# Why on earth is BEAVER COLLEGE changing it's name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 7, 2000, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324 "2000-09-07T03:20:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Determinist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@Determinist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Determinist)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/1 "2000-09-07T03:20:35Z")
“We want to be called by a name that accurately represents the attitudes with which our students view the world” says the official beaver.edu website. But why? What is wrong with the name Beaver College? According to them, the “philosophy and goals have evolved” since the school was named 147 years ago. But alas, do not fear because as soon as you see the new name, according to their website, “you’ll immediately recognize that it represents everything about us that sparked your interest in the first place.” I highly doubt that. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/2 "2000-09-07T03:25:50Z")
You honestly don’t know what “beaver” is slang for? ---
**Author:** ![Satan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/3 "2000-09-07T03:48:26Z")
I totally understand why the school is doing this. When you think Beaver, you think of… Well, dare I say, we ALL think of that loveable and quintessential icon of the '50s Beaver Cleaver! While the wonderful era that Wally and the gang is great for a nostalgic look at what once WAS, an institute of higher learning should be about what WILL BE, as they mold their students to look towards the future. Oh, sure, we have a lot to learn from Beaver, his lovely parents and even the scoundrel Eddie. But we need to, as it says on the website, “reflect the exciting new horizons our school is moving towards,” and - dare I say, exciting horizons our new world is moving towards? * * * Yer pal, Satan _TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING: Four months, four weeks, one day, 1 hour, 32 minutes and 56 seconds. 6042 cigarettes not smoked, saving $755.32. Extra time with Drain Bead: 2 weeks, 6 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes._ ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/4 "2000-09-07T05:14:18Z")
Ha! My favorite roadsign is on our way to visit the in-laws in Beaver County. Penn State - Beaver Campus This Exit ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/5 "2000-09-07T05:20:39Z")
too many prospective students can’t access the Beaver College website. what with parental controls and all. it was either change the name, or consolidate with another college. Widener college was considered, but Widener-Beaver just didn’t sound right. don’t even get me started on William and Mary joining in. ---
**Author:** ![Determinist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@Determinist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Determinist)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/6 "2000-09-07T05:26:55Z")
Oh man, I’ve just about busted a gut here. So, uh, we’d better debate something…er… _scratching head_🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/7 "2000-09-07T05:30:45Z")
Maybe it has to do with truth in advertising? I don’t know. Does someone know if you really could get some beaver there? If you couldn’t then the change is appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/8 "2000-09-07T05:50:19Z")
Damn!! And I always loved the annual game between the Beavers and the Trojans… oh well. BTW, since this is GD, I will say that it is a very good thing that they are changing their name. The word “Beaver” is disgusting and derogatory. It degrades women and makes little high school boys laugh. This is not the image a school of higher learning should have. Unless of course it is the College of Smut Film Studies. I would never let my children attend “Beaver” college! They could start having sex and doing drugs. WWJD?? It is much better that the school be called something more appropriate. It is time colleges and universities stopped being so damned immoral and starting producing nice young adults with a sense of values and decency. This country is falling apart with all the drug use and sex and ungodly other things. I am glad to see the college make this change. We would all be better off if other colleges followed the foot steps of this one! Debate that ya freaks! ---
**Author:** ![SeatTime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@SeatTime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeatTime)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/9 "2000-09-07T06:02:39Z")
Geez…and this coming from a state with towns named Blue Ball and Intercourse! (Seriously) ---
**Author:** ![jb\_farley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9d8465/32.png) [@jb\_farley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_farley)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/10 "2000-09-07T06:04:08Z")
hey bear nenno, I have been trying to track you down. An earlier post I read said that you were of the female persuasion. but I always thought you were a guy (you dream of your penis falling off, f’rinstance). What’s the straight dope? have I been terribly mistaken? Why, for some reason, so I feel like Stephen Rea? say it ain’t so, nenno. say it ain’t so! ---
**Author:** ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/11 "2000-09-07T06:29:22Z")
My friend goes to Babson College. They’re still the Babson Beavers. Kinda strange for a school located so close to Wellesley, the famous all girls school. ---
**Author:** ![Amok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f17d59/32.png) [@Amok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amok)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/12 "2000-09-07T07:53:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bear\_Nenno \* > Damn!! And I always loved the annual game between the Beavers and the Trojans… oh well. Don’t worry, that game isn’t going anywhere. The Beavers that play the Trojans almost every year are not from Beaver College. Rather, they are an entirely different flavor of Beaver. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/13 "2000-09-07T09:49:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Rather, they are an entirely different flavor of Beaver. You know how people have wine-tasting parties? I just had the greatest idea! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![TomH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90db22/32.png) [@TomH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TomH)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/14 "2000-09-07T11:05:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Beaver Campus That sounds so much like the title of a tacky 1970s porn movie. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/15 "2000-09-07T15:42:30Z")
Beaver College was always unfortunate, and so are the Oregon Beavers. My second high school fielded team upon team of Trojans. But the worst may well have been my first high school, a private day school in Seattle. By the time I attended, it was coed (and I couldn’t have attended if it weren’t!). But originally it was a girls’ school, and it was called: The Helen Bush School for Girls. Or just Bush. (Actually, make that Just Bush.) Now “bush” isn’t as offensive as “beaver,” but this is a high school – and that automatically makes it worse. Much worse, 'cause the school had a junior high, too. ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/16 "2000-09-07T16:02:12Z")
[Moderator Hat ON] Moving this to MPSIMS. [Moderator Hat OFF] ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/17 "2000-09-07T17:17:29Z")
I went to USC, and one of our football chants was “Beat the (the team name for whoever the hell we’re playing this week)!” and it was always more fun when it was Oregon State (the Beavers). Too bad we never played South Carolina. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/18 "2000-09-07T17:57:55Z")
My friend’s mom is an alum. Is it still all women? I used to love places like this when I was a recruiter. I worked for a school that had “woman’s college” right in its name, so when I’d be at a big college fair I’d get all the goofy jocks yukking it up and shoving each other over to say “There’s where YOU should go!” Hardee har har. But the reps from Transylvania, Colgate, and Beaver could commiserate. They heard stupid jokes over and over, too. We always exchanged sympathetic glances from across the room… ---
**Author:** ![Silo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Silo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silo)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/19 "2000-09-07T19:45:38Z")
I thought I’d come visit “Beaver College” just so I could walk in and say, “I have ENTERED the BEAVER” You say Beaver is an “old school,” … ah, [raising eyebrows] that explains the funny smell. I didn’t know you could get a degree in Beaver? (This is funny) “So you can get a higher-education at Beaver?” ---
**Author:** ![Lnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/fbc32d/32.png) [@Lnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lnix)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2000, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324/20 "2000-09-07T19:54:05Z")
PSU plays in Beaver Stadium. One year the Pitt Panthers (ptooey) were mouthing off about how they weren’t afraid to come to State College to play and the stadium held no mystique for them.The button for that game said RESPECT THE BEAVER A more cherished memento I do not own. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-on-earth-is-beaver-college-changing-its-name/32324.md?page=2)