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The list is deserving of scorn and ridicule, precisely because it precisely is ridiculous. The language will be enforced onto professors as they routinely crawl

The list is deserving of scorn and ridicule, precisely because it precisely is ridiculous. The language will be enforced onto professors as they routinely crawl and scan their own domains [1]. American students are taking on enormous debts to pay for an ever increasingly size of administrative busy bodies who come up with nonsense like this to justify their existence. [1]: https://itcommunity.stanford.edu/news/poc-it-2022-progress-and-looking-ahead-2023 https://itcommunity.stanford.edu/news/poc-it-2022-progress-a...

ModernMech 4y ago
> The language will be enforced onto professors as they routinely crawl and scan their own domains [1]. You don't seem to understand how academic departments are organized. I can't see any content on the link you provided (it just has a header that reads "News"), but faculty are not subject to the style guidelines of the IT department, especially if they are tenured. Faculty hire/fire decisions are made by the Chair and Dean of the respective departments, and they aren't bound by these kinds of lists either. Feel free to criticize and ridicule as much as you want, using whatever words you want. No one will stop you, especially Stanford. But the fear you articulate here regarding faculty freedom of thought is baseless.
- onepointsixC 4y ago
  > I can't see any content on the link you provided (it just has a header that reads "News"), but faculty are not subject to the style guidelines of the IT department, especially if they are tenured. The url indeed seems to be dead right now but it originally had described an initiative which would periodically scan everything which is hosted on Stanford domains, which naturally would include faculty pages. It previously stated as follows: "EHLI Scans In addition to the educational website, EHLI involves scanning Stanford University domains and sites to determine where and how identified harmful language is being used. The end goal is to help individuals and units eliminate harmful language that could be perpetuating stereotypes, inequality, violence, and racism. Seven web domains authorized by the CIOC were scanned in a pilot phase to test the process of receiving, analyzing, and addressing scan results. This pilot phase led to a change in how terms are categorized from the scans, using these three priority levels: Most egregious terms that need to be addressed immediately Terms we do not expect to find on our sites but will scan for due diligence Terms that can be used in a non-harmful way, generating many false positive results For the seven domains in the pilot, baseline scans have been recorded, and scan results are now recorded monthly. The process for working with content owners for remediation is still in a planning phase. Additional domains to be included in the scanning process are being evaluated, in close partnership with the CIOC." > But the fear you articulate here regarding faculty freedom of thought is baseless. It absolutely is not. The coded language of "Harmful Language" which is constantly morphing and changing to continuously include more and more benign words such as "User" and "American" will absolutely be used to full effect against Faculty.
  - ModernMech 4y ago
    I guess we will see, but my experience with these kinds of things tells me that 0 professors will be disciplined at Stanford for using the words “user” or “American” on their Stanford owned properties. IMO you’re being hyperbolic and pushing baseless FUD to bolster your own preconceived notions, notions which aren’t supported by either the word list nor the link you’ve provided. Indeed, the content from the link which is dead doesn’t support your point. They said they scanned for content and found egregiously harmful examples, along with many “false positives”, meaning there is a process here. So it’s not just “you used the word American, therefore you’re disciplined.” No, it’s nothing like that whatsoever. It’s more like you posted the word “jewed” somewhere on your personal faculty page and they’d prefer to get rid of that. But if you posted “jewed” in an academic context, there’s obviously nothing wrong with that usage. I don’t think I need to explain why Stanford doesn’t need a list of words or scanning tools to discipline employees for using racial slurs on company property, so what’s the problem?
    - onepointsixC 4y ago
      The link is now alive again, so you could see it yourself. As for the list, the problem is the clear attempts to obfuscate and grow the number of wrong think words wile trying to equate their usage as harmful. Purposeful and clearly overtly racist words such as "jewed" are right along side words like "grandfathered", "user", is a pretty clear attempt to mix the two. There certainly will be a process, but your kidding yourself thinking that academics will not be told under no uncertain terms that they are permitted to express "Harmful Language".
      - ModernMech 4y ago
        Okay I hear what you are saying. If I would improve this list, I would separate it into "overtly racist words" and "words and phrases that have meanings or origins which aren't well known and that may be problematic in some circumstances". Would that help assuage some of your concerns? > your kidding yourself thinking that academics will not be told under no uncertain terms that they are permitted to express "Harmful Language". And you're kidding yourself if you think academics will care. Wake me when something actually happens.
sinity 4y ago
> American students are taking on enormous debts to pay for an ever increasingly size of administrative busy bodies who come up with nonsense like this to justify their existence. Now also taxpayers, because of debt cancellation. It's subsidized now.

