School knocked for mocking Yale grad Bush (yaleshmale)

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A screenshot of www.yaleshmale.com, taken on August 28, 2006. Posters and a Web site mocking President Bush have put the spotlight on a small Ontario university that thought a bold and edgy recruiting campaign was just the ticket to attract potential students. REUTERS/www.yaleshmale.com

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http://www.yaleshmale.com, has a black and white picture of Bush, with the caption: "Graduating from an Ivy League university doesn't necessarily mean you're smart."

Bush graduated from Yale in 1968.

A link takes viewers to a site for Lakehead University, in rugged Thunder Bay, Ontario, some 1,375 km (850 miles) northwest of Toronto.

"It was literally a tongue-in-cheek way of getting attention," Frederick Gilbert, president and vice-chancellor of Lakehead University, said on Monday.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1272052006

[pepperbear]

1. LOL! I remember an ad on a double decker

bus in the UK back in 1988. the line read "Sharp calculators can make anyone a genius"

next to this was a picture of reagan....with einstein's hairdo.

[TygrBright]

3. ohgod, that takes me back...

...remember when we all thought REAGAN was dumb?

nostalgically,
Bright

[baldguy]

2. Yale should be mocked.

If they keep giving expensive degrees to blockheads.

[razors edge]

4. Yeh, but do you get to

wack off while layin in the same concrete box your daddy and his daddy did?

[Lisa]

5. I almost went to Lakehead!

They have an excellent forestry program (another way to consider "bush"!).

As one of the smaller, newer schools (and one which services remote rural areas), they always get snubbed by bigger urban universities. I think this is hilarious -- and a great way of getting back at ... oh, I dunno ... University of Toronto, Western, and Queen's? ... without giving them free advertising by mentioning them by name! (I went to McMaster, and there were plenty of times when I stood up to defend Lakehead, Windsor, Trent, or Brock -- only to have the detractor turn around and slam my school too -- so I know this kind of bias exists.)

[Berry Cool]

6. There is so much phony gentility in university recruitment advertising

that seeing a school that's willing to be THIS in-your-face competitive with other schools, and controversial, is downright refreshing. And this kind of advertising sure makes them stand out from the crowd. I mean, how many Americans would even know this place existed if not for this campaign? I can only imagine what kind of attention it's drawing in Canada. You know when you get Americans to pay attention to anything Canadian, you've really accomplished something!

Too many schools blend into the woodwork and advertise themselves like all the rest, and are afraid to adopt the more brash style of mainstream advertising. Granted, many of them don't need to. But when you're smaller and you're good and you want to get known, sometimes I think you have to take some chances. Maybe some good Canadian students will look into Lakehead now who otherwise would not have.

[Lisa]

7. another cool Lakehead story ...

Back when they were just starting out, the university chancellor used to throw the official mace into the trunk of his car and drive hundreds of miles (in the winter, too) over northern Ontario roads, to hold convocation ceremonies in small communities, because the students and their families were unable to take time off work (or pay for the flight and accommodations) to attend graduation on campus. Some of the administrators at other universities thought this was "undignified" ... but now they are going on about community outreach as if they invented it!

By the way, David Frum's sister wrote a guidebook to Canadian universities -- and she really dissed Lakehead. It later turned out that she'd only spent a few hours at some of the schools she was ostensibly reviewing ... and often the comments on the clothing she saw students wearing, got more page space than the stuff many people wanted to know (class size, employment possibilities, costs of living on or off campus). David Frum writes for the Post (the paper that was so haughty about the ad campaign) -- coincidence?

Another thing about Lakehead -- one of my high school friends, from a low-income family, might never have had the chance to go to college if it weren't for them and their ability to scout prospective students. Also he got really stressed during this first year, and the counsellors were very good and really went the extra mile to help him. One hears about students at ultra-competitive schools who drop out (or worse) and nobody had time for them .... but as someone who works at a college, I would rather it be like Lakehead, than sacrificing people who are trusting you to educate them!

I have gotten degrees at universities which have been established for decades, and while I agree that there is a sense of history about places where "the biology department has been in this building since 1920", there is also a lot of excitement and creativity when the school is younger than many of the people attending it -- I would actually find it hard to go back to a situation where there are decades of tradition in place. (At my current school, part of the Lakehead generation of universities which grew along with the baby boom, many of the profs are among the very first group hired. And when most of the students are the first people in their families to attend university ... or at any rate, it was that way at Lakehead and other northern schools pretty recently ... it's very exciting, and inspiring too.)