West Coast Ivy League

khan
Wed, 01 Dec 2004 01:50:36 +0000

To go back to an earlier point that the Ivy League is simply an athletic league - I’ll have to respectfully disagree. Although it may have started this way and even though that still may technically be the case, the “Ivy League” has evolved to symbolize/encompass more than simply an athletic league. “Ivy League” has become synonymous with academic excellence and prestige. Whether or not the forming of the athletic league was done in any way done to create some sort of elite grouping of schools to garner prestige, it doesn’t matter.

Dictionaries get revised and have new definitions and words added to it all the time. Language is very dynamic and different meanings of expressions, symbols, and icons get introduced into our culture all the time. Words, expressions, and heck the name of an athletic league can evolve to mean more than it may have originally. For example, the term computer means a lot more today than it did 100 years ago. I doubt one thinks of “one who computes” when they hear the term “computer” nowadays. Also, I doubt terms and ideas like weed and “puff-the-magic-dragon” conjured up the same type of images 200 years ago, like it does today. Dost thou seeth?

Any way, my point is, The “Ivy League” has come to represent more than just an athletic league. It has come to represent among other things, academic excellence and prestige. Harvard, Yale, and Princeton have helped especially in this regard. Most everyone would agree all the schools in the ivy league are of the highest caliber. Even if not all the schools in the ivy league are at par with HYP or even at par with some non-ivies like Stanford, it doesn’t matter. The definition of “Ivy League” has been changed within our culture. Why the heck do you think they create a separate section on the CC forum just for the “Ivy League”?

If Webster’s hasn’t updated their definition of “Ivy League”, I think it’s about time for another revision. :)