HELP!

I just clicked 'SUBMIT' on the online application form for the Cardiff PhD.

I am now truly terrified.

Fingers crossed and all that stuff.

PS I have been contemplating renaming my blog 'Adventures in Criminology', but then I noticed on Amazon that that's also the title of Radzinowicz's memoirs and though I'm happy to know that I share my liking for calling experiences adventures with one of the greater (if not the greatest) criminologists, it would feel a little presumptuous to actually name my blog like that now. 

Also because it won't show up until like page 2 on Google, which of course we all know means that it'll be invisible. 

Maybe Criminological Adventures then. 

Greed and Confusion; Murders and Executions

Yesterday I still knew what I wanted.

I don't anymore today.

The basics are still there of course - PhD, then lecturing somewhere, and maybe sometime in my life do some other masters like Criminal Law or Forensic Linguistics or something, and perhaps also do something politics like Ministry of Justice or so. But this is all long term.

I'm currently confused as to the 'where' of the PhD. Until this morning I was certain of Cardiff - I like Cardiff, I want Cardiff, I need Cardiff, and that need still has not changed because the opportunities Cardiff offers haven't changed. It's still perfect.

But then there is also that one Leicester PhD with the Graduate Teaching Assistantship. It has a salary. And waives UK/EU tuition fees. And has a maintenance stipend. And teaching opportunities.

I've always liked going to different places for the next stage - but Leicester, as a city, is growing on me, and the GTA would mean I wouldn't have to spend three years eating nothing but baked beans on toast. I might even be able to start paying off my student debts and stop feeling guilty about always buying books.

Money. It's about money, and now I feel greedy. Aren't academics, like artists, supposed to more or less starve for their calling? After all, didn't Socrates go around wearing rags because he couldn't care less?
And at Cardiff I could do my corporate crime thing. I'm not sure whether I could do that at Leicester.

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Difficult.



On a completely unrelated note (except that maybe it counts as research), I have been reading American Psycho. I liked the superficiality and the idea that Patrick Bateman goes totally mad. It surprised me how disturbing I found the torture and murder scenes. Gory things usually don't upset me - heck, I'm even looking forward to the Forensics class where we'll be told about and shown photos of crime scenes. But there is something distinctly upsetting about sticking a drill in someone's mouth while it's on and keeping rotting breasts on a porcelain dish, something that goes too far even for me. Not sure whether I'd want to read it again, maybe I'll just stick to the film.

Because at least the gory of the film is the type of gory I don't mind. And the business card scene is priceless.

But the film doesn't have as many references to Les Miserables, which I think is a major thing in the interpretation of the novel...

Things are going so well! (a bit too well, perhaps)

I'm frightened.

Not for anything in specific, not for anything graspable (though I don't particularly like moths) or abstract or even situational (though public speaking will never be my favourite thing), but because I have so little to be frightened of.

I'm working on finishing my PhD application, which I need to hand in on Friday. My two referees gladly promised to write me references, and from one I already received confirmation that they sent it in.

I travelled to Birmingham today to hand in my passport renewal form at the Dutch consulate (in a suburb called Stirchley, nonetheless), and though I'd expected them to be difficult about my autograph and photograph and proof of residence and my fingerprints, I was outside again within, say, 15 minutes. Minor setbacks: it was more expensive than I'd imagined, but only by about 5 pounds (it still is legalized robbery, especially as the passport term will be extended to 10 years in October - I'll still be stuck with a 5-year-one), and my train back to Leicester had a 20 minute delay. Nothing worrisome, especially as I managed to pick up David Lodge's Campus Trilogy (I always do tend to remember books that people tell me about that I think might be interesting to read and though I don't usually pick them up immediately, I still do so at one point or another) in what must be one of the prettiest bookshops I've ever visited - and that includes Blackwell's in Oxford and that one that's in a church in Maastricht. I'd imagined troubles with my autograph because the municipality of Hellevoetsluis was dreadfully annoying about it last summer when I registered as living at my mum's, as if autographs are static things between the ages of 17 - when you just started using your autograph seriously - and 22 - when you've already held a job that required you to use your autograph regularly, at least 5 times a day on court days in my case. Troubles with my photograph because it didn't look entirely centred to me, but if they don't make a fuss, who cares - it was a semi-decent photo too, rather good for a passport photo I must say. Trouble with proof of residence because all I have are letters from when I opened my bank account and letters from uni telling me when and how to pay my rent. Trouble with my fingerprints because though I took very good fingerprints when we did them in Forensics - Dr Bond told me so - I tend to get sweaty hands in formal situations and I'm sure electronics are awful with sweaty hands. But no fuss, no troubles, no general incompetence. In fact, I'm more pleased with how the Consulate handled this than the Hellevoetsluis municipality did five years ago when I first requested a passport. So good job Consulate.

