To paraphrase "Clerks," a "professor's job would be great if not for the (bleeping) students."

I kid, really I do. After all, students help pay the bills and provide a never-ending source of comedy and affirmation of stereotypes.

If you sense ire in the blog today you probably looked at the calendar and guessed right - the Class of 2012 "Mindset List" has been released.

Yes, it's that time of year, when fresh-faced, optimistic students descend upon college campuses like so many Coldplay-loving locusts.

While this may inspire dreams of great learning (or at least great tailgating), it instead calls forth the kind of petty, short-sighted mockery one would expect from, well, a second-rate pop culture blogger such as myself.

I'm talking about the Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2012.

A Wisconsin staple for over a decade, the mindset list (compiled by a professor and a PR guy) is meant to keep the faculty ahead of the curve and on notice about the world their new students grew up in.

It's supposed to be a cheat sheet, a quick primer to help the intelligent, if not culturally lame, professor realize that to their students:

- Clarence Thomas has always been on the Supreme Court.

- They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about "nothing."

- Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.

Oh those egghead professors, always having fun. When I discovered the list this time last year, needless to say I was a little irate.

At best the list wasn't funny, at worst it was condescending, I thought.

But now, since we're back for yet another year, and since the class of 2012 and class of 2011 share no traits in common whatsoever, I am left to ponder new questions about "The List."

What does this wacky round-up of cultural significance say about college faculty? Do they all come from the same generational pool, or is there a little drift in the average age?

As people who teach specialized areas of study, each worthy of a lifetime of study to grasp seemingly unfathomable concepts, doesn't such an over generalization of a generation go against what they practice?

Is this list part of a widening and more significant generational gap that is developing in the U.S.?

What the list deals in is change, the fact that history is not a constant. And people who can't deal with that, well, some people call them curmudgeons. Think about it for a second - who has a hard time dealing with change in the workplace, the decline of sacred and formerly timeless institutions, and well, the Internet? Let's call this the "damn kids get off my lawn" theory.

Then again, it's possible I'm just being thin-skinned and not getting the joke. Maybe since I'm part of a class that "have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool," I just don't get it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to start my "College Professor Mindset List." Feel free to leave some suggestions in the comments.

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