Possible Clues:

• Standing out as heading for fall, they say
• Outstanding reminder about university
• Projecting above a surface
• Outstanding, and so self-assured
• Self-satisfied - stately - protruding
• Outstanding US author -- not 60 -- dead
• Sadly drop out of university, though outstanding
• Stuck-up pair meeting another stuck-up pair
• Haughty; projecting a little
• Like new grandparents