Twitter goes wild
Senior staff at a US university have been left scrambling after a rename of their law school in honour of the late Supreme Court judge Antonin Scalia went embarrassingly wrong.
George Mason University in Virginia received a donation of $30million (£21million) late last month from an anonymous benefactor. Attached to the generous cash offering was the condition that the university rename its law faculty the Antonin Scalia School of Law.
Scalia (pictured above) — who was considered one of the most conservative judges on the US Supreme Court bench — died earlier this year.
Unfortunately for uni staff — who were presumably unable to see past the dollar signs in their eyes — they had failed to spot that the new name, when abbreviated, would read “ASSoL”. With the cheque written and ASSoL confirmed as the name, it was down to social media to point out the mistake.
"Antonin Scalia School of Law Renamed Due to Unfortunate Acronym" (ASSoL) You can't make this stuff up.
— Wayne Kirkpatrick (@TheJunkBunk) April 7, 2016
No one can ever get down on me for saying something dumb. GMU named they school "ASSOL" ????
— Coolan (@sincerelynitnat) April 7, 2016
One Twitter user believed the name switch was quite appropriate considering the late judge’s candid style.
For a law school renamed after Scalia to have the acronym "ASSOL" is just perfect.
— P (@Pthe16) April 7, 2016
With ASSoL hitting a bum note with the online masses, the university quickly issued a statement. Acknowledging the error and the subsequent “controversy on social media”, it confirmed the department would now be named Antonin Scalia Law School (ASLS).
So we were this close to getting an “ASSoL” university. Bummer.