I think it was around ninth grade when the public school system decided we were ready for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and, ever since then, we have been more or less acquainted with the old “what is in a name?” adage. Hopefully, no one is still under the belief that if you called a rose a crapshoot it would still be the No. 1 seller on Valentine’s Day.
This is why we have to be so careful with names. Some of the student groups on campus have understood the power of names and begun to take advantage of the subtle brainwashing of a catchy name. However, others still stick to old and awkward titles.
Take the student group L.O.G.I.C. (Liberty, Objectivity, Greed, Individualism and Capitalism), for example. Without looking at the acronym all spelled out, it either sounds like a group of people who love riddles or possibly some sort of neutral debate club.
Instead it is a pretty conservative and controversial political organization on campus.
Unfortunately, I could not speak to any members about calling themselves something more representative of their goals.
Campus Crusade for Christ, which is a national organization, has been a club at UCLA since 1951 and is still going under the appellation of “crusade.”
It seems as if they entirely missed the connotation that a name recalling a bloody battle against infidels might imply. The Crusades spanned more than 200 years and claimed thousands of lives ““ how does that make for a club name?
“Campus Crusade is a group of students who can spend time together and grow in their faith,” said Aaron Scott, a fourth-year biochemistry student and Real Life team leader for the group.
“Sometimes we do get comments on our name, but that is more of a misunderstanding. Our name is not associated with the Crusades. We think of it as crusade with a little “˜c.’ For us, that means pursuing a goal that you have a passion for.”
Speaking to Scott, it was obvious that the group didn’t have any inclination toward the violence or closed-mindedness that their name implies.
However, it is not the only Christian term available to students; look at Grace on Campus, for example.
Ali Ghandour, a fourth-year anthropology student, sees the irony in this; he is the founder of the Facebook group “Campus Jihad for Allah,” which has 29 members at UCLA.
“My friends and I always thought that “˜Campus Crusade for Christ’ was a bit awkwardly titled,” said Ghandour.
“We thought it was funny how “˜Campus Jihad’ seems so obviously offensive, even though crusades and jihads are both holy wars.”
Sticking out of the unholy tangle (no pun intended) of the name game, Bruins for Animals seems to have gotten the right idea.
A club based on vegan and vegetarian ideals in order to avoid animal abuse, they changed their name this year because of their old name’s connotation.
“We used to be called University Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, but the name was too long and people kept thinking that we were a chapter of People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals (PETA), which has a kind of a stigma to it,” said BFA president Kristy Anderson, a fourth-year geography and environmental sciences student.
“After we changed the name, we had a lot more people.”
There is an obvious connection between the title given to an object or an idea and the feelings it evokes.
In fact, according to a ritualistic view of communication, humans create reality with language and use it to form a sense of community.
We live mere blocks away from the world’s most prominent spin factory ““ Hollywood has been creating labels, images and names for decades now and being in such close proximity to it should have some effect on us. Student clubs should really think about their public relations strategies if they want to captivate more Bruins.
E-mail Joshi at rjoshi@media.ucla.edu for more awkward club names.
Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.