April 17, 2008
U Can't Always Get What U Want
In what might not be the wisest move, OCAD—the Ontario College of Art and Design—wants to be called OCAD University. Yes: Ontario College of Art and Design University. Sort of.
According to the Globe, the school's new appendage is the result of "creative brainstorming" throughout the school, and follows a branding expert's advice that the school's acronym "OCAD" not change (which would typically be the route to take when one of the words in an acronym becomes incorrect); more details are available in the school's release. What is most confusing, though, is that the school is going to pretend that the acronym OCAD isn't an acronym anymore, but some sort of weird all-caps word imbued with non-collegiate meaning. According to the Globe's article, OCAD—which has been officially designated as a university since 2006—"felt the word 'college' created confusion for future students and others about the school's status in the world of postsecondary education." (Guess the Obay campaign was right.)
All the college needs now is provincial approval for their new name to stick, which means there's still time to fix it—but we need some help from U. Torontoist has solicited advice from our staff and has come up with two initial candidates for a new name: Christopher Bird's "Ontario Higher Institute School of Art and Design Learning College University" (OHISADLCU), and Marc Lostracco's "Ontario Higher Art Institute" (OHAI, "for a Bachelor of LOL"). If you're got an idea of your own for OCAD's new name, serious or not, please share it in the comments. We'll pick our favourites, poll our readers on them next week to select three front-runners, then send those names along to OCAD to see what they think. For a city and a school full of creative, cool, and interesting people, surely we can do better.
Photo by Michael Chrisman from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
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I'd apply to OHAI just so I could take some classes on macros.
Ontario Centre for Art and Design? that way they could keep OCAD.
I will suggest a name that more accurately describes OCAD's intentions:
Ontario College of Act and Design minus the College and add the University
OCAD(-C+U)
Tag line: Creativity Brainstorming, including Mathematical Nomenclature.
If the province rejects the change, I vote they relocate to Avenue Road.
bee rad: Macro class is in year two of the OHAI curriculum. The prerequisites for first year are:
N00B101: Intentionally Poor Spelling and Grammar
ORLY121: Still Life With Bukkits
STFU151: Jackson Pollock: LOL WUT?
FAIL103: Kitteh Life Drawing
OMFG105: Impact: Teh Font With A Flavr
RROLL131: Ceiling Cats Of Teh Impressionist Masters
Be sure to check out the cafeteria. They have fantastic cheezburgers and invisible sandwiches. Om nom nom nom...
Well... let's not forget that in 2002, NSCAD University (formerly Nova Scotia College of Art and Design) did the same thing. Perhaps not as ill-advised as one might think?
OUAD - Ontario University of Art and Design
UAD - University of Art and Design
NSCAD U is actually pretty cumbersome. Especially when you have to explain that it stands for 'Nova Scotia School of Art and Design University'.
Which is always.
Definitely worth the evil glares I received for laughing out loud in the "silent" section of the library.
I'm an OCAD student and have been frustrated about this very issue. There was some consultation with students and many, many creative, cool and interesting names were debated, over months and months, on the school's online forum and on a student-led facebook group.
In the end, I think the administration took the road most travelled, as some have already explained, because of NSCAD. There's a precedent there, so I guess it's easier to swallow? I don't know.
Maybe you the public can make more waves on this than the students were able to.
see, this is what happens when u start the name change game..
when i attended, it was OCA, plain and simple.. then due to internal crap, it became OCAD, what was that? they just decided to add design courses? or was it trendy? what happened to respect of a legacy? why not revisit OCA? it's not like folks didn't get it (since 1912)... but to go further, let's get to the heart of this, in our present culture, who would what to send the kids to a college? they must be thinking, "now if we were a university, wow, they would be lined up at the door, think of the marketing we could do"... marketing, um.. design... see what happens :-)...... i vote for change, back... OCA!
Thorarinn Jonsson might suggest "This Is Not A College".
Don't forget that "university" and "college" appear together elsewhere. My alma mater is the University of St. Michael's College at UofT, where you will also find .... University College ... ;-)
Tuds
I'm not sure what the reasoning behind turning an art college into a university is.
How many times have I been asked by clients and employers for my OCA diploma? Zero.
The best piece of bathroom graffiti ever was a message written above the toilet paper roll that said: "OCA Diploma. Take one."
In the end, art school - whether a university or college or whatever - is what you make of it and yourself. If you just want a certificate or degree, you're better off going to U of T or York with the rest of the herd.
If I were just starting college now, I'd probably go to Max the Mutt instead of OCA(D)(U).
Marc: Required reading? y/y?
ICBINC
"I can't believe it's not college!"
If the best they can come up with after "creative brainstorming" was OCAD University, maybe they need to name themselves OCAD Polytech.
@ Svend
...hahaha...the sound of me laughing out loud...so brilliant!
OCAD should definitely be renamed "This is Not a College"
Then they could develop a new screening test for admission
1) Is "This Is Not A College" a college or a university
2) What is our name a reference to
3) Name the student who tried to be clever by using this same reference and instead scared the whole city into thinking he had planted a bomb
Deepsaila nailed it- Ontario Centre for Art and Design. Even if they slapped "university" on the end of that it would still work.
I'm becoming increasingly embarrassed to be a graduate of OCA, er OCAD, er whatever.
Yeah. I'm becoming increasingly proud that I dropped out so quickly... but still kind of embarrassed that I ever attempted to go there in the first place.
Maybe after the name change they can have a sports team too...The OCAD University Otters? Oxs? Owls?