Imperial College drops "imperial" motto

[Sway]

Now this one seems a little odd.

Imperial's motto translates to "Scientific knowledge, the crowning glory and the safeguard of the empire".

The President of Imperial has just announced they've dropped the motto, and revised the crest to remove it whilst announcing that "We will commission a group to examine Imperial’s history and legacy. We have a long way to go, but we will get better."

Now, far be it for me to point out the obvious, but if the word empire or imperial is now verboten - surely there's a more prominent use of the term at Imperial College?

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/198013/new-measure...

Edited by Sway on Friday 5th June 17:21

[Sophisticated Sarah]

Hopefully they’ll vanish up their own aholes and do us all a favour.

[anonymous-user]

It will still be Imperial to most people for decades. Pointless.

[Sway]

coanda said:

It will still be Imperial to most people for decades. Pointless.

It still is Imperial! Just without a motto that has the Latin word imperii...

[fido]

Didn't realise IC was run by a Democrat. In any case I'll treasure my 'Imperial' post grad.

[Dr Jekyll]

During WW2, in the first recorded case of political correctness, Imperial Airways was merged with the original British Airways to form BOAC. A few years later an official visiting the Kampala office noticed the station bell was still inscribed 'Imperial Airways' and insisted it was changed. Shortly afterwards he received a telegram from Kampala confirming that the bell's inscription had been amended but complaining that this had lowered the tone.

I don't know why an airline outstation had a bell but apparently it did.

[Jasandjules]

Perhaps, given the "models" they have produced over the years, they will decide that "scientific knowledge" can be removed and exchanged with "Utter feckwittery guesswork absent intellect"

[williamp]

Its just a university. Education and facts arent as important as emotion these days...

[anonymous-user]

Why not just change Imperial and Empire to ‘Incompetent’?

That would be relatively easy to do.

[Murph7355]

Sway said:

....
Now, far be it for me to point out the obvious, but if the word empire or imperial is now verboten - surely there's a more prominent use of the term at Imperial College?

Maybe they'll just call it College

Or perhaps dissolve the organisation altogether and start somewhere else (after donating all proceeds of asset and other sales to a suitable charity). After all, their Imperialist past is responsible for the organisation existing at all. If there's guilt that needs to be assuaged, assuage it.

[carinaman]

It's ranked third behind Oxford and Cambridge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNKlpvvx5Og

I am not sure he apologises for the war.

[anonymous-user]

Imperial to Metric, obvs innit

[Johnnytheboy]

I went there are least partly based on the avowedly apolitical not-affiliated-with-the-NUS student's union.

Things have changed apparently!

[PositronicRay]

Johnnytheboy said:

I went there are least partly based on the avowedly apolitical not-affiliated-with-the-NUS student's union.

Things have changed apparently!

What?

[rscott]

PositronicRay said:

Johnnytheboy said:

I went there are least partly based on the avowedly apolitical not-affiliated-with-the-NUS student's union.

Things have changed apparently!

What?

Like quite a few London universities, Imperial's Student Union wasn't affiliated with the NUS - it chose ULU (University Of London Union) instead. Was definitely far less political than many other universities (at least it was back in the early 1990s when I was there) .

[PeteinSQ]

I went to KCL back in 2000 and you could completely ignore politics if you wanted to. The students union was basically a bar, a couple of places to eat and a nightclub. Most people wouldn't have had a clue that politics was a thing.

On this issue with their motto - I'm not sure there is much to be gained from changing it but it does seem a bit outdated now that we no longer have an empire for them to do good things for.

People shouldn't pretend that Imperial isn't one of our leading institutions either just because one of their scientists produced a model that people believe is a bit rubbish. It really is a center of excellence.