I received an email from my dissertation supervisor in which she sent me a copy of the PALA annual conference bursary form before she sent it out - so a) that's been sent out and b) she was overwhelmingly positive in describing me. I feel terribly flattered so now I'll have to do extra well on my dissertation to live up to that.

I had a chat with my course convenor yesterday about my Cardiff PhD application and she mentioned the opportunity here in Leicester, which is a 4-year PhD with a Graduate Teaching Assistantship, deadline 31 March. I have indeed been thinking of that one too, mainly because it's a) a brilliant opportunity to get into teaching and b) has a much better financial outlook than the Cardiff one, but it's a year longer of course (though I presume a PhD at 26 instead of 25 should not make the greatest difference) and I doubted whether I'd have a good enough CV to stand any chance. She told me to send her my CV - I received a reply today, and she still encourages me to look at the Leicester PhD with GTA. I will then. If I can think of a suitable topic, because my Cardiff topic doesn't translate very well to the Leicester department unless I make it much more media-based, in which case I could ask professor Jewkes if she'd be willing to supervise. So yeah. And the teaching would of course be wonderful, I mean, that's what I want to stay in academia for, to teach undergraduates.

Things are going well, and a bit too well, too. I'm frightened that I'll somehow run out of good karma or whatever is causing me this good-news-streak and ... but why.
Food for shrinks.

We'll see how long the streak keeps up. Fingers crossed it'll be long enough for me not to make a fool of myself at one point or another and long enough to receive a positive reply to at least one application.

Poem: Roosevelt

I think my rant against the RA/UCR name change was the bit I needed to finally really stop missing it. RA/UCR is a marvellous place and I've learned so much there that I wouldn't have learned anywhere else - it was one of the best things to ever have happened to me. But my current home is Leicester, and we'll see where 'home' is next year. 

So instead I wrote a poem.

Roosevelt

Dreams are memories

Where the new mimics the old

And where the old maintains the new

Where the sun shines in the rain

And time just rattles on

Where summers spend
Where Freedoms were made sacred word of Citizens

And the town fears life within the night that never rests

And gowns do not wear gowns but twice per annum

Where destructed bricks
Were once before rebuilt

The town is an isle harbouring an isle

A silent bubble never to be popped

Grades (III)

I received my last grades back now too, for Research Methods.

And I'm a bit disappointed - I only receive a Merit rather than a Distinction, which is, in all truth, still good.

And besides, 68 is a rather high Merit, too, only 2 points short of Distinction. But it is not a Distinction.

I somehow messed up my qualitative assignment, which does not entirely surprise me because I just CAN'T write short papers. I can't express myself in 1000 or 2000 words, 2500 seems to be the absolute minimum (last year, I had so much trouble getting my Dorian Gray paper from 8000 to 6000 words). My analysis was good, according to the commentary, I just didn't write it down in a structured fashion. I also should have included more literature, but apparently I just can't write an analysis AND a literature review in 1000 words. I should work on that. I passed it, though.

My research proposal was - well, it was meh. The review does end with "a very encouraging proposal", which is good, but again I had some structural issues. What I do find irritating is that in some of my earlier essays I've been told I used too many subheadings, and now on this research proposal I used too few. WHAT DO THEY WANT?! Still got a Merit on that one, though a very average Merit.

My SPSS assignment was good. I received a 93 on that one, though 100 was possible on this thing.

