, I think most of our faculty and staff members will do so,” Williams stated.

It has yet to be announced when exactly the new policy will be implemented.

[RELATED: Students caught using wrong pronouns at Harvard may violate harassment policies]

Although Williams insists that professors using a student’s preferred pronouns will not be mandatory, this appears to conflict with USC’s official policy regarding what constitutes a “bias” or “hateful” incident.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a free speech watchdog, flagged USC’s policy in this area as problematic.

According to the policy, a “Bias or Hate Incident” is an “act that is motivated in whole, or in part, by a victim’s actual or perceived sex, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity or disability,” and that “contribute[s] to creating an unsafe or unwelcoming environment.”

Campus Reform spoke with Dylan Baldassarre, a USC student and President of the school’s Turning Point USA chapter, to get his perspective on the issue.

“For thousands of years, it was a known fact that there are only males and females. The University is now fully embracing the false notion that there are more than two genders. Ridiculous, but not surprising,” he asserted.

Campus Reform reached out to all institutions and individuals mentioned; this article will be updated accordingly.