On most campuses, the millennial generation makes up the largest number of students. It is these students that belong to the digital generation, and are generally focused on diverse, sociable, globalist, innovative and ambitious individuals.
However, not every generation shares these positive views on millennials.
The battle between generations in the workplace has led to negative stereotyping on several fronts. Common complaints from older generations declare that millennials are entitled, lazy, narcissistic and addicted to social media. Likewise, millennials often find baby boomers to be too rigid in the workplace, with expectations that employees are to pay their dues. The overall generational imbalance between views on work and life is one example of how biased language is used on a daily basis.
In a campus environment, where demographic diversity is especially high, biased language can become a serious problem affecting many students.
In an effort to eliminate the use of biased language from the campus environment, the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business created a tip-sheet* for their Business Communications Center website that outlines what is considered inclusive or biased language. The tip-sheet, which is intended to outline common business practice, now states that phrasing “millennials [as] lazier than previous generations” is biased, as it advances a particular political opinion or can be seen as offensive. Instead, the tip-sheet suggests phrasing “millennials [as having] a different idea of the value of work than other generations.”
Much like the guideline used at the University of Arkansas, NC State has a similar system in the works. April 4, the university will be launching the Bias Incident Response Team, or BIRT. This new university-wide system will allow for the entire campus community to report incidents of bias on and around campus. The announcement about the new program, located on the campus Diversity News page, also added that “BIRT will not replace existing avenues for reporting violations of policy or law, but will track incidents and provide a means for review and restorative practices.”
Other initiatives that support the ongoing effort to build an inclusive environment on State’s campus include Black History Month activities organized by Multicultural Student Affairs, the Spring Diversity Dialogue entitled “Controversial Issues and Civil Dialogue,” the recent panel discussion, “Welcoming Faith Communities” on faith and sexuality and the student-organized “United Not Divided” rally.
Systems like BIRT and the other initiatives taken by NC State work to not only create an inclusive campus environment, but also multi-perspectival students that will be more prepared to use politically correct language in day-to-day jobs.
When giving a speech, writing an essay or conversing with a colleague, the difference between using the word ‘firefighter’ versus ‘fireman,’ or ‘chairperson’ versus ‘chairman’ may seem obvious but is in fact a common communication mistake. By correcting these mistakes now, students will be better prepared to succeed in class as well as in future endeavors, like in the work place.
If millennials wish to be seen by older generations for the positive characteristics that they generally possess, then continued efforts made by the entire campus community are necessary. For generations following millennials, 30 years of diversity-focused individuals could result in less generational difference and a reduction in biased language usage as a whole.
*Editor’s Note: Article has be changed to reflect accurate sourcing.
