ASU trying to win geekiest campus competition

PHOENIX — Arizona State University is in the running to win ThinkGeek’s quest for the geekiest campus competition.

“We’ve been doing it for a while and now that ‘geek’ is coo and people are paying attention to it, we’re going to fly that geek flag … absolutely,” said Bob Beard, Promotions and Events Coordinator for Eight, Arizona PBS.

There are many reasons why ASU should win, said Beard, who is also an ASU graduate student.

“We’ve got a full life-size mock-up of a curiosity rover in our School of Earth and Space Exploration, we’ve got our own highly ranked Quidditch Team (from Harry Potter),” he said. “We’ve got a Lord of the Rings study abroad tour in New Zealand.”

Other reasons include ASU faculty member Dr. Lawrence Krauss, who wrote a book on the science of Star Trek, and then the largest entry in the annual homecoming parade is the PBS Nerd Walk, he said.

But most important:

“I’m writing my own thesis on nerd culture for the graduate program at ASU,” Beard said. “So it doesn’t get any more geeky than that, with a nerd writing about nerds.”

To vote for ASU to be The Geekiest Campus, visit http://www.thinkgeek.com/contests/geekiest-campus/.