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new things, old things
Jan. 21st, 2009 03:47 pmI'm currently sitting in the newly remodeled reference area of my university's main library. Finally, after an entire semester of having the airiest, most pleasant part of the library walled off and unavailable, it's back with new furniture and the wall knocked down between the old study area and the new reference area. It's quite shiny.
In other news, I wanted to post about a poster I saw up in my old freshman dorm, Cheyenne-Arapaho. I didn't read the entire thing, as most of it was about the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes and in very small print, but I did notice the very large
Chey-Ho
written on it, crossed out like that. I read the relevant part of the display, and it was an entreaty to students to both refer to the hall by its full name and to spell that name correctly (i.e., not "Cheyenne-Arapahoe). I don't remember the reason for them being so excited about making sure no one put an 'e' on the end, though I can sort of understand just wanting people to spell it right as a matter of principle (even though the common spelling of 'Arapahoe' is with an 'e,' as in Arapahoe County, Arapahoe Libraries, Arapahoe Avenue, etc, so heaven knows why they decided to go without and then got all surprised when Colorado natives went around spelling it wrong).
Anyway, matters of spelling aside, under the big crossed-out "Chey-Ho" the creator of the display went on at length about how the hall was named for the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, and how it was "disrespectful" and "offensive" to shorten the hall's name to Chey-Ho (pronounced "Shy Hoe"), and haven't we done enough to these poor people already without being flippant about their tribes' names, and anyway Cheyenne and Arapaho are two separate halls, donchaknow (that's news to me!).
I contend that this is just an example of someone getting their panties in a bunch due to the fact that we, the people of Boulder, live in an idiotically hypersensitive little bubble, and that to ask the students to refrain from using an abbreviation is nothing short of completely moronic.
#1. When students use the term "Chey-Ho," they are referring to the Cheyenne-Arapaho residence hall, not the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. If it is disrespectful to abbreviate the names, I would like to point out that it's probably also disrespectful to hyphenate them into one name in their full forms, as it implies that the two are homogenous, and each tribe worthy only of having half a building named after them (a side note: the building was formerly named for a single man, but renamed later due to the fact that the school administration concluded that his war heroism against the Native Americans was not heroism after all).
#2. Chey-Ho is not two halls. It has only one office, one mail room, and one building name (made out of two names). Yes, it is structured to have an East wing and a West wing, but never has one been referred to as "Cheyenne" and the other as "Arapaho." Furthermore, several other halls have the same structure (they seem to have built a bunch of cookie-cutter dorms in the middle of the last century), and each of those buildings is only one hall. If Chey-Ho is two halls, then so is Libby.
#3. If one is violently opposed to the idea of a name being shortened or used in a flippant manner, it's probably not a good idea to use that name on a university campus. After all, when given the choice of what to name the then-new grill in the UMC, CU students of the '70's chose to name it after Alferd Packer, the notorious cannibal. Furthermore, the School of Arts and Sciences is often referred to as "the School of Arts and Crafts," and Kittredge West (another residence hall) is almost always referred to as "Kitt West," and sometimes even jokingly called "Kitt What." Isn't that disrespectful toward that hall's namesake?
#4. The matter of the reason behind the abbreviation. Cheyenne-Arapaho is just too long. You can't dump freshmen in a building with a five-syllable name and expect them to refer to it by its full name every single time it comes up. "Chey-Ho" is a catchy alternative - quicker to say, and easier to write. Is it any surprise that it has caught on as a nickname? This comes back to reason #3: if they were so desperate to never have it shortened, perhaps they should have chosen a name that didn't call out so loudly for an abbreviation.
So that's my two cents, and then some. I called it Chey-Ho when I lived there, I've called it Chey-Ho for the three years since, and I'm going to keep on calling it Chey-Ho, no matter how many posters they put up to discourage me.
Maybe I should send a note to the administrators.
In other news, I wanted to post about a poster I saw up in my old freshman dorm, Cheyenne-Arapaho. I didn't read the entire thing, as most of it was about the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes and in very small print, but I did notice the very large
written on it, crossed out like that. I read the relevant part of the display, and it was an entreaty to students to both refer to the hall by its full name and to spell that name correctly (i.e., not "Cheyenne-Arapahoe). I don't remember the reason for them being so excited about making sure no one put an 'e' on the end, though I can sort of understand just wanting people to spell it right as a matter of principle (even though the common spelling of 'Arapahoe' is with an 'e,' as in Arapahoe County, Arapahoe Libraries, Arapahoe Avenue, etc, so heaven knows why they decided to go without and then got all surprised when Colorado natives went around spelling it wrong).
Anyway, matters of spelling aside, under the big crossed-out "Chey-Ho" the creator of the display went on at length about how the hall was named for the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, and how it was "disrespectful" and "offensive" to shorten the hall's name to Chey-Ho (pronounced "Shy Hoe"), and haven't we done enough to these poor people already without being flippant about their tribes' names, and anyway Cheyenne and Arapaho are two separate halls, donchaknow (that's news to me!).
I contend that this is just an example of someone getting their panties in a bunch due to the fact that we, the people of Boulder, live in an idiotically hypersensitive little bubble, and that to ask the students to refrain from using an abbreviation is nothing short of completely moronic.
#1. When students use the term "Chey-Ho," they are referring to the Cheyenne-Arapaho residence hall, not the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. If it is disrespectful to abbreviate the names, I would like to point out that it's probably also disrespectful to hyphenate them into one name in their full forms, as it implies that the two are homogenous, and each tribe worthy only of having half a building named after them (a side note: the building was formerly named for a single man, but renamed later due to the fact that the school administration concluded that his war heroism against the Native Americans was not heroism after all).
#2. Chey-Ho is not two halls. It has only one office, one mail room, and one building name (made out of two names). Yes, it is structured to have an East wing and a West wing, but never has one been referred to as "Cheyenne" and the other as "Arapaho." Furthermore, several other halls have the same structure (they seem to have built a bunch of cookie-cutter dorms in the middle of the last century), and each of those buildings is only one hall. If Chey-Ho is two halls, then so is Libby.
#3. If one is violently opposed to the idea of a name being shortened or used in a flippant manner, it's probably not a good idea to use that name on a university campus. After all, when given the choice of what to name the then-new grill in the UMC, CU students of the '70's chose to name it after Alferd Packer, the notorious cannibal. Furthermore, the School of Arts and Sciences is often referred to as "the School of Arts and Crafts," and Kittredge West (another residence hall) is almost always referred to as "Kitt West," and sometimes even jokingly called "Kitt What." Isn't that disrespectful toward that hall's namesake?
#4. The matter of the reason behind the abbreviation. Cheyenne-Arapaho is just too long. You can't dump freshmen in a building with a five-syllable name and expect them to refer to it by its full name every single time it comes up. "Chey-Ho" is a catchy alternative - quicker to say, and easier to write. Is it any surprise that it has caught on as a nickname? This comes back to reason #3: if they were so desperate to never have it shortened, perhaps they should have chosen a name that didn't call out so loudly for an abbreviation.
So that's my two cents, and then some. I called it Chey-Ho when I lived there, I've called it Chey-Ho for the three years since, and I'm going to keep on calling it Chey-Ho, no matter how many posters they put up to discourage me.
Maybe I should send a note to the administrators.
