Talk:Hillcrest Honors Community

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You have new messages (last change).

I removed the following: "On any given day in the Hillcrest Honors Community, a walk through the halls could bring extremely loud classical music and whistling, open critiquing of various science fiction television programs, and intense video game competition. The halls are festively decorated with liberal political paraphernalia and an overall anti-Bush atmosphere abounds." This is at the very least incorrect, and at best, irrelevant. --Aciel 17:53, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

I think we should leave the info about room layout and bathrooms for a little bit farther down the page -- in my opinion that's not the most interesting thing about Hillcrest. Also, the information about SGA Parking fight is just incorrect. I'll fix it later. - Ryan

Oy. I think this article has some problems with lack of NPOV, which isn't surprising considering it's primarily being written by members of the Hillcrest Community. I'll try to sift through some of the flagrant POV problems and inaccuracies when I get a chance. Personally, I'd question whether this article should even exist, but we'll run with it for now, I guess. In particular, take a look at Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not in thinking about what to say here, particularly the bits about Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a soapbox. Also might I suggest that people inclined to contribute to this article also consider contributing to the main article about Virginia Tech? I find it sad (but not unsurprising) that the section on athletics is longer than the section on academics. --Geoff 19:04, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

I was attempting to write something along the lines of the article for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. I started this during final exam week, and unfortunately didn't get a chance to do any actual research about the program. I thought perhaps if we listed some of the people who had come out of Hillcrest, such as Fulbright Scholars and Rhodes Scholars and Marshall Scholars (I think there's one or two). Alternatively, perhaps this article should be made a part of the Virginia Tech article... But, yes, I see what you mean about it being borderline as a Wikipedia article subject. --Aciel 19:30, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

For comparison, see UCA Honors College. While that article has something of a self-promotional tone, an article about an honors college seems to have a little more legitimacy (in my mind) than one about an honors community. Of course, since starting next year, Virginia Tech will have just such an honors college, the possibility of an article about it is raised. Perhaps this article should be moved to a subsection in Virginia Tech Honors College. However, I think maybe a good thorough interview with the honors director regarding the future directions of the honors college would be in order before such an article was attempted. --Geoff 19:36, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Colloquium Magnum

Colloquium Magnus is no longer correct. Official correspondence on the Hillcrest forums now refers to the course as Colloquium Magnum, so that the gender of the adjective corresponds to the gender of the noun. It is also my opinion that too much mention of the parking fiasco between Hillcrest and SGA will make this be an article about current university events rather than Hillcrest. Therefore, I have removed nearly all mention of this. --Aciel 05:44, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

Good. Also, the Hillcrest Honors Community article as a section of the Honors College article is a good idea; Main Campbell should have a section too, but obviously they will have a lot less to put until they develop their own traditions. In the meantime, let's at least try to clean this one up. I might do that tonight, if Law and Order doesn't hold my attention. - Ryan

Sweet jesus, I just actually read the part about parking passes ... "third rate lawyers"? That's just third-rate writing. I'm changing it now. - Ryan

Perhaps we should just move the parking passes bit completely, eh? It's a bit out of place on Wikipedia. I'm neutral on it, but to the average person it may seem a bit strange. --Aciel 13:49, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] National Scholarships

I think it's highly inappropriate to list the names of winners of scholarships, especially without their consent or notification. I'm removing the names and the headings that don't have anything below them. Also, when you make such changes please note it and give a bit of explanation in this Discussion forum. Ryanluck 07:46, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

Hmm. That hadn't occurred to me, especially since they're published. I mean, does anyone ask before noting that Bill Clinton or Gary Hart are Rhodes Scholars? Perhaps we could put down a number or something? --aciel 02:59, 18 December 2005 (UTC)
While their names are a matter of public record, I see no need on our part to make them easier to access unless we have their consent. The examples you gave are public figures who, it's safe to say, don't mind publicity. Rather than listing numbers of winners, I've been noting the scholarships with the graduate program of the individual. I haven't been doing that for NSFs. As far as I know there have only been two NSF winners from Hillcrest, one currently in Physics at MIT and one currently in Mech Eng at VT. Ryanluck 05:18, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] links

this should be linked from other places in wikipedia. currently it is only linked from user pages. looks a bit like a Wikipedia:Walled garden --Buridan 12:51, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Should this page exist?

Well, it's been eleven months, and I still sort of feel like this page shouldn't exist. Here's my problems with the article:

  • It's exceedingly narrow. Only a handful of people know or care about Hillcrest (though apparently at least three of us are Wikipedians!).
  • Because of this, it's immediately prone to POV problems, which are evident in the article at present. These could be fixed, but I think they'd just pop back up again.
  • The parking pass thing being here is absurd. I think I'll kill it as soon as I finish complaining here, actually. Without that, however, the Politics section becomes unnecessary; what's there could be a few lines in the introductory section.
  • The History section and part of the introductory section are more about the building than the community. They would fit better in an article titled something like Hillcrest Hall or Hillcrest Hall (Virginia Tech). The men's bathroom on the porch being a state monument would make this article interesting to people not actually living in the building, as well. However, if those are moved, then there's even less material here.
  • Much of the rest of the information is true about the Residential Honors College in general, rather than just Hillcrest. It should be in Virginia Tech University Honors or Virginia Tech Residential Honors College or some such.
  • There being so few alumni from Hillcrest, the lists of employers and graduate schools of alums makes it fairly easy to track down individuals. I don't think it's a good idea to provide those lists. But take this away along with the things above, and there's virtually nothing left in the article.
  • User:Buridan suggests that this is a "walled garden," which I don't think is quite true, as there's no other Hillcrest-y articles out there that we're interlinking. However, that does bring up the good point that this page isn't linked to from anywhere else. Would it really fit to have a link from the main Virginia Tech page? Any attempt to do so would be out of place, I think, and would add nothing to that article. On the other hand, Hillcrest Hall and Virginia Tech University Honors are clear candidates for mention in an article about Virginia Tech, and thus linking.

That said, I think that the contributions User:Aciel and User:Ryanluck have made here have definitely pointed out that Hillcrest Hall and Virginia Tech University Honors pages could and should exist, and there's already a bit of good information for those articles here. I suggest that we create those two articles (or something along those lines) and transfer the relevant information there. Virginia Tech University Honors could include a subsection describing both the Hillcrest and Main Campbell communities, as part of the larger Honors program. Hillcrest Hall, of course, could easily mention that the building houses the Hillcrest Honors Community, and refer the reader to Virginia Tech University Honors.

I'm interested to hear your feedback on this suggestion, and arguments as to why I'm wrong in saying Hillcrest Honors Community should not exist (the article, not the community itself). --Geoff 00:35, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

As per our discussion earlier, I agree that we should probably split this article in two and expand each section appropriately. The two sections should be Hillcrest Hall and a mention under Virginia Tech University Honors. Ryanluck 07:53, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
Concur. Well said. --aciel 16:27, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] General changes/updates

  • I have removed the partial lists of grad schools / employers. This section is not at all useful. If a quarter of the 100 graduate and go to grad school each year, you're going to have a gracious plenty grad schools and employers - it's an unmaintainable and unverifiable list and doesn't really tell anything.
  • The other individual VT building articles that used to exist have been merged into Virginia Tech campus. The exceptions are Lane/Cassell (obvious reasons) and Lee Hall (notable because of the controversy over Mr. Lee's alleged racist affiliation). I have added a link to the main article and will add a link here from there. If you guys do refactor this article as per the discussion above, please update the Virginia Tech campus link.

BigDT 16:47, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

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