Talk:Wolf's Head (secret society)

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Thank you Cornell 2010, and good luck in 2007! ````SLY111

Look to cap WHS notables at 40, and it will change over time. The famous E.A. Merritt, mentioned in the article, makes 41 in total, but in the notables, a Top 40 will be listed. ````SLY111

Both Berzelius and Wolf's Head are said to be the "third-oldest secret society at Yale". Someone needs to research this before it can be said on either page.

Third oldest society debate: Berzelius was founded in 1848 and Wolf's Head was founded in 1883, so Berzelius is clearly an older institution. Nevertheless, there is a good reason why Wolf's Head claims to be the third oldest. Back when these societies were founded, Yale was actually made up of two different institutions - Yale College, which taught classics, social sciences and the humanities, and Sheffield Scientific School, which taught natural science. Berzelius was founded as a final club at Sheffield Scientific School and did not convert to a "senior society" of Yale College until 1933. Wolf's Head, on the other hand, was founded as a senior society from the get-go. Technically speaking, that would make Wolf's Head the third oldest senior society, and Berzelius would be the fifth oldest (behind Elihu, which was founded in 1903 as a senior society). Various factual and fictional accounts of Yale College in the early 20th century show that Yale College students did not recognize Berzelius or Book and Snake as senior societies. Owen Johnson's novel "Stover at Yale," for example, shows that Yale College students in the 1890's were concerned only with Bones, Keys, and Wolf's Head, even though both Berzelius (Colony) and Book and Snake (Cloister) were already in existence. The distinction between "Sheff societies" and senior societies is nonexistent nowadays, and Yale students are mainly concerned with "tombed" societies (societies with their own buildings), including Bones, Keys, Wolf's Head, Berzelius, Book and Snake, Elihu, Manuscript, Mace and Chain, St. Elmo, and the "unnamed" society, more commonly referred to as Hale Foundation.

Discussion of Freemasonry should occur more often when the societies at Yale or Dartmouth or anywhere in American collegiate life are discussed. Granted, it's a Phd mother lode of discussion, but with a shovel....SLY111

[edit] Tone

This article needs to be rewritten in an encyclopedic style. Right now, it reads like boosterism with a lot POV and weasel words. Some citations would be nice as well. Some examples:

• "Then as now, some observers suspect the ultimate purposes of any secret society." (weasel words)
• "The society system distinguishes Yale among American universities with global gravity." (distinguishes how? what is 'global gravity'?)
• "To be frank, and to paraphrase a knowledgeable alumnus and former Boston mayoral hopeful: WHS stands in relation to Bones as the Boston Red Sox stand in relation to the New York Yankees. To continue the comparison, Keys could be considered the St. Louis Cardinals: in a different "league" than the other two, with more acclaim than one competitor but less than the other." ('To be frank'? An encyclopedia should always be frank. Which alumnus are you referring to? Why so coy? Shouldn't he be quoted, rather than paraphrased? As it is, it's POV. A direct quotation and citation would fix this. It probably needs to be explained further for the majority of our readers who aren't baseball fans. Remember, this is a global encyclopedia.)

There are many other examples, but you get the idea. --dm ^(talk) 15:29, 20 February 2007 (UTC)