Spring is a dumb word. I mean, seriously, couldn’t we come up with something better than that? “Spring”.

It just doesn’t work. It’s like chocolate. Chocolate is a dumb word. If you’ve ever tasted chocolate (and I’m thinking some people just might have) then you’ll know that chocolate is a whole bunch more spectacular than the word suggests. Spring is like that too.

It apparently turned Spring this week (20 March). How many people were just thinking “Okay, it’s spring. Whatever.”

No way! We’re going: “Yay! How great is this, we’re going to get to see the sun again?!” And: “Yeehah! It’s look at all the critters season!” And: “Excellent! I am soooooo ready for this!”.

“Spring?” Nah, it’s a dumb word. It’s much more than that. I don’t much like the word “campus” either. I have to admit that, which is a bit embarrassing given that universities kind of like the word. But “campus” reminds me of tents. Nothing against tents, but I did some wildly uncomfortable camping trips when I was a boy scout. So campus reminds me of sleeping on sharp rocks. I guess that’s why I don’t like it. Campus is actually a medieval European word.

Look, let’s cut to the chase: “campus” doesn’t capture anything of the explorations we do here at Oakland, the kinds of things we aspire to achieve, the investigations into new ideas, the creative activities, the energy, the spirit of OU, all those lively Oakland activities, discovering new things, exploring possibilities.

Maybe we should change it to “exploreus”. The Oakland University Exploreus – where absolutely anything is possible!

I think I like that idea.

Dr. Graeme Harper is Dean of the Honors College. He is heavily involved in research and academics and has written around 25 books and over 140 articles and chapters. Visit his website at www.graemeharper.com.

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