The Bradley University administration, in conjunction with Student Senate, recently announced that the school will move away from the term “freshman” in favor of the gender-inclusive term “first-year.”
Earlier this month, Student Senate was the first to announce the shift via a post on its Instagram page. However, the post was quickly taken down as a result of several negative comments.
The Scout implores Bradley’s student body to not overreact about this simple switch in terminology.
The term “freshman” has continued to fall out of favor around the nation, with many institutions dropping the moniker. Bradley is not the first and will not be the last to do so. If anything, Bradley is late to the terminology change.
While it is a shift from what students may be accustomed to in high school, this change will not affect the day-to-day lives of the student population. While the university’s official websites reflect the changes, it will take longer for the terminology to catch on among those on campus.
As far as we know, members of the administration will not be searching the Hilltop to hunt down anybody who uses the word “freshman,” and it’s unreasonable to believe anything like that will come to fruition. Freedom of speech still applies.
However, it would be unreasonable to resist the changes for the sake of tradition or otherwise. This is only a small marketing change for the sake of gender inclusivity — larger steps are happening and will continue to happen.
If you have an issue with this change, perhaps you should take some time to reflect on what matters in the grand scheme of things. The switch from “freshman” to “first-year” is simply not that big of a deal.