To the Editor:
I am catching up on my reading, and just read your "32 Robinson" editorial comments about the word "freshman" (The Dartmouth, August 6).
Why is it that students of Smith College, Mt. Holyoke College and Wellesley College -- all very "gender specific" schools with student bodies made up entirely of women (there are others, but these are the three with which I personally identify) -- have always routinely referred to their new students each year as "freshmen," and have yet managed to survive nicely as prime, and very early, advocates of true feminism?
I think perhaps it is because these very fine academic institutions concern themselves with issues far more important than semantics -- they simply do not have time to worry about foolish things.
Our issues are not "gender-neutral" language or environment. Our issues are far more important: those of opportunity and compensation, of recognition and achievement, of identification and pride, of worth and values. Vocabulary is a singularly insignificant aspect of any of it. I dare say you also object to the word "mankind?" And would, if you could, rewrite the bible, the hymnbooks of the world's churches and all the poetry of the ages that preceded this decade?
Surely you can find something with more meaning and interest to devote almost 18 column inches to than an unimportant word?