It should be good news, right, getting a Merit on Research Methods? After all, this is the first time I did any sort of qualitative assignment (like, ever), and a solid Merit is still better than the B and B- I received for Methods & Statistics at UCR. But, yeah. I expected myself to do better on this.

Oh well.

Grade (II)

Am I bragging?

Yes.

Though I guess my bragging is not entirely undeserved - I managed to get another Distinction, for my Penology paper this time. And then not just a grade on the threshold - like my Understanding Crime paper - but a real, proper Distinction - 78.

One more like this and I'll have fulfilled the requirement of 60 credits at 70+ for the MSc with Distinction degree (the other two are no fails and 70+ on the dissertation).

Some of my friends and family at home may have their doubts about 70+, especially as Dutch unis usually grade on a 10.0 scale and UCR on a 4.0 GPA scale. However, as Cum Laude starts there at 8.0 and 3.5 respectively, I suppose then that I'll have something like 8.5 / 3.9 or so.

The critique is absolutely lovely, with the only commentary being that two sentences were not entirely brilliant (upon second reading, I agree) and, as with the UC paper, that my referencing was not entirely correct (due to RefWorks, I'll be keeping an eye on that in the future).

For the rest, "excellent piece of work", "range of literature [...] thoroughly digested", and, my absolute favourite, "a pleasure to read".

I argued that young people should not be treated the same as adults in the criminal justice system, but my assignment was to what extent the age of the offender should influence the punishment, so I also spent a paragraph explaining that the elderly should also have their age considered, of course, but only in terms of mental capacity and fitness to plead and are thus normally equal to healthy adults of every age. Apparently, this consideration was valued, because the marker explicitly mentioned it as a positive point.

I scored 'high' on each of the following nine points:

• structure of argument
• clarity of expression
• grammar and use of language
• referencing
• selection of material
• marshalling of evidence
• understanding of the theory
• linking of theory & evidence
• critical appraisal

So, uhm, yeah, I'm quite proud of myself here. I'm even thinking of uploading the paper to Academia.edu, but I'm not sure yet. 

Oh. And I won't have to see my tutor about my paper.

UPDATE: I just received notice that the ethics form I had to fill out for my dissertation has been approved (not that strange considering my dissertation is news-article-based)... Good News Week.

Crime Shows

Crime shows have always appealed to me. Before watching Lewis I watched Morse, and before watching Morse I watched The Wire. And Dexter. And CSI. And Baantjer.

In fact, I have memories of watching Baantjer when I was about 9 or 10, and sneaking downstairs to have my mum allow me to watch CSI when I was 11.
I have been a big enough fan ("obsessed") of CSI:Miami in the past to write fanfiction (on a public forum to which I will not link for reasons of embarrassment).

But I lied in one of my earlier posts. I wasn't done watching Lewis. I still am watching it - I pay less than 75p per episode to rent them on ITV Player for three months. I *was* however done watching all freely accessible Lewis episodes.
I'm also watching Baantjer - again, since I haven't seen it since I must've been 15 or so.
There is always a bit of adjusting when I watch a Baantjer episode, not just because I have to switch from English to Dutch, but also because 45 minutes seems extraordinarily short and rushed after you've just seen a complicated case taking 2 hours to be solved and because it's incredibly formulaic.

In that sense I like Lewis and Morse much better, not because it's more realistic - it's not - but at least because you need to keep track of things. And because it's set in Oxford, that does help something, for I am not the greatest fan of Amsterdam.

What I do like about Baantjer is that I'm dying to do an analysis of how it may reflect social attitudes in the Netherlands from the mid-90s to early-00s.
Take for instance Vera Prins, who in the novels is actually a man but a woman in the show, and whose female-ness is made important in the TV show. She is highly competent and intelligent, and often on the receiving end of Vledder's not-so-funny-or-innocent innuendo. In an episode in the first series, Buitendam appoints her as sexual harrassment officer at the station, and she remarks to Vledder that she'd like to write him up for it, which, according to her, should not be that difficult. Interestingly, somehow she doesn't report him for harrassing her, and when she gives another young female officer approached by Vledder a flyer, this officer replies that it's not harrassment.
If I remember correctly, Vledder and Prins actually date at one point or another.
What this seems to imply is not only that it's only weak women incapable of verbally defending themselves who experience the negative effects of sexual harrassment, but also that if a man sticks with it long enough, it will have a certain success rate. So although Prins defies explicit gender stereotyping by being a very competent detective, the general implicit attitude towards women is still old-fashioned.

