Several terms and definitions will appear if you hover over the word in the online on a computer and are included below for your convenience.
We recognize that language is continuously changing. All the terms offered here are intended as flexible, working definitions. The classifications used here may differ from legal definitions. Culture, economic background, region, race, and age all influence how we talk about others and ourselves. Because of this, all language is subjective and culturally defined and most identity labels are dependent on personal interpretation and experience. This list strives to use the most inclusive language possible while also offering useful descriptions of community terms.
Ableist: Characterized by or showing discrimination, prejudice, or bias against an individual or group with a disability.
Ageist: Characterized by or showing discrimination, prejudice, or bias against an individual or group on the basis of their age.
American Indian/Native American/Indigenous: A person having origin in any of the original tribes of North America who maintains cultural identification through tribal affiliation or community recognition.
Androgynous: Appearing and/or identifying as neither man nor woman, presenting a gender either mixed or neutral.
Antisemitic: Characterized by a fear, hatred, and hostility toward Jewish people that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination, and marginalization of Jewish people.
Asexual: Lack of sexual attraction to others. Unlike celibacy, which people choose, asexuality is an intrinsic part of an individual.
Assigned Birth Sex: The biological sex assigned (named) an individual baby at birth.
Biphobic: Characterized by or showing discrimination, prejudice, or bias against an individual or group of people who/are is bisexual.
Bisexual: Attraction, romantically and/or sexually, to people of more than one gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree.
Bullied: Being subjected to unwanted offensive and malicious behavior that undermines, patronizes, intimidates, or demeans.
Classist: Discrimination, prejudice, or bias against an individual or group based on social or economic class.
Climate: The current attitudes and behaviors of faculty, staff, administrators, and students, as well as institutional policies and procedures, which influence the level of respect for individual needs, abilities, and potential.
Cronyism: The hiring or promoting of friends or associates without proper regard to their qualifications.
Disability: A physical or mental impairment that limits one or more major life activities.
Discrimination: The treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person based on the group, class, or category to which that person belongs rather than on individual merit. Discrimination can be the effect of some law or established practice that confers privilege or liability based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender expression, gender identity, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, medical condition (cancer-related or genetic characteristics), genetic information (including family medical history), ancestry, marital status, age, sexual identity/orientation, citizenship, or service in the uniformed services.
Ethnicity: A socially constructed category about a group of people based on their shared culture. This can be reflected in language, religion, material culture such as clothing and cuisine, and cultural products such as music and art.
Ethnocentric: Characterized by a fear, hatred, and hostility toward an individual or group’s culture based solely on the values and standards of one's own culture. Ethnocentric individuals judge other groups relative to their own ethnic group or culture, especially with concern for language, behavior, customs, and religion.
Gender identity: A person’s inner sense of being man, woman, both, or neither. Gender identity may or may not be expressed outwardly and may or may not correspond to one’s physical characteristics.
Gender expression: The manner in which a person outwardly represents gender, regardless of the physical characteristics that might typically define the individual as man or woman.
Genderfluid: Gender expression that does not adhere to one fixed gender expression; individuals expression of themselves as man, woman, or non-binary at different times or under different circumstances.
Gender nonconforming: Relating to an identity that does not conform to the traditional expectations of their gender, or whose gender expression does not fit neatly into a category. While many also identify as transgender, not all gender nonconforming people do.
Genderqueer: Relating to an identity that may be both man or woman, neither man or woman, or completely outside of these categories, or to a person who is gender nonconforming through expression, behavior, social roles, and/or identity.
Harassment: Unwelcomed behavior that demeans, threatens, or offends another person or group of people and results in a hostile environment for the targeted person/group.
Heterosexist: Characterized by a fear, hatred, and/or hostility toward an individual or group based on a sexual orientation that is not heterosexual.
Homophobia: A fear, hatred, and/or hostility toward homosexual people and individuals who identify as or are perceived as homosexual.
Intersex: Any one of a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.
Islamophobic: Characterized by a fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslims that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination, and marginalization of Muslim people.
Nepotism: The hiring or promoting of family members without proper regard to their qualifications.
Nonbinary: Any gender, or lack of gender, or mix of genders, that is not strictly man or woman.
Non-Native English Speakers: People for whom English is not their first language.
People of Color: People who self-identify as other than White.
Physical characteristics: Term that refers to one’s appearance.
Pansexual: Characterized by fluidity in sexual identity/orientation and attraction to others regardless of their sexual identity/orientation or gender.
Position: The status individuals hold by virtue of their role/status in the institution (e.g., undergraduate student, staff, full-time faculty, part-time faculty, administrator).
Racial identity: A socially constructed category about a group of people based on generalized physical features such as skin color, hair type, shape of eyes, physique, etc.
Racist: Characterized by a fear, hatred, and/or hostility toward an individual or group based on their racial identity.
Sexist: Characterized by a fear, hatred, and/or hostility toward an individual or group based on their assigned birth sex.
Sexual assault: Any actual or attempted nonconsensual sexual activity including, but not limited to: sexual intercourse, or sexual touching, committed with coercion, threat, or intimidation (actual or implied) with or without physical force; exhibitionism; or sexual language of a threatening nature by a person(s) known or unknown to the victim. Forcible touching, a form of sexual assault, is defined as intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly touching the sexual or other intimate parts of another person for the purpose of degrading or abusing such person or for gratifying sexual desires.
Sexual orientation: A personal characteristic based on the sex of people to whom one is emotionally, physically, and sexually attracted. Similar to sexual identity.
Socioeconomic status: The status one holds in society based on one’s level of income, wealth, education, and familial background.
Transgender: An umbrella term referring to those whose gender identity or gender expression is different from that associated with their sex assigned at birth.
Transphobia: Characterized by a fear, hatred, and/or hostility toward transgender, transsexual, and other gender nontraditional individuals because of their perceived gender identity or gender expression.
