Talk:Middle East Technical University

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[edit] "Hocam"

"Hocam" does not literally mean "my teacher". It's slang and is actually quite hard to accurately translate because of its cultural reference. It literally means "my hoca". Hocas were teachers back in the Ottoman times when the education was in Medreses. The word still caries a meaning relating to religion (as in cami hocası for imam). The word is also used to refer to teachers/instructors, stripped from its religious reference (students call intructors by that name, almost exclusively). Yet hocam is slang derived from that use but again stripped from its respective meaning; nobody would say öğretmenim (literally "my teacher"), instead of hocam because it doesn't have the quasi-religious, "olde" feeling, so it should be handled seperately, IMHO. Anyway, i'm just deleting the word "literally" for now. You see it's really hard to tell why it doesn't mean "my teacher". 81.213.71.74 23:16, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

There is a rumour that the phrase "Hocam" actually came from one student: Sinan Cemgil. He was one of the leaders of Metu Socialist Thought Club and THKO and he was able to speak in 4 languages. He was called "Hoca" by his friends. I cannot show any evidence in English but I have plenty in Turkish Beregorn (talk) 15:26, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] What's in a name

The official name of the university is Middle East Technical University rather than Middle Eastern Technical University.

[edit] The Web Site link

METU's Web Site is www.metu.edu.tr, not www.metu.edu

METU has decided, since around 2002, to make its home page accessible via url http://www.metu.edu and the old url http://www.metu.edu.tr. And I think this is to promote the school's international character. You can try it.
Some other examples are:
METU Computer Center
http://www.cc.metu.edu
METU Erasmus Office
http://www.issa.metu.edu
METU Library Catalog
http://library.metu.edu
in addition to this, all email addresses on the metu domain are also accessible as
email_address@metu.edu
Atilim Gunes Baydin 21:22, 21 Feb 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Defective historical section

It would be appreciated if the historical section could be expanded, by someone with sufficent knowledge. Especially, I belive the period in the late 70's (with clashes between left and right, and a military coup in Turkey) shaped the profile of the university students. Bertilvidet 19:26, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] METU logo

Hi CeeGee, thank you for your contributions to the METU page. I think the size you have chosen for the METU logo is far too small. Could you please check the articles of a few respectable schools (perhaps [1], [2], or [3]) and have an idea of what the average standard for the logo size is? If it does not pose you a problem, I am going to revert that to a larger size. I am a METU alumnus and I like that logo much. Atilim Gunes Baydin 12:30, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Hi Atilim Gunes Baydin. The reason to resize the logo was to have an appropriate dimension of the logo and the infobox, and not to downsize the institution. The logos you mention are large, but maybe because they incorporate more details. I would never think METU is less valuable when its logo is shown small. "Small is beautiful". Anyway, if you insist on a larger sized logo, please feel free to revert. CeeGee 12:43, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
Thank you for your understanding. I resized it to be somewhat smaller than the older one. It would be funny to compare the logo size with the value of the institution. As I said, it just seemed too small. Atilim Gunes Baydin 16:35, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Statue

What's with the statue's eyes? that's crazy! --Awiseman 16:49, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Hi, they are some sort of small fruit (I'm not sure of the English name, something like Christmas berries) put in there by students. Atilim Gunes Baydin 18:58, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Haha, cool. They do kind of look like the berries on holly bushes. --Awiseman 19:14, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Yep, I think that's the correct berry. Atilim Gunes Baydin 19:26, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Status

There are ways to establish that METU is among the best universities in Turkey. Numbers of research articles published by faculty can be cited, or the scores of incoming students on the national university entrance exam. Without such citations, I think that comments like "well known for its qualified scientific education and research" are out of place; even with such citations, further vague praise is perhaps unnecessary.
David Pierce 12:53, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

Well done! That was also disturbing me for quite a while and I now regret that the text stayed that way for so long. For anyone interested, the next improvement could be to create a subsection on the events of 70s and 80s, which undeniably shaped the school's character (I mean, outside science and research) and should definitely be mentioned in the history section. Also, the "achievements" section is in rather bad condition and is lacking information. Atilim Gunes Baydin 17:04, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

Again I have edited out undocumented comments about how "well known" or "prestigious" METU is. Specifically, from the opening paragraph, I removed:

It is considered to be one of the most prestigious institutions of higher education in Turkey. The university provides highly reputed undergraduate and graduate programs in a broad range of fields.

This text had been added on 25 January 2007, by an unregistered editor. That person also added that METU is a research university; this seemed to be a worthwhile addition, so I left it. But the other text would have caused the article to merit the tag {{peacock}}.
David Pierce 12:45, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

I believe, history of METU is much important than the academic achievements themselves. I think I might volunteer for that. A socialist club prepared an activity about METU in 1970s and 1980s. I may ask their help. Especially information on Hasan Tan and burning of the car of the American Ambassador will attract much attention:) The problem is that all the sources referring to these events are socialist sources, and I believe they are biased. At least, they were a part of the conflict, so they might be biased. Would it make much problem? By the way, the number of student society section is getting larger. If all the societies decide to advertise themselves here, we will have a problem. Any suggestions? Caglarkoca 22:51, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A more humane history section

The history section is incomplete without a mention of student protests that dominated Turkish politics in 1970s. The university came to the brink of closure in those years. If METU is known at all, it is because of those student protests.cs 14:08, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

I totally agree with you, but unfortunately, I do not possess such knowledge. Most of the sources are biased (I mean far-leftish), but if it is ok, I can try to gather some useful information about those demonstrationsCaglarkoca 21:39, 13 April 2007 (UTC)