A riddle: When is a bench not a bench?
The answer: When, as Michigan State University posits, it’s an idea generator.
That’s one of several cringeworthy slogans identified by John P. Leary, an assistant professor of English at Wayne State University.
Mr. Leary keeps an eye peeled for that type of language, which he calls financial jargon seeping out of the business world. The bench, he says, is a good example of its appearance in higher ed.
“It’s a banal example,” he says, but “as I think someone pointed out, there’s probably a highly paid consultant that work-shopped that slogan for about the price of three adjunct English professors.”
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