As you might or might not remember, the name of my department was changed to a more PC version because everybody except me and one other person voted for the change. People agreed that the word “foreign” in the department’s name was offensive to foreigners and the word “literature” was alienating to students.
Yesterday, the Chair reported that all of the paperwork for the name change had been submitted a while ago but the bureaucracy is moving very slowly so we still have our old name.
“I’m sorry, does anybody remember what the new name is?” one colleague asked.
It took everybody quite a while to remember. And I’m not sure we remembered what the name was correctly.
Now we are stuck with a name we can’t even remember just because we are terrified of the words “foreign” and “literature.” And I cringe whenever I imagine that I will have to tell people I work at a department called “World Languages and Cultures” (or something of the kind.)
Clarissa's Blog 
Haha. Enough catering to the middle-brows and their easily hurt feelings. I just had some of those tell me that we should not use the psychoanalytic term, “infantile”, because it is hurtful and confusing. Getting out of bed can also be a painful experience, I say. I wish to banish it.
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