College shorts

Author: Jaime Fuller

NYU WARNS OF HIGH COST

New York University is one of the most expensive higher education institutions in the country, with an annual cost of $54,000, and their low endowment per student means they cannot provide ample financial aid for all students. Eighty percent of undergraduates have one job, 25 percent work two jobs and 500 students work three. University President John E. Sexton is not sure that those who have to spend so much time financing their education should study at NYU, and the school is being proactive this year about informing prospective students about the financial burdens that will accompany study at this elite university.

Associate Provost for Enrollment Management Barbara F. Hall and her staff made 1,822 calls to families who they felt should be informed in detail about loans and other aid, and told them they should maybe reconsider whether they can afford to attend the university.

"At the end of the day, it's the family's decision," said Sexton. "We're not going to say, 'You can't come here.'"

When 58 percent of graduating seniors have debt, with an average of $33,637 in loans, the university feels it is important to be upfront about the costs.

"It does no good to have students attend a college they can't afford," said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of the Web site FinAid. "A student who graduates with enormous amounts of debt will find that debt is going to affect their career choices and life-cycle decisions, such as when to get married, have children, and buy a house."

-Chronicle of Higher Education

MINGO WINS BEST MONIKER

Louisiana State University incoming first-year Barkevious Mingo has won the annual "Name of the Year" award. The West Monroe, La., native beat out tough competition like Chew Kok, Atilla Bucko, Taco Vandervelde, Crystal Metheny and Nutritious Love.

The "Name of the Year" group, founded in 1983 on an Ivy League campus with the mission "to discover, verify, nominate, elect and disseminate great names," claims that every name in its tournament is real, "to the best of our knowledge."

"That's pretty awesome, I'm not going to lie," said first-year Lee Gresham. "I have a feeling he's going to be a fan favorite with LSU fans, because that's pretty funny."

"I was talking to my brother about just the name [Barkevious Mingo] itself, and he said, 'That sounds like a villain who travels in his own blimp,'" said Spencer Hall, a University of Florida alumnus who heads "Every Day Should Be Saturday," a popular college football blog. Hall and his readership were the main reason for Mingo's victory in the online vote for Name of the Year. Their vigorous campaign involved writing a Mingovian national anthem in honor of their candidate that "probably sounds something like" the anthem of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, complete with the lyrics, "Vanquished if you're lucky - far worse if you should lag, In battle with Lord Mingo, you'll end up bound and gagged."

LSU students are holding off judgment until they see him play football, which far outweighs his name in importance on the college campus.

"It's just his name," said freshman Brittany Gay. "Why does that matter? Can he play good?"

- The Daily Reveille