Talk:Denice Denton

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[edit] misc

I have added an Associated Press report of her death as a reference. Capitalistroadster 04:45, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

I removed the reference to Denton receiving widespread criticism about her sexual orientation. I don't think it's based in fact. Yes, there was criticism that UC secretly created a high-paid job for her partner. But I think the same criticism would have been made if her partner were male. ((unsigned, when?))

Not clear that it was a secret. At [1] Denton speaks (Dec 2004) of "the UC system in welcoming and providing great opportunities for Gretchen and me." And the 1/20/05 Schevitz article mentions that recruitment package for UCSD Chancellor Marye Ann Fox included hiring James Whitesell as a professor of chemistry. Of course, Whitesell is Fox's husband, not as the SF Chron's headline had Kalonjii, a "lesbian lover". And he came cheaper... Andyvphil 11:00, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
It wasn't a secret. [2] Andyvphil 19:01, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Oceansartemis

Made significant changes to this page for:

1) accuracy (capitalization, punctuation, spelling, wiki references, historical references, etc.);

2) to rid it of pointless references to her parents' married lives - this is Denton's entry, not theirs;

3) to rid it of bias against her manner of death (a few simple, short mentions of suicide will suffice);

4) to rid it of the massive redundancy (also seen all over the news) about the dispute about her hiring - the woman had nearly three decades of exceptional achievements in academia and a few short months of dispute over her position at UCSC; the entry should reflect that equation;

5) completeness (dates, awards, positions, etc.) Oceansartemis 20:14, 29 June 2006 (UTC)


C'mon oceans. You are trying to make this "complete" but at the same time you remove the details about the compensation and suicide. The compensation and suicide are the biggest angles on Denton's story and the reason this page has received so much attention in the past week. Her life before 2005 DOES need more attention but lets not shrink other sections. Justforasecond 23:57, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
I concur with Justforasecond. Her suicide is the primary reason she is getting nationwide attention now. Before that, everything else in her career was reported by California news sources. --Coolcaesar 06:21, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
A person's biography is their complete biography. Not just what you think is important. Other people think her early career is more interesting than her splattered body on the roof of a parking garage. When you write a biography you do it from beginning to end. Starting in the middle just means people come in behind you and add the parts you left out. Wjhonson 07:58, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Frankly, this is a bit of a whitewash at the moment. We should mention in the article the problems that led to her suicide in an NPOV way. Capitalistroadster 09:13, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
If you can do it, go for it. Wjhonson 16:23, 30 June 2006 (UTC)


Yes, your biases are clear and they don't belong in a short, simple biography in an encyclopedia (you might want to pick one up some time to see what's in them). Your own shallow ideas give you away ("biggest angles," "getting nationwide attention," "splattered," "whitewash"); these aren't the words of thoughtful scholars attempting to create a meaningful entry in Wikipedia. This is not a news story, it's not a titillating expose for television, and it's not your little clubhouse for exercising your opinions about what biographies should be. The fact that you just found out about her this week doesn't mean a thing. Go play in another sandbox unless you can be respectful of this person's life and work. Oceansartemis 17:17, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Dem's fightin words! Hope you got your bile out now. Maybe you'd like to follow your own advice. Seems like you are the one trying to excercise *your* opinion, by deleting citing references to her life. Homey don't play dat! So take your attitude and go lay in it. Thanks for playing ! Wjhonson 17:36, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Biographies need to give the reader a balanced view of the subjects life. This article doesn't at the moment. It breaches our core policies of Neutral Point of View and arguably Original Research. Any self-respecting biographer would refer to the problems that she had over the last few months of her life. Capitalistroadster 17:52, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Oceans -- please tone down the rhetoric. You need to assume good faith, not assume bias. I agree that we need more on this woman's life before the past year. Do you have any material to contribute? what she did in her research, what she did at UW, etc? I read somewhere she stood up to Larry Summers and his mysogenism Justforasecond 18:05, 30 June 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Education

MIT's alumni database lists her distinguished degrees as: 1982, SB - Bachelor Of Science, Course 61 - Electrical Engrg

1982, SM - Master Of Science, Course 6A - Elec Eng - Internshp

1983, EE - Electrical Engineer, Course 6A - Elec Eng - Internshp

1987, PHD - Doctor Of Phil, Course 6A - Elec Eng - Internshp

Would it be better to fully include this information?

Amasa walker III 18:24, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Please do ! I nominate you to add it ! :) Wjhonson 20:00, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Photo, etc.

I added a photo available to the media from the UCSC web site. This should qualify as fair use since the university seems to offering it as part of an online press packet. Also cleaned up some of the writing from passive tense to active and disambiguated a few terms. Crunch 13:08, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] article in the March 2007 San Francisco Magazine

There's an article apparently called "The Scandal, the Scapegoat and the Suicide" by Diana Kapp in the March 2007 San Francisco Magazine. It's mentioned, but no text yet, at [3]. I think it'll be in the online archives next month, when someone can add it to the external links or whatever. I have what, from the typos, appears to be a preprint of the text...but it's on the racks right now. Andyvphil 03:38, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

This is a puzzler. I never found SF Magazine on the supermarket racks I looked at, and now I can't find the article in SF Mag's archives. Not every article from the March issue is listed at [4] but it should be something of the form http://www.sanfran.com/archives/view_story/15nn/ ...and I can't find it, either by looking at the 20-40 range or by search for "Denton" or "Scandal". As I said, it was described, with no text yet archived, as being in the March issue, at [5]early this month(and should've been on the racks in February) so I went ahead and used the printout I had as the basis for some of my edits. And I didn't keep my printout, I think. It seems crazy to think it could have been suppresssed...but I saw it listed, and now it's gone without trace! Anyone have the March issue on paper??? Andyvphil 01:11, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
OK, here it is: [6]. Andyvphil 18:50, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removed References

I had to remove a few references where people just said things like (Santa Cruz newspaper article) with no title, date or link. That's not a valid reference. You have to provide more info. It you're adding a citation, there's Wikipedia's article on citing sources: Citing Sources. Crunch 12:54, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Feel free to Wikify the inline cites, but you also replaced two perfectly acceptable cites of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper with a [citation needed]. Andyvphil 19:25, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, sfgate.com was apparently malfunctioning when I checked that particular reference. Crunch 00:16, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What number chancellor?

UCSC has had seven chancellors, the last of whom was Denice Denton. They were, in order:

  1. Dean McHenry
  2. Mark Christensen
  3. Robert Sinsheimer
  4. Robert Stevens
  5. Karl Pister
  6. M.R.C. Greenwood
  7. Denice Denton

Neither Martin Chelmers nor George Blumenthal, who book-ended Denton's tenure, was ever (or has yet been) invested by UC, and thus neither has technically been an "official" Chancellor who would affect "the numbers." --Dynaflow 02:39, 19 April 2007 (UTC)