Talk:University of Colorado at Boulder

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[edit] Notable CU Students

Katie Hnida, football place kicker (now attends University of New Mexico) Not a notable person, should be removed from list --Gephart 15:15, 7 September 2005 (UTC)


I tend to agree. She was all hype and no substance. However, she has her own page here, so I think we'll have a hard time making that argument unless that page is first deleted. I think it should be, but that probably means little. If you remove the link I will not object, but others probably will. Your call.Gator1 16:26, September 7, 2005 (UTC)

I completely disagree. How can you justify removing reference or link to Hnida when a lengthy paragraph on Gamow's misconduct remains? The Barnett's era of athletic department misogyny, and the wider impact the excessive sports culture has on American universities is far more fiting for inclusion than a recent incident of individual misconduct. --Edivorce 02:02, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Honor Code

To Lentell, who added a large section on the CU Honor Code that he says he wrote:

I understand that you have a great deal of pride in your role with the CU Honor Code. I also understand that you want to let people know about it. No doubt, the work that it takes to devise and implement a university-wide initiative is no small feat and it should be recognized.

However, I am concerned with the amount of text covering the Honor Code. While I see that the Honor Code is personally important to you, I do not see how the worldwide audience of people that visit such an encyclopedia article will care about the topic. CU students and faculty may care about the code, but they are free to visit the CU web site for more information about it.

If you severely cut down the size of your recent addition, then a small mention of the code would be appropriate. As it stands, the Honor Code section is far too detailed for an encyclopedia entry. It is also too unspecific to stand (what students were "frustrated with the lack of academic integrity on campus"? All of them? Why does it matter that "information tables were set up around campus"?)

Finally, you need to cite the exact Honor Code web page where this text is from. Otherwise, you will be accused of plagiarism again. If you need help with citing external sources, let me know and I'll try to help. --Rookkey 04:02, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

I vote for abridging. C.f. honor code coverage for other institutions:
paragraphs words
University of Colorado at Boulder 6 468
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering 5 259
Brigham Young University 1 171
Princeton University 1 135
Haverford College 2 124
Connecticut College 2 122
Harvey Mudd College 3 85
Agnes Scott College 1 59
California Institute of Technology 1 59
College of William and Mary 2 38
Oxford College of Emory University 1 28
Oral Roberts University 1 21
Bryn Mawr College ½ 12
Emory University 0 0
Georgetown University 0 0
Hampden-Sydney College 0 0
This table includes the first 15 (of 30) colleges listed in Honor code, and CU-Boulder.
—Fleminra 04:23, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Beautiful campus?

Regarding the recent de-puffing: some of the puff can be substantiated:

  1. The Campus as a Work of Art (ISBN 0275939677) ranks CU-Boulder #4 in the category of “most architecturally successful campuses in the country.”
  2. American Institute of Architects calls the campus “one of America’s most significant works of architecture.”
  3. American Universities Admission Program [1] ranks it #2 (tied) for “Most Beautiful Campus” [2].

Also, since Tuscan order merits an article, this article may as well somehow link to it (but probably without the previous “unique” qualifier). —Fleminra 20:49, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree -- the Tuscan order should definitely be mentioned, and those are some great stats -- you should throw those direct quotations in the article, methinks. JDoorjam 23:49, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merge from Boulder, Colorado

Two sections seem more related to CU than Boulder from the Boulder article. They are Hate crimes at CU-Boulder and Riots and alcohol. Thoughts?

Ken

Definately two articles. I'm working on an expanded article for the U of C, but I don't have a lot of time right now. I think universities need to be kept separate from the towns they're located in, even if there is a lot of overlap. Kerowyn 09:10, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
Kerowyn, I think you misread the proposal (or I didn't insert the templates right). I'm proposing that two specific sections from the Boulder article be shortened or removed and put into the CU article -- so yes, definitely two separate articles -- but which one contains which content?
One is the issue of riots near CU. This should be in the Boulder article because it happened off-campus and because the response and issues surrounding it were more about the city than the university.
The other is the series of letters sent to student leaders during 2005, the vandalism of CU property, etc. The reason it should be in the city's article is that it was covered in city newspapers, etc. The reason it should be in the CU article is that these incidents happened mostly on-campus between students.
I explain that because I think (forgive me if I'm wrong) that you thought I intended to merge the articles entirely -- which isn't the intent. Ken 18:23, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
It would be wrong to separate CU's riot issues from Boulder. The riots occur in Boulder. They implicate issues concerning Boulder's city government, police, and permanent residents. The resistance on the Boulder, CO pages to calling the riots what they really are is good evidence of why they need to be on the Boulder and not CU pages.
Brushing negative things about Boulder onto CU is a nice trick for editorialists but not for encyclopedists. Keep the riot material and also the race material on the Boulder pages!
Moving the race material is especially alarming. The BOulder boosters who edit these pages think they are liberals. But, as soon as a contentious race issue gets mentioned, they want to move it somewhere else even while they keep silly things about goats, prairie dogs and etc.
The purpose isn't to move content anyone would perceive as negative off the article. I agree there do seem to be a lot of people from Boulder editing the city's article, which is okay as long as they (including myself) are objective. To the complaint that I (and others) have acted in an effort to keep the article positive: I don't think we have. Arguably, the picture of Ward Churchill has nothing to do with the city itself, but no one took it out. Jon Benet was expanded. On the detailing of every bonfire on university hill -- for a single neighborhood that has a an ongoing problem with bonfires and riots, I think the 4 paragraphs dedicated to it are on the side of being too much, not to little. Los Angeles, in comparison, only passingly mentions the riots that have happened there, although those have entire articles.
Someone (you?) added personal anecdotal generalization about racism in Boulder, which is fine but sharing personal stories isn't really what wikipedia is for. So I added the two sections on the hate crimes at CU and the white flight issue at the bilingual schools. Ken 18:47, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Okay. The Hate crimes at CU section could be moved to the University article, but the riots article should be left here and perhaps copied into the University article. The paragraphs on the riots in the Boulder section could also be cut down a bit. Kerowyn 03:06, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

