Talk:California Southern University

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[edit] What we don't know about "Cal Southern University"

It looks like it's time for a discussion (in lieu of an edit war) of the issue of what this article should report regarding the "Cal Southern University" that the states of Texas and Oregon both say is unaccredited and/or unauthorized, is not a California institution, and is based in Niue.

I believe that the article should not say "This is a different institution that is not related to California Southern University in Santa Ana," because I am not aware of any reliably sourced information to support that statement. Furthermore, I know of no reliably sourced information that connects this "Cal Southern" to California Southern University. Accordingly, it makes sense to me for the article simply to report what these authorities report regarding a "Cal Southern University". As written, the text suggests to me that this is probably a different school, but the article does not say that.

I also believe the article should not say "There is no available information to indicate whether or not this institution is still in operation." When I deleted that sentence, my edit summary said "No point in listing the many things we don't know", but on reflection I think that this sentence probably is original research, since it implies three things we don't actually know: (1) that Cal Southern is or was a different institution (we have sourced information on that), (2) that Cal Southern "operated" at one time or another (we actually have almost no information on what Cal Southern is or what it did), and (3) that there is some basis for speculating that Cal Southern might have closed. Speculation of this nature does not belong in an encyclopedia article.

There are many things we don't know about Cal Southern University, so it's important to limit the article to reporting of reliably sourced information. --Orlady (talk) 20:20, 30 April 2008 (UTC)