Talk:Iota Phi Theta

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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Iota Phi Theta article.
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Fraternities and Sororities WikiProject Iota Phi Theta is part of the Fraternities and Sororities WikiProject, an effort to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Greek Life on the Wikipedia. This includes but is not limited to International social societies, local organizations, honor societies, and their members. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, visit the project page, where you can join the project, and/or contribute to the discussion.
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To all visitors questioning the "neutrality" of this article.

  1. Please look at pages such as Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Delta Sigma Theta, Phi Beta Sigma, Omega Psi Phi, and other NPHC organizations pages on wikipedia for a reference point on what type of information should be available on an article about a Fraternal organization (Fraternity or Sorority). If you are not a member of a Fraternal organization, consult a member about questions in reference to the historical value of an organization's information on wikipedia.
  2. Please assist us in making our website more neutral, but fairly informative. You can visit http://www.iotaphitheta.org and find information that should be in this article. Feel free to place it in this article.

I appreciate anyone's effort to ensure that relevant information is displayed on all wikipedia articles. I ask that people discuss and seek compromise prior to making edits.

  • Not if editing information which can be argued as not within the spirit of wiki. Rob Church 23:55, 9 July 2005 (UTC)

Thank you. :Suntzu1963 04:18, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

I've already explained my edits to you on your talk page: First of all, large pieces of text have been copied from other websites. This is not allowed unless you have express permission from the copyright owners. Secondly, this is supposed to be an article, not a brochure: That means fake picture frames around pictures and coloured text are out. The address can be found on the website, there's no need for that to be in a general article about the fraternity. That leaves just the first paragraph, the affiliations and the external link. I'll also re-add the founders picture which appears to have gone missing. --W(t) 04:50, 2005 May 28 (UTC)
First of all, the "large pieces of text" are history from "Iota Phi Theta" and are stated in the Fraternity's history not from "other websites" (those of which you have not provided links to showing where a copyright has been infringed). Second, the last edit of the article did not have the photo.
Weyes, you do not have to reply in a rude manner because we do not see eye to eye. Have you even taken my advice and reviewed the other wikipedia articles from which I got my idea for the structure of this article? Have you even gone to the Iota website? If so, there is little proof that you've done any research about the origin of the information I previously submitted.
  • Review the history page (http://www.iotaphitheta.org/history.htm) and you will see where I got the history information from.
  • Review the symbols & insignia page (http://www.iotaphitheta.org/symbols.htm) which clearly states "The Shield of Iota Phi Theta (significantly, not a "crest" or "Coat of arms") is the most commonly used symbol of the Fraternity." Please do not reference the Shield as a logo.
As an national officer of the Fraternity and member of our IT team, I have been asked to make information available about the organization in settings where such information is appropriate. I have done so in a proper and neutral (yet informed) manner. We do not see eye to eye on the presentation and I can respect that as I am new to wikipedia. But that does not mean that the information presented was not historically relevant and for such reason the historical content should be presented.
Again I ask that you research more about Fraternities and Sororities before making personal judgments on what information is necessary, relevant, or otherwise.

Thank you. :Suntzu1963 05:16, 28 May 2005 (UTC)


If you plug the text of any of the paragraphs except the first one into google you'll get hits, which suggests at the very least the content is not an original work. If you claim to be the original author of the work that's good enough for me, but I would like some explicit confirmation, which should move any liability from the Wikimedia foundation to you, as I understand it. --W(t) 06:25, 2005 May 28 (UTC)
Weyes, I do understand what you are saying about the copyright, but you must understand that as a member of the Fraternity, I do have the right to use information from the national website to accurately display historical information about the Fraternity on the internet. In your google search, I am sure that you have seen on numerous IOTA chapter websites hold the same information and that is done intentionally so as to display Fraternity-approved history (which is a directive from our protocol). If you have any further questions about this, please email me directly rather than continue this debate on the talk page. Again, I am a national officer and have received approval (by being a Grand Council member) to produce historical information about the Fraternity in proper settings. Wikipedia is one of those settings.
Furthermore, the information I just edited into the article is written by me. If proof is needed, I will only provide that to an admin. team member of wikipedia.
Thank you. :Suntzu1963 01:11, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

Further discussion of Suntzu1963 on User Talk:Suntzu1963. Remarks about the article itself, of course, can still go here.

[edit] POV

I have no idea what was POV about this article, but it looks gone to me. So, per request[1] I'm removing the POV tag... Staxringold 01:57, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Article Lost

Unfortuntately, the original article under "Iota Phi Theta" (referring to the African-American Social/Service Fraternity) was lost duing the last edit (user changed the Iota phi theta (referring to the local service fraternity at John Carroll to Iota Phi Theta thus deleting the page) on 30 Dec 2005. Does anyone have the ability to reverse this? If not, the article will be lost unless someone else has the time to create another one as I no longer have the time nor desire to create any entirely new article after all of the time put into the previous versions. Suntzu1963 13:27, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Sorry about that. Don't worry, nothing's lost, I have undeleted the deletions I performed. But I think the problem is sure to re-occur unless the John Carroll Iota Phi Theta gets a drastically and unequivocally different name than the national organization. Therefore I have moved it to Iota Phi Theta (John Carroll University). Please leave it there. The African-American national fraternity has been moved back to its original name Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. as requested by Suntzu1963, please leave that one there also. It may not conform perfectly to naming conventions, but some compromise may be necessary here. In particular, please don't move it to Iota Phi Theta again. That page exists, and is now a disambiguation page. All right? Anybody who's unhappy with these arrangements, please get in touch with me and we'll figure something out. (However, please feel free to edit Iota Phi Theta to express the nature of the organizations it points to better than I did; just don't move any of these intricately interconnected pages, if you don't mind.) Bishonen | talk 20:47, 31 December 2005 (UTC).
I'd like to move this page to Iota Phi Theta, delete the disambiguation page, and make it a small wikilink at the top about "Iota Phi Theta links here, you may be looking for Iota Phi Theta (John Carroll University)" or something to that effect...whatever is found at the top of other articles that don't need a full disambiguation page. This really sticks out against the naming convention of all other national GLO's. Commetns, thought, etc.? Justinm1978 16:57, 29 July 2007 (UTC)


This was added

[edit] Current Members

Olutosin Oduwole a member of Iota Phi Theta and President of it's chapter at Southern Illionois University and Edwardsville was arrested and charged with planning a Virginia Tech Massacre at the University. [2]

I don't think this warrants text in the main article since his alleged actions were as an individual and had nothing to do with the national office of his college chapter. It's okay in my opinion to add his name as a notable member in a new sub-section named "Crime".--67.34.213.54 08:16, 22 August 2007 (UTC)
No it's not, because he is not all that notable. Jmlk17 08:36, 22 August 2007 (UTC)