University abbrev. (and article usage with names)

[David Bowie]

And not just university nicknames--just to keep you reading, there's a
local(?) oddity about article usage near the end.

From: Lynne Murphy <M_Lynne_Murphy at baylor.edu>

<snip>

: Baylor doesn't have a nasty nickname (although one hears nonce
: nicknames like "Baleful"), but here everyone talks about "the
: (Baylor) bubble." Living in the Baylor bubble is a state of mind in
: which everything is good with the world, Jesus loves you (and he'll
: love you more if you're a bulimic with a nose job who's pledged
: Chi-O), and everyone in the world has the inherent right to a Ford
: Explorer and a 4.0.  Students refer to "Betty and Bobby Baylor"--the
: stereotypical relentlessly cheery, well-off students with "good
: morals" and good looks and an innocent approach to the world colored
: by their southern Baptist religion and the ease with which they get
: through live on their parent's money.  While most people use the
: terms negatively ("I have to get out of the bubble"), a lot of them
: take comfort in the homogeneity of the student body.

Since i'm now also at a religious school, i find it interesting that there
are some parallels. Brigham Young University also doesn't seem to have nasty
nicknames; the most common nicknames are initial-based, calling it "BYU" or
"the Y", but one occasionally there's someone who'll call it "BY Woo",
apparently a reference to the propensity for the students here to get
married as undergrads.[1] In parallel to the "Betty and Bobby Baylor" thing,
incidentally, we at BYU (and elsewhere in the Mormon community, FTM) have
"Molly Mormon" and "Peter Priesthood", with the former term being rather
more common.

And, of course, since one of BYU's mottos is "the world is our campus". some
people have recognized the bubble that BYU is and have rephrased it as "the
campus is our world".

And now for the oddity in article usage: When i first came here, one of the
things i noticed was that several local speakers use the definite article
when naming BYU, as in "So you want to drive to *the* Brigham Young
University?" or "Here's how to get to *the* BYU". This seems odd to my
Southern Maryland born-and-bred self--i can't put an article, definite or
not, before the name of a school ending with "university" or "college" (as
opposed to a school name beginning with those words, where i can freely
include the definite article, and it would in fact usually be required). Has
anyone anywhere noticed similar constructions with school names *ending* in
those words?

[1] Getting married as an undergrad, i can *somewhat* understand. What i
*really* can't understand, though, is getting married as an undergrad in the
middle of the semester. Not even during a break in classes, just on a random
weekend in the middle of the semester. I think i've hit culture shock.

David Bowie                                       Department of English
Assistant Professor                            Brigham Young University
db.list at pmpkn.net              http://humanities.byu.edu/faculty/bowied
   The opinions stated here are not necessarily those of my employer