Assembling the Lexicon

[polly_mer]

Mamselle made a good point that we've built up some jargon over the years and the friendly thing to do is assemble it in a list.  I think discussion is the way to go in this alpha phase and then a list that can be moderator modified.

AFTDJ "Apply for the damn job"--advice for those who need to get off the fence and try.  We have a support thread at http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=14.0

SPADFY "Some people are different from you" -- a reminder that, regardless of how strong one individual's feelings are on the rightness of a course of action, someone else can feel just as strongly in the opposite direction.  Some people love small towns and some love only the biggest cities in the world.  Some people love teaching, some love research, and some love service.

STFU "Shut the f*** up"--advice for those whose best interests are to continue to get the lay of the land before deciding if this is a hill worth dying on.  People tend to get cranky about the upstart newcomer who keeps talking about how to make changes to be more like their one previous experience instead of someone who listens closely and then makes a handful of targeted suggestions when asked.

A gem from the early days of the STFU Center for Professional Development

Congratulations! You have mastered the secret principle behind STFU: That in nine cases out of ten you acquire more information and social capital from not speaking than from anything you might possibly have said. You can be sure that Dr. Seasoning is at home right now telling his wife what an interesting and intelligent new hire he met today. But speaking of seasonings, use a little salt on the crazy dean stories until you have some independent confirmation.

[apl68]

I'd always wondered what SPADFY meant.  Thanks!

[aside]

I'd always wondered what SPADFY meant.  Thanks!

Invented by tinyzombie, as I recall.

[polly_mer]

I've been distracted, but if people have ideas, then let's do a group writing effort here.

[polly_mer]

AFTDJ "Apply for the damn job"--advice for those who need to get off the fence and try.  We have a support thread at http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=14.0

blue, rhinoceros, triangle--a toss-away comment years ago regarding a student who was off-topic for most discussions that became a symbol of the CHE fora.

Cabana -- At 10k posts, very distinguished senior members are given their own cabanas on the grounds of The Clubhouse.  A party is also traditional for this milestone.

The Clubhouse -- A party is thrown to welcome posters to The Clubhouse at 1000 posts (distinguished senior member).  The Clubhouse has infinitely many rooms and few remember that it used to be Zorastor's Clubhouse at the End of the Universe.

death march -- an unsustainable academic job situation that usually has a very bad combination of overwork, underpay, and only short-term contracts.

DNFTT "Do not feed the troll"--usually a declaration that someone has decided the questioner is not serious and is trying to get a rise out of the community.

FCFU "Favorite City, Favorite University"--often used as a pie-in-the-sky idea because often one can choose where one lives or what job type one has, but not necessarily both.  A common piece of advice is to take any TT job offered that pays enough you can live somewhere you don't hate.

GCF "Good-bye, Cruel Fora"--a snarky comment that is made by someone else regarding behavior that looks as though someone will stop posting on these fora, usually because the responses to a question were not as expected and a thread goes very negative.

mentored by wolves -- Somewhat disparaging term indicating that one had graduate/post-doc advisors who neglected the professionalization aspects that help one get an academic job and that help one deal with the realities of academia outside of field-specific content knowledge and methods.  Thus, one can finish a fantastic PhD and realize that one is not prepared to succeed at the job market or an academic job not exactly like one's advisor's job.

ORT "The Oxford Round Table" -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Round_Table has most of the story; the short version is too many people don't seem to realize the lack of connection with Oxford University and are thus proud of invitations that have minimal academic status.

Professor Sparkle Pony -- Possibly worse than being mentored by wolves is being mentored by Professor Sparkle Pony who is much, much too optimistic (and possibly outright delusional) about their students' chances to obtain a good academic job.  People want to hear that being smart and hard-working means they will beat the odds, despite an absurdly crowded field filled with smart, hard-working folks going to better programs, winning more awards, and having better networking opportunities.  However, few people beat the odds, especially as the odds worsen in many fields as a longer-term trend.  "Good people will always find jobs" is true, but those jobs are increasingly likely to be jobs other than as tenure-track professors teaching well-prepared students who are eager to learn the specific topic being taught.

quatloo -- a joke betting currency referencing a Star Trek: The Original Series episode.  Example "I bet 500 quatloos Student Always Late won't turn in the assignment on time."

R1/R2 university -- Universities that meet specific criteria for the Carnegie Classification (http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/classification_descriptions/basic.php) related to graduate programs and funding.  However, the specific criteria have changed over the years.

