ABSTRACT
Professor William Lutz of Rutgers University, author of The New Doublespeak, says that schools are an increasingly rich source of verbal nonsense. On the modern campus, the word "integration" is so controversial that a Cornell University committee removed it from an official report. So instead of "promoting integration across racial, ethnic, college, and class-year distinctions" the report called for "promoting meaningful interaction and connection across differences". The Dialectic Society gave its 1996 award for buzzword of the year to "urban camper", a new term for "the homeless" or people who live on the street. Similar euphemisms have crept into the language: extra-marital sex, "aggressive coalitionary behavior", "hypervigilance", and "wall artist". Gyms are now upscale, known as "wellness activities centers". In medicine, patients who die "fail to achieve their wellness potential" and have to be chalked up as "negative patient outcomes".