Another interesting aspect is the relation between Vledder and chief detective De Cock (yes, you may laugh, but it is a normal Dutch surname), in which Vledder, eternal jeans-and-leather-jacket-clad womaniser, fulfills the role of Watson to middle class De Cock's Sherlock; when Vledder-Watson states something during the investigation that reflects supposed audience sentiments; e.g. when an underworld figure is shot, that the case will resolve itself, or when a neo-nazi is found murdered, that he must've deserved it (and thus the case is not worthy of too much effort); De Cock then usually follows by stating that every case deserves the same effort and attention. This is emphasised by the end-of-episode segments, where the team meets at De Cock's house, where his wife (in a traditional gender role) serves snacks and drinks and De Cock explains how he knew whodunnit and why, and then the team and Mrs De Cock reflect on it. Mrs De Cock then often offers some sort of emotional statement, to which De Cock replies, for instance, that a murder is still a murder, thus implying that regardless of whatever emotion people feel towards a certain event, law is supposed to trump all.

But, yeah, seeing are there are 123 episodes, making the time to watch all isn't too difficult but to analyse all is. But I will. At some point in the future.

A fun thing about studing Criminology is that you always have a good excuse to watch crime shows - "research".
Tomorrow in Forensic Science and Justice we will discuss the portrayal of Forensics - i.e. we will discuss that CSI is evil.

It's quite interesting how some of my past activities somehow always come back years later. Of course the CSI-effect is something to be worried about and I never expected NOT to discuss it, but what I find interesting is that I had to do an argumentative presentation on a topic in my 5th year in secondary school in Dutch class and I did so about the CSI-effect (and how I didn't believe in it). I forgot how I structured my arguments (or what they were) but I do remember that my delivery was far from flawless - but Mrs Hoff was still kind enough to give me a pass on it.

Criminology. It was inevitable.

History

Madison and I visited the Vintage Fair here in Leicester today - it took place in the Cathedral, which I hadn't visited before, so it was a two birds - one stone type situation.

I seriously adore vintage things, not in the least because it just looks good on me. The second reason is that vintage and retro clothes usually have a fairly intricate design, meaning that even when cheap fabric has been used, they're still well-constructed. Third, the patterns are usually wildly psychedelic or just the type of ugly that makes them wonderful again. Fourth, vintage is an image and I like associating myself with that image.

So basically, I went shopping today, in the traditional sense of looking at things until you find something you like rather than going in for something you need.

And I did see loads of things I liked - ties, hats, gloves, bags, jewellery - but very little worth the money left at the end of my student loan-month (which is now).

What I did buy, however, was a lovely scarf for 1 pound. It's of course completely polyester, which would've been a pity except what else do you expect for a pound. Besides, it's got a pattern with brown, white, orange and salmon pink, which sounds quite hideous but looks pretty good (as said, so ugly it's wonderful).

The colour combination works wonders with a men's jacket I found. I doubt it's actually tweed, though it looks enough like it to pass for tweed. The jacket label never says what the fabric is except 'tailored in USA from imported fabric'; most other jackets did and I specifically ignored the poly-mix ones, but I couldn't pass this one over for something fully made of wool. It's fully lined and the fabric is sturdy, woven in a herringbone pattern, and it has shank buttons rather than flat ones (I don't like flat ones on jackets). It's a sort of greyish brown, with some green, blue, orange and pink.

It's not as stuffy as most tweed jackets (that is, if you ignore the smell of mothballs); I've been wanting a tweed-ish jacket for a while now, preferably too large for me (hence men's jacket), because it works so well with both vintage and, well, to stick with stereotypes - with academia.

It also works wonders as a spring/autumn coat.

