Written by Brittany Cervantes
President Dr. Barry Corey, known affectionately by his students as DBC, never expected Biolans to view him as a celebrity on campus.
“When I was in high school, I really wasn’t that hip,” he says. On weekends, he was playing board games with friends or spending quality time with his parents around the TV. He believes that he did not have the “cool factor” and that this is still true today.
But that all started to change when his wife Paula bought him a little black book — “The Little Hiptionary,” that is.
“That was maybe the family joke behind [the “Hiptionary”] — that I need all the help I can get to be a little bit more hipper and to communicate to this generation of students,” DBC says. Laughing, he recalls using the book for the first time in chapel and realizing that people liked it. The book is occasionally used in chapel and is sort of his “schtick,” as he describes it.
DBC spent time working at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston, and Mrs. Corey knew he would need a “vocabulary recalibration” upon coming to Biola. The transition from seminary to a university would require a different type of lingo, according to DBC.
“Despite what students think of me, I am just an ordinary guy,” DBC says. “I think [my children] love me and respect me, but when people started thinking I was cool, they were like, ‘You have to be kidding me.’”
DBC describes himself as being notorious for using words that do not exist. He leans in to say that one of his secrets is, “I sometimes sing the wrong lyrics to a song.”
“Everybody is looking at me, almost to say it’s gi-nor-mous, not guy-normous,” DBC recalls from one chapel speaking experience. “The irony is in trying to be hip, I pronounced a word that every student knows as gi-nor-mous.” Trying to be hip had seemingly made him less hip, he says.
DBC jokes that the authors may need to write another edition, as “The Little Hiptionary” is starting to lose its hipness. It helps that his family has their own words that they use, called “Corey Family Sayings.” He keeps a log to give to his children to reflect back on as they grow older. Currently, his family has about 100 words or phrases saved.
Wegg (egg + waffle) v. – When DBC fries an egg on the waffle iron.
DBC describes the book as helping him look hip but does not think the words itself make him hip. However, DBC thinks highly of his students and believes they carry a hipness about them.
“Biola students are world-changers, impressive, and high caliber,” DBC says. “I’m so proud!”
