Ready?

Simon Fraser University, where I am a grad student at the moment, has decided to change their crest. The current crest is over on the right.

For various reasons, they are taking out the crosses on either side of the book and replacing them with more books; the new crest will have three books across the top. According to an article on the 27th on canada.com, "Gill [VP external relations] explained the crosses, combined with the fact the university is named in honour of a person (explorer Simon Fraser), has led ''foreign cultures'' to mistakenly conclude the university is ''a private religious university, as opposed to a provincial institution.''

For my part, I don't mind the change. However, while I was dining solo at Risty's yesterday, I picked up the Friday Province and was browsing through idly when I saw a letter to the editor (this is where I learned about the planned change to the crest).

The letter, written by someone claiming to be a current student at SFU, was of the usual knee-jerk reaction to any form of change, with the opening line of "SFU's mandate is as a provincial learning institution, and it has been primarily funded by provincial dollars"; but what amused me the most was the notion that the change dishonored the entire current crest, right down to the latin motto.

This is where I had to laugh out loud. The motto on the SFU crest says "Nous Sommes Pret".

I don't think the writer is "pret" to graduate yet.