The University of Washington recently joined several other institutions by creating a policy to protect students and faculty against microaggressions. The union for academic student employees (ASEs) negotiated a new contract with the university including a provision that labels microaggressions a “grievable” offense, and requires the university to meet three times per year to develop training to eliminate them.

Members of UAW Local 4121 began bargaining for a new contract in December 2014 and finally reached an agreement with the university within hours of when the previous contract expired on April 30, 2015.

“The university made big moves in the final day and a half of bargaining to avert a strike,” said Liz Mills, a member of the UAW 4121 bargaining committee.

The new three-year contract includes provisions for increased wages and insurance benefits, as well as other non-discrimination clauses establishing lactation stations and all-gender bathrooms at the university.

The microaggression issue was a key part of re-negotiating the contract for UAW 4121.

Recognizing microaggressions as grievable represents “the next level of discourse in this country around racism, sexism, and homophobia,” and will advance the cause of “a more inclusive campus for all academic student employees,” a spokeswoman for the union told The College Fix.

UW is not the only school that is working to ban so-called microaggressions.

Professors at the University of California and the University of Wisconsin have recently been instructed not to use certain phrases that may be considered microaggressions such as ‘America is a melting pot,’ or, ‘America is the land of opportunity.’