Comments on: Confusing U

By: rvman

rvman — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 16:57:37 +0000

The University of Dallas is in Irving, TX. The University of Texas at Dallas is in Richardson, TX. (Irving is also, of course, the home of the Dallas Cowboys.) Then there is the University of Texas – Pan American, which could hardly avoid being in its namesake. (it is in Edinburg, TX) Texas A&M International University is in Laredo, TX. Texas is also home to the rather generic, yet deceptive, Midwestern State University. Texas is not, last time I checked, a midwestern state.

By: rvman

rvman — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 16:56:43 +0000

By: Matt's mom

Matt's mom — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 14:52:01 +0000

Why pick on the little guys? Harvard University isn’t in Harvard, Massachusetts. And, a little off topic, I’m fond of promulgating the rule that, when you see an American city named after a foreign city, it’s pronounced differently: Mosk-oh, Idaho; Kay-ro, Illinois. I don’t count Paris, Texas, or Paris, Kentucky; or Rome, New York.

By: Cryptic Ned

Cryptic Ned — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 21:28:56 +0000

In the US, Queens College is in Queens, New York City. Kings College, on the other hand, is in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

By: Alex Fradera

Alex Fradera — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 17:47:36 +0000

I think you mean University College London (where I’m at). There’s actually a basis for the name – in the beginning it was plain old University of London, first uni in England after Ox/Cambridge. Introduced systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine to English universities. Secular, gender/racially blind, generally cool. Then comes along the establishment and feels that all this rot is rather dangerous, so sets up another centre of higher learning – Kings (as suggested by the name, firmly in the CoE / class-based tradition that Oxbridge had sustained). Two universities a city cannot contain (? maybe this is no longer true) so both became Colleges under the umbrella of the University of London. Hence, Kings College London and the oddly titled University College London.

By: Cryptic Ned

Cryptic Ned — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 15:04:04 +0000

Oh, and: Manhattan College is in the Bronx. WTF? And Long Island University is in Brooklyn. When reading American sports journalism you also have to remember that “Oxford” refers to the home town of the University of Mississippi. Oxford, North Carolina, is home to a community college, but unfortunately it’s named “Vance-Granville Community College”. I kind of like “New Jersey City University”, which can be parsed in a number of ways. Since there is no such city as “New Jersey City”, it must be either the city university of New Jersey, or the new university of Jersey City. Since it used to be called “Jersey City State College”, I guess the new name celebrates its new status as a university. Then there’s also “The College of New Jersey”, which used to be Trenton State. Princeton, of course, was the original College of New Jersey. Then there’s “The State University of New Jersey”, which most people know as Rutgers.

By: john b

john b — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 11:33:09 +0000

I rather like London’s University College School.

By: ajay

ajay — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 11:14:42 +0000

Christ Church, Oxford? I think that takes the prize, given that Christchurch is about as far away from Oxford as it is possible to get and still be on the surface of the earth.

By: Tribe Miami

Tribe Miami — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 02:30:39 +0000

There is no Miami of Ohio but then why should one who attends Earlham know that. Miami U has a long and distingushed history – a bit of “Yale of the Midwest” for those who need to to coat-tail to the ivys. (And OU is Harvard? LOL). Known for many things, including Alpha chapters of frats but most importantly as The Cradle of Coaches. A grad of MU tires of explaining to folks that we don’t have a major in windsurfing or surfing of any kind as a matter of fact and that located in the Miami Valley, formerly the home of the Miami Tribe and indeed it is the come-lately UofM in Florida (unless it’s been relocated by one of the recent hurricanes)who is the Confusing U since they are not even located in Miami.

By: rob

rob — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 21:06:32 +0000

I learned somewhere along the line in law school that there are no law schools in Oregon. Is that true? Oh, and Phoenix is not a city, its a big hole in the desert that sucks up water and spits it out in Scottsdale.

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 21:02:47 +0000

I attended Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. Miami of Ohio is the alma mater of one of my cousins. There is no Earlham Indiana, but there is an Earlham, Iowa, apparently named after Earlham College, but not sure. P.S. Reverend Jim Jones spent some time in Richmond, IN until he got the spirit and moved to San Francisco, which is where I hail from now. Not that there’s anything good about that…..

By: Scott Spiegelberg

Scott Spiegelberg — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 04:11:27 +0000

When I interviewed for a job at Miami U., I was told that the town was named after the college, in that the university had decided to organize in the same manner as Oxford U. I never tried to verify that. And now I’m at DePauw University, constantly having to tell people that it isn’t in Chicago (and that I don’t have a speech impediment).

By: Frank Brooks

Frank Brooks — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 01:49:35 +0000

I grew up in Oxford, Ohio. It’s in the Miami Valley, where the Miami Indians lived. Nothing distant about that. Nobody knows for sure why the town was named Oxford. Maybe for Oxford, England, but maybe for a local ford across a creek or the Little Miami River for oxen.

By: Randy Paul

Randy Paul — Sat, 25 Sep 2004 22:55:27 +0000

It kind of reminds of the joke about someone’s attempt to put as many prepositions at the end of a sentence as possible. A child’s negative reaction upon the father bringing a bedtime storybook about Australia from downstairs: “Daddy, why’d you bring that book about down under up for?

By: skunky spliffmeister

skunky spliffmeister — Sat, 25 Sep 2004 15:58:44 +0000

I can’t believe no one has mentioned the Holy Roman Empire University. Neither Holy, nor Roman, nor Empire, nor is there really any such university.