Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Tony Vinson

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The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. Orderinchaos 16:13, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tony Vinson

Tony Vinson (edit|talk|history|links|watch|logs) – (View log)

Just another professor and bureaucrat. Fails WP:PROF. Body of work typical for your average tenured professor. Writing this stuff is what professors do and what would be remarkable was if he didn't have this publishing history. All writings published by academic journals or government printers, no commercial publishers. I would be a lot more impressed if there were writings about him - interviews and articles in the press, etc. - than I am by the writings by him. I'm sure he's a fine fellow.Herostratus 21:11, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

  • Tony Vinson is a major Australian writer, public servant, and academic. He is an Honorary Professor, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, and Emeritus Professor, University of NSW. As well as heading the department for correctional services, he has chaired several major state and national enquiries, been the subject of legal action with the media, and has won several awards. His reports are often debated at election time by Australian politicians.—Preceding unsigned comment added by TylerDurden1963 (talk • contribs)
  • Weak delete. The above user claims that Tony has "been the subject of legal action with the media", which would hint at notability -- if only I could find said media (besides the press release that User:TylerDurden1963 copy-pasted here. However, that aside, I still can find only trivial mentions of him online, so I agree that he fails WP:PROF. Ten Pound Hammer • (((Broken clamshells • Otter chirps))) 21:35, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep per rewrite made by User:TylerDurden1963. Page looks much better now. Ten Pound Hammer • (((Broken clamshells • Otter chirps))) 22:57, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Much of his career and work occurred before the Internet was invented. Professor Vinson's work appears via 'Google News' with great regularity. He is one of Australia's most lauded academics, with a broad range of academic awards.

Just the last week or so: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2007/s1920584.htm http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/so-far-bracks-is-passing-his-fairness-test/2007/05/23/1179601484586.html http://www.careandhealth.com/Pages/Story.aspx?StoryID=5b442993-0c08-4a5a-b316-2d76d9a4614c Professor Vinson's longstanding reputation and contributions FAR outweigh many other Australian Academics on Wikipedia with whom there is no controversy. TylerDurden1963 21:43, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

  • I also ought to point out that Universities do NOT award an honorary D.Litt lightly, moreover they do not refer to their recipients as "One of Australia's leading social scientists and outspoken public intellectuals"

( http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=83 ) without it being true. I would be inclined to trust the University of Sydney in this regard. TylerDurden1963 21:49, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

    • Comment Actually, in some countries, they do give honorary doctorates out like candy. Some universities have 20 or 30 honorary doctorates per convocation, and many are local officials who don't come close to meeting WP:BIO. This may be why the editor didn't see that as a notability standard. --Charlene 08:03, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
Comment And, frankly, PR flack is PR flack-- the material prepared by universities on their own faculty can be a little dubious as far as the adjectives are concerned. Better to go by the accomplishments. DGG 02:20, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
  • To look at Wikipedia's own standards: "an academic involved in significant current events is likely to be notable as a person under the general WP:BIO guidelines.

An academic repeatedly quoted in newspapers or newsmagazines may be considered to meet criterion 1." Professor Vinson's opinions, work, research, and results are the continual source of political debate in Australia. As previously mentioned, Google News confirms this quite simply. TylerDurden1963 21:55, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

  • Strong keep I guess this has to be repeated each day. Holders of named chairs at major research universities are almost always N. They have necessarily published multiple works as peer-reviewed book or journal articles. They have been reviewed for the position by peer review committees using much higher standards than anything we can do here. The article should show his contributions, & that should be fixed.
The possible legal notability needs to be sourced. But even without it, distinguished academic are notable, as are distinguished people in every profession. We tell that they are distinguished by their accomplishments, and a named chair at a university is a very distinctive accomplishment indeed. Publishing large amounts of scholarly writing is not what " juat another professor" does--it's what a distinguished professor does.
In any field whatsoever, I regard nominations using the phrase "just another ..." with extremne skepticism. It's like saying "just another senator" who did what senators are expected to do, which is win elections. I cannot see the point of continued nominations of people with this sort of background, since they are always held notable at AfD if the career is real. There are hundred of bios of non notable or questionably notable academics to delete: as a rough guide, you can tell them apart because the possibly NN ones whose N is worth discussing do not hold full professorships at universities or named chairs. DGG 23:58, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Strong keep with significant reports under his name, such as, "Community Adversity and Resilience Report" for Jesuit Social Services http://acl.arts.usyd.edu.au/jss/ Paul foord 00:47, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Strong keep per DGG and others above. More research should be done before bringing full Professors to AfD. --Bduke 00:51, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Strong keep per all the above. Significant works, used as a reference by many. Simply checking Google Scholar would have prevented this Afd. John Vandenberg 00:57, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
  • (Strong) keep per publication record, demonstrated notability and respect in the community (named chairs, honorary doctorate, etc.) -- I almost feel that "tenured professor at major university with detailed article with at least some verifiable sources" needs to go into the list of common outcomes as "keep" (as surely as HS garage band with no recordings and "first gig coming in a few months!" goes under delete). There's almost never anything else that happens with these AfD's. -- Myke Cuthbert (talk) 01:32, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep as per all above. Lankiveil 02:31, 26 May 2007 (UTC).
    • Strong Keep. Tony Vinson has been a significant figure in Australian public policy since the 1970's. There are 678 Google News results for "Tony Vinson" most of them relevant to him covering his policy work such as [1] and [2] and [3]. Capitalistroadster 02:34, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Strong Keep. Vinson has been a significant figure since the 1970s in Australian politics.--Grahamec 03:13, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Strong Keep. Vinson has played a pivotal role in education public policy in Australia for many years. You may as well delete the sections about education in Australia. Recurring dreams 03:56, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep Any baby boomer would instantly know the name. Assize 07:24, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep per above. Stifle (talk) 13:28, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep per rewrite, notable prof.
  • Keep but remove copyvios - Vinson is a genuinely notable academic, but large sections of this article are copyright violations including an entire paragraph lifted directly from here - [[4]]. Also, no need to gild the lily - Vinson is not and never has been in contention for head of the State Education Department. Euryalus 06:01, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
  • Keep per commenters above, publishing record meets WP:PROF in my opinion as well. Yamaguchi先生 07:08, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.