'Southern Accent Reduction' Course Cancelled After Employee Outcry

By Julissa Catalan

Staff at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) were up in arms last week after the lab’s human-resources department offered a “Southern Accent Reduction” course.

The class description read: “Feel confident in a meeting when you need to speak with a more neutral American accent, and be remembered for what you say and not how you say it.”