Talk:George Mason University

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[edit] Notable Faculty

[1] All of these professors should be included as notable faculty. Some are already there. Trefil and Hazen for example are regarded very highly in their respective fields. If you noticed, Trefil already has his own wikipedia page, thus showing that he is a recognized person.

[edit] GMU Alumni & Students

Add "Category:Wikipedians by alma mater: George Mason University" to your user pages! Hiberniantears 15:09, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes, see Mason's category page [2] for how to associate yourself with the school on Wikipedia.--Joshua4 10:02, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Peer Review

I have requested Peer Review of this article to gather suggestions for improvement and to prepare it for a Featured Article nomination. Please see Wikipedia:Peer review/George Mason University for the discussion. Joshua4 10:03, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Alumni Section

Should Karl Rove and Anna Escobedo Cabral be listed in the alumni section? I think they should be taken out of the article.

Perhaps they should be listed as notable former students? Hiberniantears 13:57, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

I'd rather have the list indicate some are former students. Alumni means you graduated. It should still be noted that Rove attended, though. --Skynet 21:21, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

- An alumnus, according to the dictionary definition is "(in Latin a masculine noun) [which] refers to a male graduate or former student. (From wikipedia, of course). Technically, by this definition, a former student is also an alumnus.

[edit] Anita Bath

Does anyone know who this is? RHA and Associates seems to be non-existent company

I'm guessing this is redundant-- RHI is Robert Half International, and I think RHA was the original name of the company-- Robert Half and Associates. It's the temp agency that runs Officeteam and Accountemps.

I might be off here, but that's what I assumed...

Seriously? Anita Bath = "I Need A Bath" Corsulian (talk) 17:34, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] GMU Police

Another prominent aspect of GMU is the seemingly ubiquitous presence of the GMU Police.. there is a ratio of approximately 1 officer per 135 resident students. Thc420 05:22, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thats common of all universities. Agriculture 05:43, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Final Four

I am deleteing the sentence "In what is regarded as the greatest upset in NCAA history"... it happend all of three hours from the time that I am writing this, there is absolutley no way someone can objectively make that statement. It's a great accomplishment, but to make that claim only hours after the accomplishment its ridiculous.

[edit] Mid Majors in Final Four

There was a statement that said they were the first mid-major since 1979 to be in the Final 4, when Penn made it as a #9 seed. This is not true, there have been a handful of "mid-majors" (or for argument's sake, teams not from one of the 6 BCS conferences) to have made the Final 4 since 1979, they were just all #1 seeds so it wasn't such a surprise that they did it. Indiana St. did it as a #1 (also in 1979), so did UNLV in 1990/91, as did UMass in 1996. There are others but I'm pretty sure they are in BCS conferences now if they weren't at the time of their Final Four appearance. I changed it to "the first team from a mid-major conference that was not seeded #1 to reach the Final Four since 1979, when Penn reached as a #9 seed."

marcusmv3 12:58, 28 March 2006

[edit] Student Government

I removed the section on Student Government as it dealt mainly with interaction regarding one specific student. If Student Government sections are common to University articles on Wikipedia, I propose limiting the section in this article strictly to the structure of student government as a compromise. Hiberniantears 18:12, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Karl Rove

I seem to recall that Karl Rove was a student at GMU for a period of time (graduate work). Can anyone confirm this? Hiberniantears 14:10, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

So the story goes. See Karl Rove. --Vector4F 04:08, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Considering the controversy surrounding Karl Rove, I'm not sure if that's something the school should advertise...Joshua4 09:20, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure you should advertise how slanted you are. --Haizum μολὼν λαβέ 08:18, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] are you illiterate

anita bath = i need a bath

[edit] Largest university?

The opening segment states that GMU is the largest public university in the Commonwealth of Virginia with an enrollment of over 29,000; however, the Virginia Commonwealth University article states that it is the largest with an enrollment of over 31,000. Could somebody please look into this? Thanks. Daniel 23:15, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

I just checked the Collegeboard.com profiles for GMU and VCU, which states the enrollment of the two schools as 28,242 an 25,961, respectively. Consulting the two schools' websites, GMU stated 29,728, while I could only find "more than 29,000" students for VCU. So, I think that unless someone digs up the hard numbers for VCU (which I'm too lazy to do), the article should stay as it is.Preston 08:00, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

GMU enrollment figures can be found here [3]. This is a true total, including graduates and the law school. A comparable enrollment total for VCU can be found in this pdf file [4], via this webpage [5]. Based on these sources, the totals come to:

GMU has 29,728 for 2005-2006
VCU has 29,349 for 2005-2006

GMU is larger by a handful. It could easily change. -- Vector4F 21:47, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Impressive work. Thanks for the information. 129.174.180.4 01:27, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] GMU Presidents Past and Present

Under the Presidents Past and Present section, "George W. Johnson, (1978-1996)" links to a page on George Washington Johnson, an African-American singer and song recording artist who died in 1914. The correct "George W. Johnson" is George William (not Washington) Johnson, who was born in 1928.