SPADFY "Some people are different from you" -- a reminder that, regardless of how strong one individual's feelings are on the rightness of a course of action, someone else can feel just as strongly in the opposite direction.  Some people love small towns and some love only the biggest cities in the world.  Some people love teaching, some love research, and some love service.

STFU "Shut the f*** up"--advice for those whose best interests are to continue to get the lay of the land before deciding if this is a hill worth dying on.  People tend to get cranky about the upstart newcomer who keeps talking about how to make changes to be more like their one previous experience instead of someone who listens closely and then makes a handful of targeted suggestions when asked.

A gem from the early days of the STFU Center for Professional Development

Congratulations! You have mastered the secret principle behind STFU: That in nine cases out of ten you acquire more information and social capital from not speaking than from anything you might possibly have said. You can be sure that Dr. Seasoning is at home right now telling his wife what an interesting and intelligent new hire he met today. But speaking of seasonings, use a little salt on the crazy dean stories until you have some independent confirmation.

T/TT "Tenured/Tenure Track"

YMMV "Your Mileage May Vary" -- a disclaimer that one is describing a solution that worked in one situation, but is not expected to be universal for reasons that may or may not be explained.

[polly_mer]

CHE "The Chronicle of Higher Education" -- a publication aimed at interested parties in higher education (web version at https://www.chronicle.com).  The host of various incarnations of these fora from about 2002 to 2019.

IHE "Inside Higher Ed" -- a web-only publication aimed at interested parties in higher education (https://www.insidehighered.com).

[polly_mer]

I found the Professor Sparkle Pony quote I wanted so I'm amending the entry.

Professor Sparkle Pony -- Possibly worse than being mentored by wolves is being mentored by Professor Sparkle Pony who is much, much too optimistic (and possibly outright delusional) about their students' chances to obtain a good academic job. 

From https://www.chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,89409.msg2154382.html#msg2154382

I suspect that nearly all of them [people who end up on the academic job market and only then realize how incredibly brutal that market is] were in fact told the straight dope by someone, but ignored it in favor of the advice of the very popular Dr. Sparkle Pony.

Every department has a Dr. Sparkle Pony, whose every student is genius, who encourages undergraduates to think of themselves as future professors, and brags in the faculty lounge of how many of his students got into graduate programs this year. This sort of attention and encouragement is intoxicating to bright young people, who flock to Dr. Sparkly Pony, take all of his courses, and generally follow him about like a pack of worshipful puppies.

[polly_mer]

HOF "(Posting) Hall of Fame" -- A thread exists for the Posting Hall of Fame (http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=103.msg2330).  Anyone can add someone else's particularly great post to the Posting Hall of Fame.  By custom, no commentary or discussion occurs on the HOF thread itself; at most, one provides a reference to the title of the thread whence the HOF post comes.

[polly_mer]

Updated to be one list with a few suggested additions/amendments.  This is also a list that I intend to make in better form, but this month isn't likely.

AFTDJ "Apply for the damn job"--advice for those who need to get off the fence and try.  We have a support thread at http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=14.0

blue, rhinoceros, triangle--a toss-away comment years ago regarding a student who was off-topic for most discussions that became a symbol of the CHE fora.

Cabana -- At 10k posts, very distinguished senior members are given their own cabanas on the grounds of The Clubhouse.  A party is also traditional for this milestone.

CHE "The Chronicle of Higher Education" -- a publication aimed at interested parties in higher education (web version at https://www.chronicle.com).  The host of various incarnations of these fora from about 2002 to 2019.

The Clubhouse -- A party is thrown to welcome posters to The Clubhouse at 1000 posts (distinguished senior member).  The Clubhouse has infinitely many rooms and few remember that it used to be Zorastor's Clubhouse at the End of the Universe.

death march -- an unsustainable academic job situation that usually has a very bad combination of overwork, underpay, and only short-term contracts.

DNFTT "Do not feed the troll"-- (deprecated in favor of Rule 2) A best practice is to personally refrain from continuing an unproductive discussion instead of making accusations of troll.  If a post violates a rule instead of just being annoying, then report the post using the Report to Moderator link.

FCFU "Favorite City, Favorite University"--often used as a pie-in-the-sky idea because often one can choose where one lives or what job type one has, but not necessarily both.  A common piece of advice is to take any TT job offered that pays enough you can live somewhere you don't hate.

GCF "Good-bye, Cruel Fora"--a snarky comment that is made by someone else regarding behavior that looks as though someone will stop posting on these fora, usually because the responses to a question were not as expected and a thread goes very negative.

