Education

LETTING THE TERRORISTS WIN: University Of Iowa Renames Its ISIS Website

YouTube screenshot/University of Iowa, Getty Images/Ahmad Al-Rubaye

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The University of Iowa is letting the terrorists win this week by renaming its student records and information website because the website’s acronym, ISIS, was identical to the acronym frequently used to refer to the Islamic State.

The old website had the name “Iowa Student Information System” — and thus the unfortunate initials “ISIS.”

The new website, now called MyUI.uiowa.edu, will provide students with the same basic information without reminding them of brutal, radical jihadists who want to turn the entire civilized world into some seventh-century hellhole. (RELATED: ISIS Yearns To Be North Korea And Nine More Things You Won’t Believe About These Muslim LUNATICS)

“Once logged into MyUI, users can perform the same critical tasks they could in ISIS — register for classes, view grades, pay U-bills, apply for financial aid, perform degree audits, check course schedules or academic calendars, and make academic advising appointments,” a University of Iowa press release explains.

“The course catalog is also available at the site, and that element is open for anyone to browse, even without HawkID authentication,” the press release, dated Monday, adds.

University of Iowa officials say they decided to curtail the use of the acronym “ISIS” for the Iowa Student Information System last year, several months after leaders of the Islamic State declared that a huge swath of captured territory in the Middle East spanning across substantial parts of Syria and Iraq would become a radical Sunni empire featuring a new “caliphate.” (RELATED: Don’t Be Alarmed But Radical Muslims Just Declared Their Own Empire Across Much Of Middle East)

The Chronicle of Higher Education notes that University of Iowa officials swore as recently as last month that the ISIS acronym was going nowhere. Now, though, the Big 10 school joins Tufts University, the University of Florida and Kansas State University as schools that have defeated their ISIS acronyms.

The Iowa Student Information System was first established back in 1989.

America’s colleges and universities take a backseat to no one — except possibly the federal government — in their passionate zeal for acronyms. Sometimes, the letter combinations go awry.

Earlier this month, officials at George Mason University’s law school nimbly reworked the new name of the school in honor of late Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia after Internet critics pointed out that “Antonin Scalia School of Law” could easily be abbreviated as ASSLaw. Others observed that the similarly unappealing ASSOL was a viable acronym. (RELATED: ASSLaw: George Mason Tweaks Scalia Law School Name To Avoid Funny Acronym)

George Mason’s law school will now be the Antonin Scalia Law School.

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