Purdue has special slang

By Laura Pelner
Summer Reporter

Many new students' first few days on campus will probably be frightening because most are not familiar with their surroundings. Obviously, finding the correct building and getting to class on time will be hard, especially for students who are not acquainted with some of the campus lingo.

When students look at their official schedules they'll notice that many of the class locations resemble gibberish more then English. Most buildings are abbreviated, and without a key the names will be hard to decipher.

To clear up most confusion students should refer to official campus maps, with a picture of buildings and abbreviations on one side and the full names on the other. These maps should be available in most University residences and in the Visitor Information Center on Northwestern Avenue.

Knowing how the system works will ease most problems, yet walking around campus many students may hear words or phrases that still sound foreign.

For example, most upperclassmen will use the building abbreviations instead of proper names. They'll say they have a class in "LAEB" (pronounced labe, rhymes with babe) or "double E" (electrical engineering). Furthermore, some males might live in "Tark" (Tarkington) or "the quad" (Cary Quadrangle).

Those students looking for libraries might ask for "undergrad" or "Hicks," both of which refer to the Hicks Undergraduate Library. Or maybe if they want information about the humanities they'll ask for "HSSE," (pronounced hissy, rhymes with missy), which is the Humanities, Social Science and Education Library.

Regardless of how silly or difficult these names may sound, most students will catch on and feel comfortable quickly. To aid in the transition the list on Page 21B, (set up like a dictionary, with pronunciation and information), contains some of the more popular expressions used by Purdue students and faculty.

Purdue has special slang

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