Words are funny things. Or maybe it’s that people are funny about some words: some words engender emotional responses far in excess of their meaning. It’s at that point that sometimes it’s worthwhile to avoid those words altogether and come up with alternatives.

One of our favorites is planning. Hard for a SCUPer to admit, but to some “planning” connotes a lack of action, the proverbial report on the shelf. On the contrary, planning is a very active enterprise. It is the act of making informed choices.  When we talk to people about making informed choices – about academic programs, institutional mission, the program for a facility – then planning makes a lot more sense, and they don’t tune out as much. The steps involved in good planning – defining the issue or problem, collecting relevant data, analyzing alternatives, setting priorities and making choices to do some things and not do others – are what go into the informed part of making informed choices. Using the phrase puts a bit more emphasis on outcome, not just process.

We’ve been thinking a bit about another hot button word – interdisciplinary. The connotations can be scary – sharing labs, sharing grants, putting tenure at stake. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdisciplinary for a very interesting discussion about the barriers to interdisciplinary activity in higher education.) But the push toward consolidation is as indisputable as the new "interdisciplines" that have formed: biomedical engineering, neuroscience, cybernetics, and so forth.

Are there alternative words or phrases that we can substitute, that might reduce the negative reaction to the notion of cross- or multi- or interdisciplinary research and learning? What about integrative research? We’re looking for more – any ideas?