You ASSOL !

The above, if uttered to you, would likely sound unpleasant and if the word appeared, say as an acronym on a structure, it would quite likely look so as well. This gets us to the increasingly contentious subject of “Names and Universities”, about which much has recently been written and about which I will soon again write. The problem generally arises when the name of the individual associated with the school is sullied because he/she has become a first degree felon or because he/she held a position three or four hundred years ago that is untenable now. In the present case it is the acronym more than the individual that is the problem. Although I add quickly that there are many who are not happy with the individual.

Soon after George Mason University announced that its Law School would now be named the “Antonin Scalia School of Law” it was recognized that this would certainly lead to, at best, ASSLAW or, at worse, ASSOL. But, this is a university after all and the best minds there said what about the more acronymically-neutral “Antonin Scalia Law School”? The problem is thus solved and the Antonin Scalia School of Law has a bright future since along with the name arrived $10 million from the Charles Koch Foundation and $20 million from an anonymous donor.

I worry about the university, however, since surely George Mason is guilty of something.