Since everything must be done these days to avoid offending college students, Columbia University is piloting a program by which students can upload recordings of their names … so professors won’t mispronounce them.
According to the Columbia Spectator, this semester select courses in Arts and Sciences and Engineering will try out the NameCoach program because “particularly for students of color, insensitive or accidentally offensive remarks by faculty—including the mispronunciation of names” — can “harm their learning experiences.”
Thus far, over 800 students have made use of the program.
The university said in a statement that NameCoach will help to “reduce the anxiety and uncertainty that may occur during the process of introducing yourself or learning new names.”
Student Julieta Garcia said she likes NameCoach because the Spanish pronunciation of her name (“hoo-lee-AY-tah ) “is an important part of her Mexican-American heritage.”
“I really made a big point starting off in my college career to not shorten my name to Julie or just be satisfied with the [Anglicized] pronunciation of Julieta,” she said.
[S]tudents and professors must check Courseworks themselves to see if any students have posted recordings of their names. Because it requires individual initiative, several students have questioned its efficacy.
“I don’t know how well the professors have actually used it,” Garcia said. “I know from what I’ve seen I don’t think that much people [sic] have actually participated in it.”
According to Core Lecturer Robbie Kubala, only one of his 40 Contemporary Civilization students has utilized NameCoach thus far. He plans to encourage more of his students to use the tool next semester.
“I see it as a nice attempt to improve the ability of instructors to pronounce their names correctly,” Kubala said. “I see it as a nice optional tool to maybe improve some aspect of classroom life.”
As part of a movement to reduce microaggressions in the classroom, NameCoach has been implemented by several of Columbia’s peers, including Stanford University, for several years. According to the Stanford’s website, 300 students had used the program within the first two weeks of its release.
One wonders how “much” of these students will demand sensitivity training if/when their future employers commit the grievous sin of botching their monikers.
MORE: ‘Bigotry’: a teacher mispronouncing a student’s name
MORE: Student claims microaggression over way he says ‘Cool Whip’
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