[edit] Need to consolidate athletics info

It's at the top of the article and in the article below under the "Athletics" header. I'm too tired to work on this right now, but thought it was worth pointing out.

--24.125.147.87 09:43, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] University Housing

The current copy says that student housing for 700 students opened in 1986. This is incorrect. I started at GMU in 1981 and the student apartments were already open. In the fall of 1982 I moved into the 2nd dorm building when it opened (Dominion Hall, Commonweath Hall had already opened).

[edit] Unnecessary Information

I think there are some unnecessary information that are presented in the article. 1) Admission section is unnecessary and should be taken out since wikipedia article is not a promotional material for potential students. 2) There should be some standard for putting names in the famous alumni section. Meteorologist for the local television station is a hardly notable and need to identify who has graduated from GMU and only attended classes at GMU. The section is titled as Notable Alumni and former students but most university wikipedia articles do not have a section for former students and I think it should just include students who have graduated from the university.(68.98.148.173 02:11, 13 May 2006 (UTC))

Shouldn't it be noted that Karl Rove attended? How would you include this information? --Skynet 22:08, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
I added admissions for a class profile, which how I listed it was more practical information on the process, but it has since been cleaned up to be a class profile, which it is better suited for.

[edit] Condense Campus Information

Should Each campus have its own page with information on separate points of interest (particularly Fairfax), to remove some clutter and condense the information?

Do any of the other universities use this type of format? --Skynet 00:29, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Upper level academic programs

I added a small section about the Honors Program in Gen. Ed. and the University Scholars program because I feel that in the coming years they will become more and more well known. It is also useful for those using Wikipedia for admissions info.

[edit] Student Organizations

I think this should be used for the Organizations section

Why is a picture of the Broadside representative of the student organizations? If a picture is used, it should be something more generic, like Student Activities or the Program Board .

The Club sports list is also hard to read. Someone with more editing experience should make it a two or three column list. Andrew 22:57, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

I think we should use the SA logo, then. PB isn't all-inclusive. Omgitsmonica 22:33, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Krasnow "Nobel" claim

One assumes they are referring to economists Buchanan and V. Smith, but I don't believe either of them is actually affiliated with Krasnow. Having attended one conference there doesn't equate to housing them. Buchanan works in Buchanan House, though he is soon to retire, while Vernon Smith's office is on the Arlington campus. I am thus striking the Nobel claim from the picture caption. Jjb 06:19, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] University logo

I originally came to this talk page to alert the editors that I was going to tag the seal at the top of the infobox as having no fair use rationale. However, as I did a little research, I found that it's not GMU's official logo; the one at the bottom of the infobox is. See here and here for what I'm talking about. Given that the university has very clear standards for what constitutes proper usage of its logos, I'd wager that the only way you could properly claim fair use is to use that official logo to represent GMU. With that in mind, I boldly uploaded an SVG version of the bottom logo and moved it to the top of the infbox. Obviously if you (the regular editors) feel differently, you can change it back. However, I do think you'll have a hard time justifying it as fair use. Cheers! Esrever 16:08, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Financial Management Association

Someone had added this organization under "Greek Life." Greek Life is so-named because the organizations are designated by Greek Letters. I deleted this organization.Corsulian 15:36, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Disputed language on rankings

OK, I have been reverting for the past few months edits by User:Gmu1987 that continuously reinsert the redundant, and unnecessarily degrading content here: [6]. Yes, the information is sourced, and in some respects is true, but the spirit of it seems geared only to emphasize the school is ordinary; the SI quote in particular is out of context, and seems only mean-spirited. Personally, I believe this is a case of tendentious editing. The fact that Gmu1987 is a single purpose account, which only makes this contribution, but is on Wikipedia pretty much every day to revert its removal seems to indicate a high probability of a sockpuppet as well. Likewise, Gmu1987 has been hostile in edit summaries to myself and other editors, and has ignored my offer to discuss the issue on his, or this talk page. Before making any further issue out of this, I just want to get a sense from any of the other contributors to this page (or any other established editors) on whether or not their is any type of consensus to remove this material. If not, I will let it drop. Hiberniantears 19:28, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

