After UT’s Gender-Neutral Pronoun Controversy, Tennessee Lawmakers Quiz College On Diversity Funding

In an occasionally heated discussion, state lawmakers peppered officials from the University of Tennessee with questions Wednesday afternoon about how many resources are going toward diversity programs.

The Senate subcommittee’s hearing originated with a blog post about gender-neutral pronouns in August. T
he head of UT’s
Pride Center wrote that some students don’t identify as a “he” or “she,” and that people on campus should ask each other what pronouns they prefer to use. It suggested they might prefer to use
“ze”
or a singular “they.”

That led to
national media attention and a political firestorm. Some lawmakers say their constituents were offended by something that state dollars paid for. The university has since removed the web post.

“I’m not passing judgment on anybody’s lifestyle — that’s their business,” 
Sen. Todd 
Gardenhire
, R-Chattanooga,
 told UT officials. “
But I have a responsibility to look at the numbers, to look at the financial numbers and see: Are you spending your money wisely on that campus? To me, it appears that you’re not.”

Another state lawmaker, Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, asked for specifics on how the university was measuring diversity, calling the current metrics vague.

Jimmy Cheek, chancellor of the Knoxville campus, defended the more than $5 million that the system spends on diversity programs, saying most of the funding goes toward recruiting and retaining diverse students. He pointed to a program geared toward attracting African-Americans to engineering.

University officials also touched on other aspects of diversity — including gender, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. They shied away from specifically defending LGBT initiatives, instead saying generally that they want a campus that’s inclusive to all students.