---My reaction to this is that the stuff about riots and race is important to boulder. First, I know people who moved to Boulder who would not have if they had known about the riots. A truthful Wikipedia article would prevent mistakes like this. Second, as to race, Boulderites really do need to wake up to their race problems and maybe this article would help them to grapple with them. Wayne Laugesen's right that a lot of the alleged liberalism of Boulder also serves to exclude people of color. Sweeping this under the carpet or onto the CU pages would be a shame. I think these pages have been profiting from a real dialectic lately.

A good point. I'm going to add, though, that the riots occur mostly in the Hill neighborhood. It's not like the whole town goes up in flames every year. Kerowyn 22:40, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
I think the explanation of why bonfires are dangerous could probably be trimmed down a bit. I think most people (except Wayne Laugesen) are aware that bonfires do pose a public safety hazard, and a detailed explanation of why probably isn't necessary. Bare in mind that the current text of the riots is something of a compromise, in-case you hadn't noticed.
For the CU Hate Crimes. I'd think we could keep a paragraph or two about race in Boulder that mentions the 2005 vandalism/death threats/assault and links to the CU article. Or if anyone wants to do enough research, it could be its own article mutually linked to. Not sure whether the series of events justifies its own article.
anon -- You had mentioned other studies of white flight in a community that allegedly prides itself on diversity. Any chance you could dig those up and expand on that? Right now that section rests basically on a Denver Post report and Laugesen's editorial. Certainly there are sociologists who have studied this. It's basically gentrification without ever having economic/cultural/racial diversity in the first place. (Not surprisingly, the city formed a committee on economic diversity a while ago.) Ken 06:07, 19 January 2006 (UTC)
That might be better covered in the white flight article. --Kerowyn 08:44, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merge Done

As per our discussion, I've moved over the hate crimes at CU-Boulder to the CU article. I've kept the white flight discussion in the Boulder page, and have removed the merge templates. Ken 01:22, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

  • Thanks. --Kerowyn 06:58, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Macky Auditorium

Article merged with UCB as per AfD discussion.  (aeropagitica)  21:00, 12 March 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Surely...

I live in Boulder, and I personally think that this article is both incomplete and, in a sense not NPOV, since there's so much more material on the athletics and controversial aspects of the school than on the academics...I know that those are notable, but the article doesn't even have much of any information on the academics of the school... 24.8.162.216Max J

  • Agreed. WE don't need detailed court records or depositions of those involved. If no one objects in a week or so, I'm going to edit down the sex scandal section to the more salient points. --Kerowyn 07:30, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
  • I object. If Max or others are committed to adding more material on the academics of the school, then that would certainly be relevant and would provide more balance. However, this is not the same as saying that the sections on the controversial aspects of the school should be reduced. Who is the "we" who don't need detailed information about the alleged sexual assaults? Certainly many prospective students -- particularly women -- and their parents, who are among those most likely to visit this page, would be likely to take an interest in the university's past treatment of issues of sexual violence and sexual harassment. It is potentially important information, it is accurate, and it is not readily available elsewhere. Perhaps a compromise would be to keep the "more salient points" on the CU page, with a link to a new page on the lawsuit specifically.
    • It's not like the media hasn't played up the assault every chance they get. The sexual assault contraversey is well-documented in other places. We don't need explicit detail on what was "alleged" to have occured. I would say another page is unnecessary for the same reasons that all this detail here is unecessary.--Kerowyn 05:32, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] For CU fans

I've created a new template for CU Buffs fans like myself; {{User CU fan}}, shown here;

CU

This user is a CU Buffs fan. Go Colorado!