I feel that the only part that actually isn't needed is the part where Merten Peacocks the university a bit. The rest provides information that is useful to the article. If anything it needs to be cleaned up and the source needs to be put behind <ref> tags. --DBishop¹⁹⁸⁴ 12:44, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Cleaned up a little. Hopefully an edit by a third-party editor will help. if not, then User:Gmu1987 is axe grinding a bit. --DBishop¹⁹⁸⁴ 12:59, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

This is perfect DBishop, thanks for the third party opinion! Hiberniantears 13:24, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

I do not concur, clearly, with Hibernian's assessment of my character, but I share his concurrence of your third-party update. Thanks for settling the issue and not allowing Wikipedia to serve the purposes of unbiased representation. GMU1984 19:24, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Cheers, happy to help. --DBishop¹⁹⁸⁴ 14:06, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

I just noticed there's a Gmu1987 (talk · contribs) and a GMU1984 (talk · contribs) same person?

Edit: Nevermind, 1987 just signed incorrectly, use 4 tildes (~~~~) to sign comments. :) --DBishop¹⁹⁸⁴ 19:33, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

There is no need for 2 articles in the article lead that make the same point (i.e. lack of name recognition). Furthermore, the second article, the one in question, is written in a belittling tone towards to GMU and totally inappropriate to be in the lead. This addition was originally posted by someone who is a heavy contributor of the JMU page (who has made it a point to compare JMU to the level of UVA and W&M with very weak and inappropriate sources), and I can only assume part of the reason he decided to post this particular article is because it compares JMU to the level of GWU, which is very debatable. This is a page about GMU, not about which founding father is better known. If you want to list problems, don’t do it in the lead and get a more appropriate source than a sports writer. Bvjrm 19:09, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I actually agree with Bvjrm's action. Gmu1987 strikes me as a sock of 72.196.220.97, and the fact that Gmu1987 has only made edits to this article, as noted above, is a pretty obvious instance of sockpuppetry. I noticed that someone removed this content earlier today editing as 208.4.46.187, which appears to be located in Reston, VA. Given the nature of how this content came to be in the article in the first place, I would urge everyone to remain logged in with their real user names. No nead to make confusing what should be a pretty straight forward issue. Hiberniantears 19:23, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Works for me. Regarding the IP from Reston: I've noticed through my patrolling of articles on various Virginia high schools, a lot of which are in southern VA, that both Verizon and Sprint IP addresses are based out of Reston, as well as MCI in Loudon County. So the person adding the paragraph could be from anywhere, honestly. DBishop¹⁹⁸⁴ 19:49, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Works for me too. I support the change made by Bvjrm, especially the rationale that if such information belongs in the article at all, it does not belong in the lead section. (I recently Wikified a few links on this page, and the page has been showing up in my watchlist since. The editwar, while mostly civil which is much appreciated, is not useful. It seems as though a consensus has developed with several editors DBishop, Hiberniantears, et al to leave the JMU/GWU etc. debate permanently out of the lead.) N2e 23:05, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

I give up. Something needs to be done with this one topic editor User:Gmu1987. He refuses to listen to reason and continues to revert our edits while claiming vandalism despite a consensus that his additions are inappropriate. Bvjrm 21:41, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

There is a procedure for blocking or banning the user for repeat vandalism. It seems that there was a consensus of sorts, worked out on the talk page per WP policy, on not having that content in the lead paragraph. Wikipedia:Blocking policy has more information about it. User:Gmu1987 may need to be blocked from editing this article, or something similar. N2e 02:42, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

The issue is moot. Ryulong enacted an indefinite block for vandalism only [7]. I will keep an eye on this article, and if the same edits recur, I will rollback, and make warnings as necessary. Hiberniantears 03:06, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Greek Life List

Someone who is more versed in how the tables in Wikipedia work should edit the list of Greek organizations so that it doesn't look like all Professional Fraternities classified as Woman's Fraternities/Sororities. Andrew (talk) 20:51, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

Never mind, I have fixed it myself... If you have a better way to fix it, please do. Andrew (talk) 21:15, 23 November 2007 (UTC)