I then went out shopping for a new pair of shoes and a book bag, not because I wanted to but because I needed to - my old pair of flat shoes has been 'walked-out' for weeks now, and it's been months at least since the straps on my old book bag snapped and I've made do with a small purse and a plastic bag since, but seeing as I had to be in town today anyway for the Fair, I figured it'd be a nice time to pick up some new "school stuff" as well. It is rather unfortunate that spring is upon us, in a sense, because finding flat lace-up black shoes that don't look as if my mum picked them out for me (as a manner of speaking of course, mum always let me pick out my own shoes) is almost impossible, as is finding a book bag that isn't an over-sized purse.



For you history geeks out there, by the way, I took a picture of the famous Leicester car park, as I promised months and months ago.

It is, actually literally, a stone's throw away (as in, across the street) from Leicester Cathedral (which is really a sort of over-sized village church, but that's a completely different matter). Perhaps York Minster has a more appropriate sort of grandeur to it - no, not 'perhaps', I've seen York Minster, that's a 'definitely' - but as there is a proper cathedral across the street from his last resting place, I fully support re-interring Richard III in Leicester Cathedral.

Also because, Seriously York, you've already got plenty of reasons for people to visit your city - don't you think that Leicester should have something too, even if "just" a vilified King's grave?

Grade

I enjoy telling when things go well, and seeing as I today received my grade for my Understanding Crime essay (on Developmental Life-Course Theories), I feel like I have some ground for thinking things are going well.

I received a Distinction, which I hadn't entirely anticipated seeing as I found this essay the most difficult to write - I'd expected a Merit at the very best. So I'm happy.

Some of the negatives include a fairly short conclusion which did "not do full justice to [my] argument"; I should not have used subheadings, and I should have included some of the information of my second section in my introduction instead to make the importance of the point I was arguing clearer. Also, I did not entirely adhere to referencing standards (I blame RefWorks for that, although I really should not blame a computer program for my oversight).
Finally, I had not entirely followed the assignment as the assignment was to evaluate limits and benefits of Developmental Life-Course Theories because instead I had gone into the validity of these theories at certain points.

My favourite positive point says "[y]our critique was generally excellent", which is nice because I felt fairly uncertain about my ability to approach established theories critically - I often feel that they are established theories for a reason and any sort of criticism I can think up has most likely already been explored by another Criminologist. I'm not wrong in thinking that, just in thinking that therefore my critique is invalid. But my critique is excellent, so there.

Basically, I scored 'high' on seven of nine points, which include selection of material, linking of theory and evidence, and critical appraisal, and there's no need for me to see my tutor about this essay.

So yes, I am pleased. And now we wait for Penology to be returned.

Update (Yes, another one)

It's been a few slow-news weeks... I'm still waiting on my grades (the first one should be in any minute now) and an answer on my PhD proposal (I'm starting to worry about that one now); we've been out celebrating essay hand-in and Chinese New Year, and out seeing the Leicester Tigers beat the London Welsh. That last thing was the first-ever rugby match I saw and attended, and I had great fun there. Whether I completely understood the game is a different matter entirely, but Leicester won so it was good enough all in all.

I went to see Les Misérables last week, and last Saturday I saw Hitchcock. Both were good; I cried through half of Les Mis (it was a marvelous film, though the 2000 French adaptation that lasts something like six hours is a much more faithful adaptation [plus I'm something of a fan of Christian Clavier because he did such a good Napoléon in the eponymous French miniseries]) and Hitchcock was just good because the meep-meep-meep of the Psycho shower scene brings back memories of watching it in my Film in Context class and going meep-meep-meep for weeks afterwards.
I've finished watching all Inspector Morse episodes (which I actually tried to do last year before me and Kristy went to a conference in Oxford but didn't manage then) and currently am contemplating whether to pay a small fee to watch old Lewis episodes on ITV player. I received some criticism for watching it because Morse is not very accurate of course, but I did enjoy it despite the - especially prevalent though certainly not the only characteristic worthy of criticism - misogyny. Besides, considering that in my past I was dedicated enough to watch entire series of CSI:Miami, I suppose I am a bit of a sucker for crime melodramas.

