I’ve worked at institutions that largely dropped the term freshmen for more practical reasons. Since freshman, sophomore, etc. are often established by credit hours, it gets complicated these days. An incoming “freshman” with 30+ hours is somewhat common, so some designation that this is their 1st time in college is handy. TCU doesn’t seem to be doing this for this reason, but abandoning the term freshman isn’t all that new.
Secondly, language and mores change with each generation. This isn’t even a small harbinger of some coming decline. It’s just a small change at a single institution. Your parents and grandparents thought the same way about the stupid ways you talk, as did their elders about them. You get old and complain about change. That’s life.
Third, since this touches on the culture war, I predict that if this thread gains enough interest to reach page five, it’ll be necessarily moved to the cloak room.