Talk:MIT School of Science

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[edit] Merger

Per [1] on WikiProject Universities, departments and degree programs within universities lacking non-affiliated citations generally do not fulfill notability criterion for organizations. Because Wikipedia is not a directory and this article is just an indiscriminate, incomplete, or outdated list of notable as well as non-notable faculty members and alumni, it should be merged into the entry on MIT School of Science. When the entry on that article has grown in scope or notability (history, research programs/centers and accomplishments, notable faculty and alumni) to warrant an independent article. Barring any future debate, the merger will occur on August 28, 2007. Madcoverboy 05:25, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

The strongest possible objections. I certainly agree that in general we should not have articles on individual university departments. But sometimes we should. And a singularly distinguished departments such as some of those in this group, --some of the best in the world, at a university that is also one of the best in the world, is obviously another matter entirely. I would in fact think that for universities of the stature of MIT, many of the departments would be considered notable. We obviously need to discuss the point in general, or it will be a long battle, university by university. I think the concept wanted is "world-class", but I think the criteria to be taken into account need discussion. Attacking individual sets of articles may not be the way to do it. Incidentally, notability is permanent, so if a department ever was notable, it remains so. I also note that probably every or almost every present or past full professor at MIT and similar research universities have published sufficiently important work that they would be held notable at WP:AFD under the provisions of WP:PROF. And that notable alumni is universally defined in WP education articles as alumni with WP articles. DGG (talk) 09:18, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree that some university depts are sufficiently notable to merit separate articles. But policy aside, a factual correction. The McGovern Institute (where I am based) is affiliated with, but not part of, the MIT school of science. See http://web.mit.edu/science/deptslabscenters/index.html. Some of the McGovern Institute's associate faculty are from schools other than the school of science. McGovern Institute is an example of a general trend at universities to create centers, institutes etc, that draw membership from multiple departents and schools, thereby faciliting research collaborations that cut across traditional administrative and disciplinary boundaries. Charlesgjennings (talk) 18:57, 29 November 2007 (UTC)