The biggest news so far is that my abstract has been accepted for the PALA annual conference, which will be in Heidelberg from July 31 to August 4.
I will be speaking about tax evasion by major multinational corporations (Starbucks is one of them, therefore my talk will contain a rather dull reference to both a coffee order that is relatively rare to hear in Starbucks [so to point out that it's somewhat about a coffee company, and that it's rare to hear anything of the sort {i.e. criticism of certain types of corporate behaviour} in this type of context] and something of an indicator of the sort of bitterness in the reporting on the topic - I went with the title of 'Black, no sugar' [followed by something academic sounding which I can't even remember myself at this moment]. It's a cringe-worthy title, I know...). Specifically, seeing as the conference is of course one of linguists, stylisticians and literary analysts, I will be talking about the reporting on the tax evasion, using mainly corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis.
This talk will use parts of my dissertation - my dissertation will go much more in depth with regards to tax law (seeing as the tax evasion was not actually illegal) and parliamentary decisions and whatnot, and perhaps will also take reader comments on the news articles into account. Seeing as this was not corporate crime (because not illegal) but has been portrayed as corporate wrongdoing, I also will look at other analyses of corporate wrongdoing representation, and of course into the whole theory behind corporate wrongdoing itself. So my dissertation will be much broader.

I am also contemplating registering for a conference on Cultural Criminology in Amsterdam in early July - I might even be able to adapt another segment of my dissertation for that and send it in as an abstract, see if I can get to present there too. The only thing that bothers me about that is that it's just a little difficult with regards to timing - I'll be flying to the Netherlands to attend this year's UCR graduation on June 7, then there's the Amsterdam conference in July, then the PALA conference in late July/early August. I can't justify flying back and forth between Stansted and the continent three times in a two-month span no matter how much RyanAir drops its prices (that is, unless return tickets drop to under 10 pounds, but I highly doubt that for June and July), but the events are also just a bit too far apart to justify staying with one of my parents for two months while I've got a perfectly good room of my own here in Leicester. I'll also have to move out of my room in late June, so I presume some of the timing also hinges on whether I'll need to move somewhere else. This is the case mainly because my mother and stepfather insist on helping me move and so if I have to move elsewhere, I could perhaps arrange it so that I fly to Eindhoven for UCR's graduation, then drive back to the UK with them, fly to whatever's the cheapest Dutch destination from the airport closest to my (hopefully) new home to attend the Amsterdam conference, stay with my father for a week or two, take the train to Heidelberg and then eventually fly back home from Frankfurt.
I guess that would work best, but it hinges on so many ifs that I'd rather not plan for anything as of this moment.

We'll see. Who knows what happens (fingers crossed for the good stuff though!)

PS I've been reading too many articles on 'personal branding' on the internet lately, so don't be surprised if you see the lay-out of this blog change very often etc.

PPS Of course my fulminating against UCR's change of everything didn't do much but (probably) raise my blood pressure.
Goodbye RA (it's a goodbye, not a farewell - it's a name that won't ever die!); hello UCR and your still-pink website...

Opinion: THEY HAVE STOLEN OUR A!

Today, my undergraduate university, Roosevelt Academy, posted an announcement on facebook about a change to be revealed on 5 February. Initially, this change was supposed to have been revealed on 23 January, but, as it was explained to me (I whinged about it, obviously, unable to contain my curiosity), as 23 January was Dies Natalis, the start of Spring IntRAweek and the professorial inauguration of one of my old instructors.

In any case, the change should not be THAT surprising - it'll probably be a name change. After all, last year the students were polled on a new logo AND a new name, and there have been rumours of a change to the website going round for YEARS now (I became an Ambassador in November 2009, and I think I first heard of a new website design in March 2010 - it is now February 2013 and the new website is still not up and running).

Question about the poll though: why the charade of democratic decision by the students if the poll on the new name never had a majority of votes for 'UCR'? Then just don't put up a charade and instead change everything without polling, like a proper tyrant. Now it just reeks of bad politics.

All university colleges in the Netherlands have a name that is some sort of variation on the xUCx theme - UC Utrecht, UC Maastricht, Amsterdam UC, Leiden UC, and coming September Rotterdam will see the opening of Erasmus UC. I think there are some more opening too.
Roosevelt Academy was always the odd one out.

