If you’ve visited the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors at the University of Mississippi at all, you’ve heard at least a few of these words. Here’s just an introduction into the world of “HoCo” slang!
HoCo: The latest in a long legacy of nicknames for the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. (Note: This is NOT short for Homecoming)
Citizen scholar: part of the Honors College’s motto and a description of every student in the Honors College that is reiterated to us often. There is no official definition of a “citizen scholar,” but the general theme is that they are students who use their learning for the public good. They’re fired up and ready to learn!
Great Room: The SMBHC was renovated last year, and the most treasured addition for the social butterfly is the Great Room. This room is surrounded by ground to ceiling glass and filled with comfy seating for students looking to take a study break and socialize. Not a seat is empty until midnight during finals week, and it is filled with frantic students doing group work and bonding through the pain.
Dungeon: the room right below the Great Room is the former’s opposite counterpart. It is filled with cubicles and judgmental glares at the slightest sound making communication impossible. The dungeon is the coveted destination for upperclassmen who have procrastinated and move into the HoCo for the night – blankets, sticky notes and all – and proactive early morning grinders.
Fish bowl: used to describe the feeling one gets in room 207, a room bordered on two sides by glass windows, which is perfect for students touring the University who want to see a real HoCo class in action.
DSG: The beloved dean of our Honors College, Douglas Sullivan-Gonzalez. Princeton-educated theologian, Ph.D. in Latin American history, missionary school professor, volunteer firefighter. Hamilton, water policy aficionado and certified creative dreamer. Is there anything our Dean can’t do?
Venture: a famous first-year opportunity and bragging right of the college. Freshman Ventures are opportunities for freshman to travel anywhere in the United States in groups of up to five on fully funded trips to research answers to a new question posed every year. Examples include trips to Colorado to hunt for Bigfoot and trips to Orlando to explore LGBTQ+ rights surrounding the Pulse nightclub shooting.
Quest: a slightly less cool, but still amazing group trip offered to HoCo students. In the winter, Juniors go on an all-expenses paid trip to Boston to interview professionals in their chosen field.
3rd floor bathroom: the most private, secluded bathroom in the entire HoCo. With walls covered with pictures of nebula taken by Honors Astronomy 104 students, it is the perfect sweet escape for students in need of a little relief.
Barksdale Award: An award given to students of up to $5,000 to make your research dreams come true. It’s highly competitive and awarded for creative research projects, so start thinking of your idea now!
“Reserved”: a word not in the HoCo vocabulary. As soon as classes are over for the day in a classroom, the room is open for studious kids, group projects, group meetings and groups of HoCo friends. There is no system for reservation in the HoCo, so classrooms are first come, first serve. The process gets a bit cutthroat during finals, but sharing a room with a group of studious strangers is great way to make new friends!
Piano room: a room off of the Great Room with, you guessed it, a piano! Music can often be coming from this mysterious hidden location. It also contains a giant wooden table with graffiti and doodles from HoCo students many years past.
Koi: fish in the pond outside of the Sorority Row entrance to the HoCo. Pets for all of the students along with the famous Grove squirrels.
Sally Awards: coveted awards given out at HoCo Formal, the event of the year, to deserving students in a myriad of humorous and ever-changing categories. A bit like the Dundies, but kinder and in a cooler venue than Chili’s – the Lyric.
I hope now that you know a little bit of the HoCo lingo, you will feel more comfortable on your next trip to the SMBHC! If you can get past the ID scanners that is…..
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