IHE "Inside Higher Ed" -- a web-only publication aimed at interested parties in higher education (https://www.insidehighered.com).

mentored by wolves -- Somewhat disparaging term indicating that one had graduate/post-doc advisors who neglected the professionalization aspects that help one get an academic job and that help one deal with the realities of academia outside of field-specific content knowledge and methods.  Thus, one can finish a fantastic PhD and realize that one is not prepared to succeed at the job market or an academic job not exactly like one's advisor's job.

ORT "The Oxford Round Table" -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Round_Table has most of the story; the short version is too many people don't seem to realize the lack of connection with Oxford University and are thus proud of invitations that have minimal academic status.

HOF "(Posting) Hall of Fame" -- A thread exists for the Posting Hall of Fame (http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=103.msg2330).  Anyone can add someone else's particularly great post to the Posting Hall of Fame.  By custom, no commentary or discussion occurs on the HOF thread itself; at most, one provides a reference to the title of the thread whence the HOF post comes.

PM "Personal Message" -- These fora have a messaging system accessed through the My Messages tab.  You can use that system to exchange private messages with the forumites you desire to have a more private discussion whether that's to share potentially outing information or just to provide a more targeted discussion on a shared interest.

Professor Sparkle Pony -- Possibly worse than being mentored by wolves is being mentored by Professor Sparkle Pony who is much, much too optimistic (and possibly outright delusional) about their students' chances to obtain a good academic job.  People want to hear that being smart and hard-working means they will beat the odds, despite an absurdly crowded field filled with smart, hard-working folks going to better programs, winning more awards, and having better networking opportunities.  However, few people beat the odds, especially as the odds worsen in some fields as a longer-term trend.  "Good people will always find jobs" is true, but those jobs are increasingly likely to be jobs other than as tenure-track professors teaching well-prepared students who are eager to learn the specific topic being taught.

quatloo -- a joke betting currency referencing a Star Trek: The Original Series episode.  Example "I bet 500 quatloos Student Always Late won't turn in the assignment on time."

R1/R2 university -- Universities that meet specific criteria for the Carnegie Classification (http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/classification_descriptions/basic.php) related to graduate programs and funding.  However, the specific criteria have changed over the years.

SPADFY "Some people are different from you" -- a reminder that, regardless of how strong one individual's feelings are on the rightness of a course of action, someone else can feel just as strongly in the opposite direction.  Some people love small towns and some love only the biggest cities in the world.  Some people love teaching, some love research, and some love service.

STFU "Shut the f*** up"--advice for those whose best interests are to continue to get the lay of the land before deciding if this is a hill worth dying on.  People tend to get cranky about the upstart newcomer who keeps talking about how to make changes to be more like their one previous experience instead of someone who listens closely and then makes a handful of targeted suggestions when asked.

A gem from the early days of the STFU Center for Professional Development

Congratulations! You have mastered the secret principle behind STFU: That in nine cases out of ten you acquire more information and social capital from not speaking than from anything you might possibly have said. You can be sure that Dr. Seasoning is at home right now telling his wife what an interesting and intelligent new hire he met today. But speaking of seasonings, use a little salt on the crazy dean stories until you have some independent confirmation.

T/TT "Tenured/Tenure Track"

YMMV "Your Mileage May Vary" -- a disclaimer that one is describing a solution that worked in one situation, but is not expected to be universal for reasons that may or may not be explained.

[mouseman]

Forumite -- any registered member of the Fora.

Serpent's Tooth Award -- invented by The Fiona on the Old Fora, even before registration, for posters who respond in a nasty manner to advice which they solicited, but did not like. The advice must be good, and provided without sarcasm or snarkiness, while the response should be more than just ignoring the advice or being somewhat dismissive. Posters who receive this award usually follow up with a GCF.

SLAC -- Small (or Selective) Liberal Arts College

Sparky (the Wonder Poodle) -- invented by Zharkov. A usually young person, who is too eager and too enthusiastic about everything. Not a bad person, but exhausting to be around. Nobody dislikes them, but nobody really wants to spend too much time with them either. A persona one should avoid when on a job search.

[Juvenal]

HBUC

[namazu]

HBUC

HBCU?  Historically Black Colleges & Universities (can also be used in the singular to refer to any of them)

[mamselle]

Sparky (the Wonder Poodle) -- invented by Zharkov. A usually young person, who is too eager and too enthusiastic about everything. Not a bad person, but exhausting to be around. Nobody dislikes them, but nobody really wants to spend too much time with them either. A persona one should avoid when on a job search.

