L'etat, C'est Nous … or at Least Our Initials

James Baron, father of a former student of my alma mater, UC Santa Barbara, is for whatever reason upset that U Can Study Buzzed is a hell's nest of "underage and excessive drinking, drugs, lying, cheating, stealing, rape, sexual assault, violence and promiscuity." OK, the rape & violence is bad, though who knows how widespread. Anyway, we might not be mentioning Baron's www.thedarksideofucsb.com at all, except for the University's shameful response to the man's freely exercised complaints:

On Nov. 10, Baron got an e-mail from Meta Clow, UCSB's policy and records management coordinator, asking him to "immediately remove our initials from your Web site designation."

Clow said Baron was in violation of California Education Code Section 92000, which designates the "University of California" name and all abbreviations, like UCSB, as property of the state. "Anyone violating this provision," Clow pointed out, "is guilty of a misdemeanor."

Comments

[Ironchef]

Did he think Tom Wolfe's new book was set at UCSB?

[rox_publius]

when i was at the illustrious University of Maryland, a site called terpidiots.com was shut down for similar reasons - and that was just the name of the mascot.

weak

[Evan Williams]

UCSB! UCSB! Oh, shit, someone's at the door.

[Mike]

...a hell's nest of "underage and excessive drinking, drugs, lying, cheating, stealing, rape, sexual assault, violence and promiscuity."

Vivid imagery of a place well known as the Casablanca of West Coast higher education: No. 7 on Pub Club's Top 10 Party Schools list , and numerous citations as one of the great party schools in America...

[zero]

Meta Clow clown

[John M. Joy]

He got a message from a metaclown?

A metaclown?!? What's their schtick - humor about humor? 8^)

JMJ
(who's soooooooo sorry for that)

[thoreau]

I'm getting my Ph.D from UCSB (and yes, I know, it's a public school, but at least some of my projects have been funded by a private company).

I rather like the place. And nobody is holding a gun to the undergrads' heads forcing them to do this stuff. There are plenty of mean old TAs encouraging them to study more. (I've been one of them, from time to time.)

[John M. Joy]

Back in my undergrad days, my principal means of stress relief was setting up very large sound and lighting systems (and projecting the occasional movie). As with anything in life, you have to take the good with the bad. In our case, that meant working with talent ranging from the legendary (e.g. Dizzy Gillespie) to first-class assholes (e.g. a certain well-known poet) to drudgery campus activities, like sound reinforcement for the president's address at Parents' Orientation.

Well, one year, we had a new president (I won't mention which; my alma mater - like most - changed presidents about as often as some undergrads change their skivvies). That year, during his address to the parents of incoming freshmen, he made a remark - I don't recall it exactly, but in so many words he told them that, if their son or daughter hadn't gotten laid yet, by the end of the year, he/she will have. Everyone in the sound booth looked at each other: "Did he really just say that?!?" (Maybe that wasn't exactly the sentiment intended - who knows?)

(FWIW, my mother recalls Parents' Day - most of those she met seemed a lot like this Mr. Baron. She just shook her head. Heeeeeeyyy... if Baron's receiving messages from a metaclown, does that make him a... um, never mind 8^)

JMJ

[Ken Shultz]

I once worked for a large IT firm. We once had a organization wide meeting via teleconference with the entire senior management team along with a Sensitivity Officer. One of the head honchos explained that the company had some legal problems because of insensitivity to various minorities, and that the management team wanted to make it clear that any form of discrimination was not to be tolerated. Then he opened up the floor for questions.

Someone via teleconference asked why there weren't any women on the senior management team. The Sensitivity Officer tried to field the question, but the Honcho insisted on handling it himself. He quickly responded that the reason there weren't any women in senior management was because women are too emotional for senior management.

...Then he sat down and smiled like he'd just said something smart. You could have heard a pin drop, and then people just started laughing.

A number of the women in middle management sued, and the honcho was sent packing shortly thereafter.

I think everyone agreed that it was one of the stupidest things we'd ever heard of anyone saying, it was said at the stupidest time it could have been said, and I doubt anyone will ever see its like again.

[Swamp Justice]

My alma mater is UC San Diego. UCSD: U Can Study Drunk.

[David]

I'm always shocked at the adults who are shocked by the way kids behave at college. When was this idyllic time that they recall when no one drank, had sex, took drugs, etc. ?

When I was in college, 10 years ago, I drank, had sex(not as often as I'd like), wasn't interested in drugs but knew people who were. My point is, that none of these "epidemics" are new. It's all a part of growing up that people want to try (vainly) to insulate their kids from.

[Stevo Darkly]

I never Meta purple Clow
I never hope to see one
But I can tell you anyhow
I'd rather see than be one.

[Pac-10 Guy]

Clow said Baron was in violation of California Education Code Section 92000, which designates the "University of California" name and all abbreviations, like UCSB, as property of the state. "Anyone violating this provision," Clow pointed out, "is guilty of a misdemeanor."

Imagine the frenzy of lawlessness that grips the University of Southern California (a private school) when they play UCLA...

F! U! C-L-A!
F! U! C-L-A!

[Matt Welch]

Darkly, you Rockly.

[Stevo Darkly]

Thankly. 🙂

[TWC]

Any of these people ever been to San Diego State?

Now those guys know how to party.

[TWC]

David, the people (read adults) who are having a shit hemmorage (sp) over this kind of stuff are the same people who were camped out in the Dean's office smoking dope and singing We Shall Overcome in the sixties. They are the same people who were shoving coke spoons up their noses and blasting Donna Summer from the dorm windows in the '70's. They are the same people who had peacock colored mohawks..........well, you get the picture, they know just how rowdy college kids can be because they were Jack Black and John Belushi all rolled into a techni-colored doob and it scares them to death.

[pococurante]

What humorous phrase can be made out of "UCLA"? I've only ever heard "University of Caucasians Lost [among] Asians", which is both unfunny and nonsensical.

[kevrob]

When I attended my alma mater, Milwaukee's Marquette University, in the 1970's, Playboy magazine issued a "party school" top 10 or 20. Neither MU, nor our rival, the Evil Government University of Wisconsin at Madison, made the list.

Both schools were disqualified for professionalism.

Kevin
(Go, Warriors!)