Question 59301

[NerdGirl]

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/59301/

Dear snake whisperer,

I just want you to know that I gave your answer a thumbs up because you told someone to stop saying BYU-P. I can't even begin to tell you how sick I am of telling someone I went to BYU and them asking me "which one?". There IS ONLY ONE! That is all.

Love,
Nerd Girl

[Indefinite Integral]

Dear snake whisperer,

Ditto everything Nerd Girl said.

Love,
II

[Katya]

I'm going to play devil's advocate a bit, here, and point out that if you're talking about both BYU and BYU-I (or -H) in the same sentence or conversation, it's nice to have a way of making it very clear that you're talking about the Provo campus (but there may be ways of doing that besides saying BYU-P or BYU-Provo).

And on a different matter, Idaho and Hawaii are states, so why do people say BYU-Provo instead of BYU-Utah? Because the latter sounds like a football rivalry?

[Kissables]

Everyone is just jealous that they don't go to the real BYU. Everyone asks which one I go to and I get so annoyed. There is only one.

[wired]

I went to BYU (in Provo) and never went to BYU-I, but I think people saying, "There is only one BYU!" is such an elitest thing to do. Really? You're mad because someone wanted you to clarify between Provo, Idaho, and Hawaii? Get over yourselves.

[NerdGirl]

I went to BYU (in Provo) and never went to BYU-I, but I think people saying, "There is only one BYU!" is such an elitest thing to do. Really? You're mad because someone wanted you to clarify between Provo, Idaho, and Hawaii? Get over yourselves.

Actually, it's not an elitist thing for me at all (if I were at all worried about that sort of thing, I probably would have gone to more elite schools, and I certainly wouldn't be at the grad school I'm at now!). It's the fact that they are completely different schools and people around here honestly think they are just different campuses of the same school, which leads to a lot of confusion and people getting really upset that they can't easily transfer back and forth among the three of them or that they apply and don't get into all of them. I've heard a lot of angry rants from people around here (who feel the need to rant to me because I went there) about how they're mad that they can't just pick which campus to go to. I don't actually think BYU is better than BYU-Hawaii or BYU-Idaho - they're different schools with different purposes. It's just that calling it BYU-Provo perpetuates the myth that it is one school with three campuses.

[Katya]

It's just that calling it BYU-Provo perpetuates the myth that it is one school with three campuses.

Mmm, I accept that there are people who refer to BYU as BYU-Provo and I accept that there are people who are confused about the relationship between the schools, but I'm not convinced that the one leads to the other.

I've worked at the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system, which is officially called "The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign," but often called "The University of Illinois" for brevity. Contrarily, the flagship campus of the University of Maine system is officially called just "The University of Maine," but people often specify "The University of Maine at Orono," for precision.

I haven't seen any evidence in either of those cases that calling it the one over the other makes people think that the schools in the system are just different campuses of the same school. (Of course, I haven't had many extended conversations with confused undergrads in either system.)

[wired]

Just wanted to apologize for my tone in my previous post. My sentiment remains. I think most people getting upset at such a minor thing stems primarily from personal pride OR from an irrational pet peeve akin to hearing others say "expecially" instead of "especially." But, the way I delivered that sentiment was rather caustic. My apologies.

[NerdGirl]

It probably wouldn't be quite such a pet peeve for me if I didn't get asked that question ALL THE TIME. And usually by people who are ranting about what I mentioned in my last post. A similar thing that drives me crazy is people assuming I go to the other university in town because I'm doing a science PhD and the school I go to has a really awful reputation when it comes to science. I have the following conversation several times a week: "So, what do you do for a living?" "I'm working on a PhD in astronomy." "Oh, so you go to Dal?" "No, I actually go to SMU." "Why didn't you go to Dal? They have better science programs." "Because Dal has the physics grad programs and SMU has the astronomy grad programs." "Oh, well, that sucks." I realize that I could avoid either of these conversations by just saying, "I went to BYU-Provo" or "I'm working on a PhD in astronomy at SMU", but then what would I get mad about?

[Marduk]

Yeah, I think it would have been much easier if the church just named the other universities differently.

[NerdGirl]

Yeah, I think it would have been much easier if the church just named the other universities differently.

Plus I kind of feel bad for the guy Ricks College was named after because now he doesn't have anything named after him and Brigham Young already had stuff named after him.

[thebigcheese]

Plus I kind of feel bad for the guy Ricks College was named after

I just married into that family...they don't seem too affected by it.

[Craig Jessop]

Yeah, I think it would have been much easier if the church just named the other universities differently.

I totally agree. Even if they wanted to keep the religious motif, there are plenty of other prophets they could have named schools for. I think they should have named it "Ricks University" or something. The Church School of Hawaii could have been Joseph F. Smith University or Fielding University.

But then again, I guess they had reasons for doing what they did. Oh well.

[Unit of Energy]

I don't think that Fielding University would have been a good idea.

[Dead Cat]

I don't think that Fielding University would have been a good idea.

It took me a second to think about it and I wholeheartedly agree.

[Katya]

Plus I kind of feel bad for the guy Ricks College was named after

I just married into that family...they don't seem too affected by it.

I had to do telephone fundraising for BYU and Ricks College when the latter was changing over to BYU-I and I talked to many, many members of the Ricks family who were extremely displeased. (I'm glad to hear you've married into a mellower branch of the family. Also, are you now related to BYU professor Stephen Ricks?)

[thebigcheese]

Also, are you now related to BYU professor Stephen Ricks?

Well, I'm not overly familiar with my husband's genealogy (and neither is he, for that matter), but I feel pretty safe in saying that they're not closely related--meaning he's not a brother, father, uncle, or first cousin. However, if Stephen Ricks is also a descendant of Thomas E. Ricks, then yes, there's a connection in there somewhere.

[vorpal blade]

Stephen Ricks is the son of Marcellas (legally Marc, now) Ricks, who turns 100 years old tomorrow (9 Sept ) and is still alive.

Marc Ricks is the son of Hyrum Ricks, Jr. and Alice Ovanda Cheney. Marc is also the brother of deceased Eldin Ricks, who was also a professor of religion at BYU for many years.

Hyrum Ricks, Jr. is the son of Hyrum Ricks, Sr. and Martha Bitter.

Hyrum Ricks, Sr. is the son of Thomas Edwin Ricks and Tabitha Hendricks.

Thomas E. Ricks is the founder of what became Ricks College.

Welcome to the family, thebigcheese.

[Katya]

Just wanted to apologize for my tone in my previous post. My sentiment remains. I think most people getting upset at such a minor thing stems primarily from personal pride OR from an irrational pet peeve akin to hearing others say "expecially" instead of "especially." But, the way I delivered that sentiment was rather caustic. My apologies.

Another thing about such mistakes is that you can often learn a lot about people if you try to study why they make such a mistake. This crops up all the time in linguistics, because almost everyone has grammar pet peeves, but paying attention to non-standard or informal language use is very informative about what's really behind the structure of a language. (It's often not what the grammar books think it is.)