The College Fix

Tennessee lawmakers are pretty much sick and tired of the politically correct BS coming out of the University of Tennessee.

It was bad enough that administrators dropped its long-used and beloved nickname “Lady Vols” from all women’s sports teams except basketball, a controversial decision that prompted backlash and a fiery protest petition with 23,000 signatures.

Its annual and highly gratuitous Sex Week events, with names such as “Getting Laid,” “Sex Positivity: Queer as a Verb,” “Bow Chicka Bow Woah” and “How Many Licks Does It Take,” also did not impress the state legislature.

But this latest announcement asking students to call each other by made up gender-neutral pronouns like “ze, xe, xyr, zirs” has put many lawmakers over the edge – and regents under the spotlight.

“Two state Senate panels will hold a joint a hearing next month on higher education governance that includes a review of a post about ‘gender neutral’ pronouns at the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville campus,” the Times Free Press reports. “…Asked Thursday what the Senate panels’ examination of higher education governance involved, [Darlene Schlicher, a Senate Republican spokeswoman] said it will focus on the roles of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, the University of Tennessee and the State Board of Regents’ systems.”

Underscoring that, a letter by Republican state Rep. Susan Lynn signed by 31 additional lawmakers condemns the gender-neutral pronoun suggestion as a waste of time and taxpayer money, the Lebanon Democrat reports.

“Lynn was influential in getting the university to de-fund Sex Week, and she recently joined with legislators on another letter to the University of Tennessee to protest the name change of the Lady Vols,” it added.

Her letter, dated Sept. 3 and addressed to the UT board of trustees, states:

Last month, we wrote to the University of Tennessee about the decision to drop “Lady” from the Lady Vols name. Two years ago we wrote to the board regarding Sex Week at the University expressing that it was difficult to think of a more insulting, impractical or frivolous use of time and taxpayer money.

Now the Office of Diversity and Inclusion is forging ahead with another waste of time – encouraging students to use gender-neutral pronouns.

Most, when addressed by the wrong pro-noun, either correct the speaker or chuckle to themselves. Sadly, our University is clearly entertaining a tool of the left – critical theory – which is a philosophy that involves being critical of the prevailing view of history, society, government and economics. The overall effort is designed to move forward a political agenda, and advance social changes advocated by a small minority.

However, it is clearly improper to use the resources of this institution in this manner. Our benefactor, the taxpayer, deserves the highest respect, therefore we ask that the University abandon politics, cease with the attempted indoctrination of students for the left and simply prepare students to make their living.

We need to focus 100% on creating productive people in society, and not filling them with philosophies of empty deceit. We lament the hardworking Tennesseans who are not as privileged to attend university yet pay their taxes every day only to find that the University has involved itself and its students in advancing political and social change.

To be sure, Tennesseans do not toil at their jobs so that people supported by their tax dollars can anguish over whether they used the correct pronoun du jour. Thank you for reading this letter. No reply is necessary. We only ask that common sense return to this institution.

It’s great that lawmakers will hold university leaders’ accountable. It’s one of the best ways to combat politically correct lunacy running rampant in academia today.

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