(Perhaps the offspring or mentee of Prof. Sparkle Pony?)

M.

[polly_mer]

Updated list to add new suggestions and make minor tweaks.  Revision on death march as a reminder this is not just an academic problem.

AFTDJ "Apply for the damn job"--advice for those who need to get off the fence and try.  We have a support thread at http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=14.0

blue, rhinoceros, triangle--a toss-away comment years ago regarding a student who was off-topic for most discussions that became a symbol of the CHE fora.

Cabana -- At 10k posts, very distinguished senior members are given their own cabanas on the grounds of The Clubhouse.  A party is also traditional for this milestone.

CHE "The Chronicle of Higher Education" -- a publication aimed at interested parties in higher education (web version at https://www.chronicle.com).  The host of various incarnations of these fora from about 2002 to 2019.

The Clubhouse -- A party is thrown to welcome posters to The Clubhouse at 1000 posts (distinguished senior member).  The Clubhouse has infinitely many rooms and few remember that it used to be Zorastor's Clubhouse at the End of the Universe.

death march -- (term adopted from software project management) an unsustainable academic job situation that usually has a very bad combination of overwork, underpay, and only short-term contracts.

DNFTT "Do not feed the troll"-- (deprecated in favor of Rule 2) A best practice is to personally refrain from continuing an unproductive discussion instead of making accusations of troll.  If a post violates a rule instead of just being annoying, then report the post using the Report to Moderator link.

FCFU "Favorite City, Favorite University"--often used as a pie-in-the-sky idea because often one can choose where one lives or what job type one has, but not necessarily both.  A common piece of advice is to take any TT job offered that pays enough you can live somewhere you don't hate.

Forumite -- any registered member of The Fora.

GCF "Good-bye, Cruel Fora"--a snarky comment that is made by someone else regarding behavior that looks as though someone will stop posting on these fora, usually because the responses to a question were not as expected and a thread goes very negative.

HBCU  "Historically Black Colleges & Universities" -- Again, this is a specific category of institutions with a specific list.  The term HBCU can be used for the entire group of institutions or for an individual institution that's a member of the group.

HOF "(Posting) Hall of Fame" -- A thread exists for the Posting Hall of Fame (http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=103.msg2330).  Anyone can add someone else's particularly great post to the Posting Hall of Fame.  By custom, no commentary or discussion occurs on the HOF thread itself; at most, one provides a reference to the title of the thread whence the HOF post comes.

IHE "Inside Higher Ed" -- a web-only publication aimed at interested parties in higher education (https://www.insidehighered.com).

mentored by wolves -- Somewhat disparaging term indicating that one had graduate/post-doc advisors who neglected the professionalization aspects that help one get an academic job and that help one deal with the realities of academia outside of field-specific content knowledge and methods.  Thus, one can finish a fantastic PhD and realize that one is not prepared to succeed at the job market or an academic job not exactly like one's advisor's job.

ORT "The Oxford Round Table" -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Round_Table has most of the story; the short version is too many people don't seem to realize the lack of connection with Oxford University and are thus proud of invitations that have minimal academic status.


PM "Personal Message" -- These fora have a messaging system accessed through the My Messages tab.  You can use that system to exchange private messages with the forumites you desire to have a more private discussion whether that's to share potentially outing information or just to provide a more targeted discussion on a shared interest.  [https://thefora.org/index.php?topic=28.0]See the Technical FAQ for more information on how to navigate your messages and set up the outbox.[/url]

Professor Sparkle Pony -- Possibly worse than being mentored by wolves is being mentored by Professor Sparkle Pony who is much, much too optimistic (and possibly outright delusional) about their students' chances to obtain a good academic job.  People want to hear that being smart and hard-working means they will beat the odds, despite an absurdly crowded field filled with smart, hard-working folks going to better programs, winning more awards, and having better networking opportunities.  However, few people beat the odds, especially as the odds worsen in some fields as a longer-term trend.  "Good people will always find jobs" is true, but those jobs are increasingly likely to be jobs other than as tenure-track professors teaching well-prepared students who are eager to learn the specific topic being taught.

quatloo -- a joke betting currency referencing a Star Trek: The Original Series episode.  Example "I bet 500 quatloos Student Always Late won't turn in the assignment on time."

R1/R2 university -- Universities that meet specific criteria for the Carnegie Classification (http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/classification_descriptions/basic.php) related to graduate programs and funding.  However, the specific criteria have changed over the years.