Speculations have been going on whether it would be UCRA then, University College Roosevelt Academy. I've seen people actually using that acronym in official correspondence.

It seems not the case. Why not?
www.ucra.nl is unclaimed.
www.ucr.nl redirects to www.roac.nl.

I understand the need for RA to be similar to the other UCs, it's just easier to represent all UCs that way which would be a tremendous advantage if the Minister for Education ever decides to actually do something about the deplorable state of Dutch HE. It's probably also easier marketing wise.
Furthermore, after having struggled (and emerged, of course - it's still a Zeeuwse institution) for years with people thinking it was an HBO, I'm sure RA wouldn't like for Brits to think it's a secondary school.
Choosing UCR over UCRA is also understandable, because having 'University College' and 'Academy' in one name is just a pleonasm.

But I would hate it if UCR is indeed the new name.
For one, it makes all RA puns obsolete. Where's the fun in saying something is totally cRAzy and RAndom when RA itself no longer has any meaning?
Where would it leave the photographic facebook thing - 'RA' combinations are easily spotted and photographed, but UCR - no.
And I really liked RA being the odd one out among all the new UCs. RA should always be the odd one out, it's the only way to maintain the bubble.

Besides, think of it - University College Roosevelt. It just doesn't sound right (but thank god they haven't coined Roosevelt University College, imagine the jokes among secondary schoolers - "nee, daar ga ik niet heen, dat is ruc!"). UCR itself is just too short - it feels like there's something missing. There is. An A. Can we really let that happen, people taking the 'A' out of RA? Can we, RA alumni and students, let them steal our A like that?

I am not a classicist (everyone knows I much prefer the Egyptians over the Romans and Greeks). I am very much not a fan of Plato (mainly because the concept of 'philosopher-kings' makes philosophy students arrogant, and because I don't believe in capital t Truth - more on that some other time).
But you can't just take my Academy away from me.

Sure, RA doesn't have a very long history, but the 9 year history that it does have, is brilliant. And there is always the link to the past - the mother uni, Utrecht University, is one of the oldest and best in the Netherlands. UCU, the older sister, is the oldest University College in the Netherlands. RA was established by the man whose undertaking inspired all other Dutch UCs.
Willem van Oranje wanted to found a university in Middelburg back in the 1500s (he chose Leiden instead). The main building dates back to the heyday of the Dutch East India Company.
And, why I referred to Plato - his Athenian school was called the Akademia (I'm a much bigger fan of Aristotle, but any reference to the Lykeion would make any Dutch person definitely think it's a secondary school). I want to spend a significant part of my life in academia, and now they're taking my A, my Academy away from the place that inspired me to actually consider academia? It's just - wrong.

So let's hope I'm wrong. I loved RA, love RA and always will love RA - Let's hope the UCR link is just a decoy, and that the change is something much more awesome.

But please don't take my A.

UPDATE:
They have taken our A.
It's official; it's now UCR.
It's a bloody shame really, also because the new website is somehow now PINK. I like everything but the colours.
Listen, RA folks responsible for the change (you know that I know who you are - and I refuse to call it UCR), the website is nice, the logo is nice, but UCR? AND PINK?
As if a PINK website is going to do anything to correct the awfully skewed gender ratio... and would RA really like to have the same colour as notorious Dutch HE failure InHolland? I'd hope not.

Not only have they stolen OUR A, they have now also stolen the beautiful RA red that the website used to have, and the owl.
Why, I think there's now only one more thing left at RA that's also one of my favourite things (wine red and owls happen to be my favourite colour and animal respectively) but I'm sure they're now ready to take that away too.

UC Roosevelt.
Pink.
Bloody shameless self-promotion.

There goes the one HE institution that actually required a sense of adventure, independence and perseverance to discover and survive - it's begun to identify itself with the rest of the homogeneous masses. There goes whatever shred of individuality RA had left.

There goes ouR A.

UPDATE 2: I've just been reassured the website should not be pink, but bright red. It might just then be Google Chrome.
Very happy about that, that's one thing at least.