This might be the only time AU competes in the same league as Dartmouth, Penn and Cornell. In a special report on the American Jackass in this month's GQ magazine, AU is lumped with these Ivy Leaguers as one of America's Top 10 Jackass Incubator Schools.
Visions of Johnny Knoxville racing toward a concrete wall in a shopping cart may come to mind, but GQ is talking about a whole new breed of jackass nowhere close to MTV's version. In GQ's own words: "We're talking about real Jackasses-the kind of guys who think nothing of bellying up for a $14 cocktail, a $75 seafood grand plateau ... or throwing down the platinum AMEX for the spontaneous $13,000 weekend in Vegas."
And AU, the article says, is a breeding ground for this species.
In this sardonic, often self-deprecating "report," GQ says jackasses can be found waxing their chests, waxing their hair and meticulously planning their wardrobes. At the same time, jackasses aren't merely metrosexual male-bimbos with trust funds; the jackass is "a product of ambition, determination, and ultimately success ... he is living the dream. It may be a dream that involves Tara Reid, two $400-an-hour strippers, and a $7,000 presidential suite in South Beach, but it's a dream nonetheless."
Included in this special report is a list of 10 schools
that foster the jackass mentality. AU appears alongside Cornell University, the University of Michigan, Tulane University, the University of Southern California, Duke University, the University of Miami, the University of Arizona, Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania.
But the list is terribly glib, and AU's citation as a jackass incubator prompts the simple yet important question: why?
"There's a pretty sizable kind of New York-New Jersey-Long Island contingency who goes to AU, and they're kind of the driving force in the jackass world," said Adam Rapoport, GQ's style editor.
No surveys or field reporting were done to assess AU's jackassery, said Rapoport, who grew up around D.C. and recalls seeing AU students at campus concerts and clubs.
GQ looked for a geographically and categorically diverse group of colleges for its list, with Ivy Leaguers bumping up against big sports schools.
Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle are training grounds for the AU jackass, Rapoport said, and the fact that the campus is located in a city lends a cosmopolitan attitude to its students. The urban atmosphere of the school creates subtle distinctions within the list; for example, the AU jackass is slightly more refined than the University of Arizona jackass, Rapoport said.
Freshman Sara Scott ventured a guess as to why GQ plucked AU out of its relative jackass obscurity.
"Maybe because we're so political, kids try to act important," Scott said. "I went to a kickoff event for one of the political clubs, and everyone was really trying to get their names known."
But not many people at AU seem to know anyone who's majoring in boorishness.
"I don't see anything about AU males that fits that description," senior Marc Malon said. "You have stereotypical groups of people at any school, from the 'Animal House' frat guys to the political science geeks. The school is across the board with jerks, but not really that definition of a jackass."
As Rapoport mentioned, GQ believes there are shades of jackassery. Regardless of the shade, some students seems indifferent to the list, and some were perturbed by the gross generalization.
"While it seems that many AU students are generally upper-crust people, one must not overlook the fact that AU does also have a number of students trying to work their way through college," said senior Lo?c Diels.
Junior Abigail Glenn-Chase said that she is partially offended by the article's claims.
"I think that GQ is over-generalizing," she said. "There is a myriad of people who attend AU because it is an up-and-coming school."
Senior Brad Resnikoff conceded that there are a large number of AU students who have a lot of money and conform to this definition of a jackass, but that it shouldn't color the perception of the school.
"This may be a reflection of those students who don't take their studies seriously," Resnikoff said. "But I don't appreciate being labeled as a jackass, and I don't think that this generalization applies to the majority."
The article was conceived and written in good fun, said Rapoport, who acknowledged that the vast majority of GQ's readership consists of the very men they lampoon.
"There's a jackass in all of us and if you recognize that, it's OK," Rapoport said.