Serpent's Tooth Award -- invented by The Fiona on the Old Fora, even before registration, for posters who respond in a nasty manner to advice which they solicited, but did not like. The advice must be good, and provided without sarcasm or snarkiness, while the response should be more than just ignoring the advice or being somewhat dismissive. Posters who receive this award usually follow up with a GCF.

SLAC -- Small (or Selective) Liberal Arts College.  Unlike R1/R2, this is a more subjective term for the S(mall)LAC.  Many institutions self-identify as identify as S(mall)LACs, but the Carnegie Classification (http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/definitions.php ) based on data may indicate something like Baccalaureate Colleges: Diverse Fields (AKA not Arts and Science focus) and professions plus arts & sciences, no graduate coexistence (AKA 60-79% of degrees awarded are in fields other than arts and sciences).

SPADFY "Some people are different from you" -- a reminder that, regardless of how strong one individual's feelings are on the rightness of a course of action, someone else can feel just as strongly in the opposite direction.  Some people love small towns and some love only the biggest cities in the world.  Some people love teaching, some love research, and some love service.

Sparky (the Wonder Poodle) -- invented by Zharkov. A usually young person, who is too eager and too enthusiastic about everything. Not a bad person, but exhausting to be around. Nobody dislikes them, but nobody really wants to spend too much time with them either. A persona one should avoid when on a job search.

STFU "Shut the f*** up"--advice for those whose best interests are to continue to get the lay of the land before deciding if this is a hill worth dying on.  People tend to get cranky about the upstart newcomer who keeps talking about how to make changes to be more like their one previous experience instead of someone who listens closely and then makes a handful of targeted suggestions when asked.

A gem from the early days of the STFU Center for Professional Development

Congratulations! You have mastered the secret principle behind STFU: That in nine cases out of ten you acquire more information and social capital from not speaking than from anything you might possibly have said. You can be sure that Dr. Seasoning is at home right now telling his wife what an interesting and intelligent new hire he met today. But speaking of seasonings, use a little salt on the crazy dean stories until you have some independent confirmation.

T/TT "Tenured/Tenure Track"

YMMV "Your Mileage May Vary" -- a disclaimer that one is describing a solution that worked in one situation, but is not expected to be universal for reasons that may or may not be explained.

[polly_mer]

Adding lurkariat to the list.

AFTDJ "Apply for the damn job"--advice for those who need to get off the fence and try.  We have a support thread at http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=14.0

blue, rhinoceros, triangle--a toss-away comment years ago regarding a student who was off-topic for most discussions that became a symbol of the CHE fora.

Cabana -- At 10k posts, very distinguished senior members are given their own cabanas on the grounds of The Clubhouse.  A party is also traditional for this milestone.

CHE "The Chronicle of Higher Education" -- a publication aimed at interested parties in higher education (web version at https://www.chronicle.com).  The host of various incarnations of these fora from about 2002 to 2019.

The Clubhouse -- A party is thrown to welcome posters to The Clubhouse at 1000 posts (distinguished senior member).  The Clubhouse has infinitely many rooms and few remember that it used to be Zorastor's Clubhouse at the End of the Universe.

death march -- (term adopted from software project management) an unsustainable academic job situation that usually has a very bad combination of overwork, underpay, and only short-term contracts.

DNFTT "Do not feed the troll"-- (deprecated in favor of Rule 2) A best practice is to personally refrain from continuing an unproductive discussion instead of making accusations of troll.  If a post violates a rule instead of just being annoying, then report the post using the Report to Moderator link.

FCFU "Favorite City, Favorite University"--often used as a pie-in-the-sky idea because often one can choose where one lives or what job type one has, but not necessarily both.  A common piece of advice is to take any TT job offered that pays enough you can live somewhere you don't hate.

Forumite -- any registered member of The Fora.

GCF "Good-bye, Cruel Fora"--a snarky comment that is made by someone else regarding behavior that looks as though someone will stop posting on these fora, usually because the responses to a question were not as expected and a thread goes very negative.

HBCU  "Historically Black Colleges & Universities" -- Again, this is a specific category of institutions with a specific list.  The term HBCU can be used for the entire group of institutions or for an individual institution that's a member of the group.

HOF "(Posting) Hall of Fame" -- A thread exists for the Posting Hall of Fame (http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=103.msg2330).  Anyone can add someone else's particularly great post to the Posting Hall of Fame.  By custom, no commentary or discussion occurs on the HOF thread itself; at most, one provides a reference to the title of the thread whence the HOF post comes.

