Genderless Pronouns

In December 1972 Vice Chancellor Luke Ebersole issued a statement supporting the recommendations of the Task Force on Women and urged that every effort be made to utilize language terms that obviously included both sexes. In May 1973 the Daily Beacon instituted an experimental (to run through January 31, 1974) practice of using the genderless pronouns tey, tem, and ter to replace gender-specific singular pronouns in instances in which either a male or female might be meant. The Beacon cited as an example: “A new chancellor will be appointed in the summer, but tey will take office in the fall after the university has given tem time to learn ter responsibilities.” The new form had been suggested in the premier edition of Ms. magazine. The experiment was not made a permanent style change.