College releases freshman Mindset List

BELOIT, Wis., Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A Wisconsin college has released its annual Mindset List detailing the cultural touchstones important to this year's freshman class.

The Beloit College Mindset List, compiled by retired college spokesman Ron Nief and humanities Professor Tom McBride, says 18-year-olds entering college this semester have grown up in a United States with Iraq as a repeated enemy, mega-churches located across the country and Cartoon Network as a cable TV viewing choice, USA Today reported Tuesday.

For the Class of 2013, tattoos have always been chic, rap music mainstream and bungee jumping socially acceptable. Oh yeah, and there's always been blue Jell-O.

Nief said incoming freshmen may not see Washington's Watergate Hotel as the site of an infamous break-in, but rather "where Monica Lewinsky had an apartment."

The retired spokesman said the list began in 1998 as a counterpoint to "rather mean-spirited" lists coming out each year that listed facts and figures unknown to incoming college students.

"We finally decided it was kind of Boomer arrogance," he said.