IHE "Inside Higher Ed" -- a web-only publication aimed at interested parties in higher education (https://www.insidehighered.com).

lurkariat -- people who are regular readers of these fora, but don't post and may not even log in.

mentored by wolves -- Somewhat disparaging term indicating that one had graduate/post-doc advisors who neglected the professionalization aspects that help one get an academic job and that help one deal with the realities of academia outside of field-specific content knowledge and methods.  Thus, one can finish a fantastic PhD and realize that one is not prepared to succeed at the job market or an academic job not exactly like one's advisor's job.

ORT "The Oxford Round Table" -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Round_Table has most of the story; the short version is too many people don't seem to realize the lack of connection with Oxford University and are thus proud of invitations that have minimal academic status.


PM "Personal Message" -- These fora have a messaging system accessed through the My Messages tab.  You can use that system to exchange private messages with the forumites you desire to have a more private discussion whether that's to share potentially outing information or just to provide a more targeted discussion on a shared interest.  [https://thefora.org/index.php?topic=28.0]See the Technical FAQ for more information on how to navigate your messages and set up the outbox.[/url]

Professor Sparkle Pony -- Possibly worse than being mentored by wolves is being mentored by Professor Sparkle Pony who is much, much too optimistic (and possibly outright delusional) about their students' chances to obtain a good academic job.  People want to hear that being smart and hard-working means they will beat the odds, despite an absurdly crowded field filled with smart, hard-working folks going to better programs, winning more awards, and having better networking opportunities.  However, few people beat the odds, especially as the odds worsen in some fields as a longer-term trend.  "Good people will always find jobs" is true, but those jobs are increasingly likely to be jobs other than as tenure-track professors teaching well-prepared students who are eager to learn the specific topic being taught.

quatloo -- a joke betting currency referencing a Star Trek: The Original Series episode.  Example "I bet 500 quatloos Student Always Late won't turn in the assignment on time."

R1/R2 university -- Universities that meet specific criteria for the Carnegie Classification (http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/classification_descriptions/basic.php) related to graduate programs and funding.  However, the specific criteria have changed over the years.

Serpent's Tooth Award -- invented by The Fiona on the Old Fora, even before registration, for posters who respond in a nasty manner to advice which they solicited, but did not like. The advice must be good, and provided without sarcasm or snarkiness, while the response should be more than just ignoring the advice or being somewhat dismissive. Posters who receive this award usually follow up with a GCF.

SLAC -- Small (or Selective) Liberal Arts College.  Unlike R1/R2, this is a more subjective term for the S(mall)LAC.  Many institutions self-identify as identify as S(mall)LACs, but the Carnegie Classification (http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/definitions.php ) based on data may indicate something like Baccalaureate Colleges: Diverse Fields (AKA not Arts and Science focus) and professions plus arts & sciences, no graduate coexistence (AKA 60-79% of degrees awarded are in fields other than arts and sciences).

SPADFY "Some people are different from you" -- a reminder that, regardless of how strong one individual's feelings are on the rightness of a course of action, someone else can feel just as strongly in the opposite direction.  Some people love small towns and some love only the biggest cities in the world.  Some people love teaching, some love research, and some love service.

Sparky (the Wonder Poodle) -- invented by Zharkov. A usually young person, who is too eager and too enthusiastic about everything. Not a bad person, but exhausting to be around. Nobody dislikes them, but nobody really wants to spend too much time with them either. A persona one should avoid when on a job search.

STFU "Shut the f*** up"--advice for those whose best interests are to continue to get the lay of the land before deciding if this is a hill worth dying on.  People tend to get cranky about the upstart newcomer who keeps talking about how to make changes to be more like their one previous experience instead of someone who listens closely and then makes a handful of targeted suggestions when asked.

A gem from the early days of the STFU Center for Professional Development

Congratulations! You have mastered the secret principle behind STFU: That in nine cases out of ten you acquire more information and social capital from not speaking than from anything you might possibly have said. You can be sure that Dr. Seasoning is at home right now telling his wife what an interesting and intelligent new hire he met today. But speaking of seasonings, use a little salt on the crazy dean stories until you have some independent confirmation.

T/TT "Tenured/Tenure Track"

YMMV "Your Mileage May Vary" -- a disclaimer that one is describing a solution that worked in one situation, but is not expected to be universal for reasons that may or may not be explained.