Enjoy, go Buffs! Editor19841 23:45, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Controversy section

Would anyone like to add information about the extremely controversial actions taken by the CU Police on April 20th this year? This seems like an event worthy of mentioning

http://www.colorado.edu/police/420_Photo_Album/index.htm Ix 18:04, 30 April 2006 (UTC)


[edit] NPOV

Okay, the contraversey section is getting out of hand. It takes up a disproportional amount of room. A bulletpoint by bulletpoint listing of events on campus, regardless of their accuracy, tends to imply that the university is full of rampaging hooligans. Obviously the recruiting scandal and the Gamgow issue needs to be mentioned, but I think a total of 3-4 paragraphs ought to be plenty. Can I get some other opinions? --Kerowyn 05:09, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Agree. The controversies section is getting out of hand - I'm not close enough to CU to know what events are really notable and what events are not, but I do think this list is very long (and I'm not aware of any analogous list on another University's page). Baylor University has (or had, at least) a controversies and criticisms section, but it is devoted to controversial decisions made by the University's administration, not (for example) racist action taken by a small group of students. Personally, I would recommend creation of a Colorado Buffaloes Athletics (or similarly titled) article containing information about CU athletics in general, as such articles are becoming common (see Texas Longhorn Athletics, for example), and moving the athletics-related criticism there. CU athletics is -- as far as I can tell -- notable enough for its own article in general, and that would provide a good place to put much of the criticism currently on the main University’s page; CU athletics may be notable due to controversy, but I would say only a passing mention of recruiting scandals (with a link to the section in the athletics article about the scandals) is needed in the CU entry itself. --EdisonLBM 23:07, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
I like that idea. Athletics is a pretty big deal at CU, and in addition to the Division I teams, there are a number of club sports. --Kerowyn 01:25, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree that we create a new section on athletics. Please remove the athletic "controversies" and place them there.

[edit] School Colors

The official school colorado are Silver and Gold. Black is not an official color. Please see [3] --MECU≈talk 19:58, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Accomplishments

These accomplishments seem very broad to be all attributed to the University of Colorado at Boulder. There needs to either be some editing or some references to these actual accomplishments. The item that bothers me particularly is the "Discovered how a human cancer gene functions." This seems very broad and most likely very exaggerated.

I added the {{references}} to this section. Any item thus listed should have a reference and if it's truly notable, then it should easily have a reference. MECU≈talk 00:17, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Academic - Specifc Programs to be listed

There seems to be some disagreement over programs being listed under Academics. The latest contribution shows an program that is claimed to be unique. Yet there is no reference or cite to support this claim. I am requesting that any program that someone wishes to be listed there should have a minimum of one nationally respected reference to support its claim to be unique or special or especially important to the University. --MECU≈talk 22:51, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

It claims to be a unique program on the Initiative's website. There really aren't any major references to the program outside of the university because it was only launched in 2004. It seems like we can't decide what to do with this section. It was originally part of the CU article, then it was given its own page. I put it back in here because there didn't seem to be enough to warrant an independant article. The same thing happened to the section on the Creative Writing Department. Kerowyn Leave a note 04:49, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
Then it sounds like promotion and marketing and less factual. I think a source to support any programs inclusion should not be related to the University as well. --MECU≈talk 13:38, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Architecture

I'm not really sure why the Engineering building is singled out for a picture in the Architecture section. If one walks around campus it isn't the best example of the Tuscan style that is characteristic of most buildings at CU. Actually, it's probably one of the worst examples because of the buildings liberal use of concrete and much more modern design. I just thought this was a strange picture to use for the architecture section which highlights the Tuscan style at CU....A CU Student 1/15/2007 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.176.58.188 (talk) 06:26, 16 January 2007 (UTC).

Actually, the engineering center has won awards for it's design, so having it is quite good. But I agree, there should be other images, such as the image request below to show other images. I'll get around to it probably during the spring football game when I'm on campus anyways which is April I think. --MECU≈talk 23:25, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
Could you please substantiate this? Personally, the engineering center is quite possible the most hideous building I've ever seen. The interior is mostly concrete with overhead pipes exposed everywhere, it's impossible to find your way around it unless you spend 24/7 in there (like me), and it barely even matches the CU theme (it's like they put red sandstone on a huge concrete slab as an afterthought). I have to agree with the first poster. --Tspike 05:15, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
I also agree that the building is not particularly attractive, nor is it a very good example of the Architecture at CU. The only thing that I think really speaks about the campus in the engineering center is the white chalk marks on the lower level where people have used the flagstone imbeded in the concrete for bouldering practice in their free time. Barbedwireincident 09:48, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
I guess I wasn't clear (bad me!): The external design of the engineering center has won award(s). The internal, I agree, is a joke, horrendous and bland. It was awarded the AIA Colorado 25-Year Award in 1994 (first year of award), see http://www.ucar.edu/communications/newsreleases/1997/ml25.html . That's the only award I can find. I dunno if one would consider that award notable, since it seems Colorado-centric, but it is an award. If you can wait 2.5 weeks, I'm still planning to take pictures on campus during the CU football spring game so we'll have plenty of pictures then. If there's a specific building you want, lemme know. Hopefully it's a good weather day. I've got Sommers-Bausch Observatory on my list, as well as Mary Rippon Theatre, Macky, and Norlin Library. I'll take other pictures of other buildings as I go by them as well. Perhaps the UMC and Old Main too. --MECU≈talk 13:18, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Photo request

We need some good open-source photos to illustrate the architecture on campus, specifically Norlin Library and Macky Auditorium. If someone who lives in Boulder could snap a few shots for us and upload them to the Commons that would be great. Kerowyn Leave a note 22:58, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

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