ModernMech 4y ago

> The language will be enforced onto professors as they routinely crawl and scan their own domains [1]. You don't seem to understand how academic departments are organized. I can't see any content on the link you provided (it just has a header that reads "News"), but faculty are not subject to the style guidelines of the IT department, especially if they are tenured. Faculty hire/fire decisions are made by the Chair and Dean of the respective departments, and they aren't bound by these kinds of lists either. Feel free to criticize and ridicule as much as you want, using whatever words you want. No one will stop you, especially Stanford. But the fear you articulate here regarding faculty freedom of thought is baseless.

onepointsixC 4y ago
> I can't see any content on the link you provided (it just has a header that reads "News"), but faculty are not subject to the style guidelines of the IT department, especially if they are tenured. The url indeed seems to be dead right now but it originally had described an initiative which would periodically scan everything which is hosted on Stanford domains, which naturally would include faculty pages. It previously stated as follows: "EHLI Scans In addition to the educational website, EHLI involves scanning Stanford University domains and sites to determine where and how identified harmful language is being used. The end goal is to help individuals and units eliminate harmful language that could be perpetuating stereotypes, inequality, violence, and racism. Seven web domains authorized by the CIOC were scanned in a pilot phase to test the process of receiving, analyzing, and addressing scan results. This pilot phase led to a change in how terms are categorized from the scans, using these three priority levels: Most egregious terms that need to be addressed immediately Terms we do not expect to find on our sites but will scan for due diligence Terms that can be used in a non-harmful way, generating many false positive results For the seven domains in the pilot, baseline scans have been recorded, and scan results are now recorded monthly. The process for working with content owners for remediation is still in a planning phase. Additional domains to be included in the scanning process are being evaluated, in close partnership with the CIOC." > But the fear you articulate here regarding faculty freedom of thought is baseless. It absolutely is not. The coded language of "Harmful Language" which is constantly morphing and changing to continuously include more and more benign words such as "User" and "American" will absolutely be used to full effect against Faculty.
- ModernMech 4y ago
  I guess we will see, but my experience with these kinds of things tells me that 0 professors will be disciplined at Stanford for using the words “user” or “American” on their Stanford owned properties. IMO you’re being hyperbolic and pushing baseless FUD to bolster your own preconceived notions, notions which aren’t supported by either the word list nor the link you’ve provided. Indeed, the content from the link which is dead doesn’t support your point. They said they scanned for content and found egregiously harmful examples, along with many “false positives”, meaning there is a process here. So it’s not just “you used the word American, therefore you’re disciplined.” No, it’s nothing like that whatsoever. It’s more like you posted the word “jewed” somewhere on your personal faculty page and they’d prefer to get rid of that. But if you posted “jewed” in an academic context, there’s obviously nothing wrong with that usage. I don’t think I need to explain why Stanford doesn’t need a list of words or scanning tools to discipline employees for using racial slurs on company property, so what’s the problem?
  - onepointsixC 4y ago
    The link is now alive again, so you could see it yourself. As for the list, the problem is the clear attempts to obfuscate and grow the number of wrong think words wile trying to equate their usage as harmful. Purposeful and clearly overtly racist words such as "jewed" are right along side words like "grandfathered", "user", is a pretty clear attempt to mix the two. There certainly will be a process, but your kidding yourself thinking that academics will not be told under no uncertain terms that they are permitted to express "Harmful Language".
    - ModernMech 4y ago
      Okay I hear what you are saying. If I would improve this list, I would separate it into "overtly racist words" and "words and phrases that have meanings or origins which aren't well known and that may be problematic in some circumstances". Would that help assuage some of your concerns? > your kidding yourself thinking that academics will not be told under no uncertain terms that they are permitted to express "Harmful Language". And you're kidding yourself if you think academics will care. Wake me when something actually happens.

sinity 4y ago

> American students are taking on enormous debts to pay for an ever increasingly size of administrative busy bodies who come up with nonsense like this to justify their existence. Now also taxpayers, because of debt cancellation. It's subsidized now.