Talk:State University of New York at New Paltz

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Contents

[edit] Student Leader Controversy Timeframe

Student Leader controversy section is in desperate need of time references. It will not stay "current" forever and the lack of mention of when specific events happened seems to be a major gap. Tossing in time references for the _major_ events would be a useful edit and should add very little to the length of the section. (This comment is mine, claiming: blocke0 29 April 2007)

Agreed, will work on it later. Bearian 19:21, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Weasel words

many claim that they are merely attempting to be controversial and fight for the sake of fighting

That's a classic example of weasel words. Cite it, change it or take it out entirely. Or I will. Daniel Case 04:54, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

I am trying to get all claims NPOV and backed up by citations. This is a work in progress. Bearian 01:10, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] PCBs controversy

There were actually two such incidents, at least, the first from 1985, in Bevier Hall. Emmy-winning sports editor Richard Bagala was president of that residence hall at the time, and made the humerous comment, "we're doing asbestos we can do." I have placed the references in the footnotes, where they belong. Bearian 17:41, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

RE BEVIER - the Quad dorms were contaminated with asbestos, which unfortunately is like candy compared to PCBs. However, that incident may call for discussion, though in truth it was a routine asbestos remediation. There are no routine PCB and dioxin incidents, however, unless you count what you're eating for dinner. -efc

[edit] Notable Alumni section

Didn't Wesley Snipes go to SUNY New Paltz? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.15.49.29 (talk) 17:32, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Ms. Boyarsky is a non-notable recent alumna, see [1]. She does not belong on this page, yet. My (real) name gets between 107 and 1,000 hits on Google, including several at the official [2] web site. Please don't take this personally, but news does not belong in an encyclopedia article. Wikipedia is neither a place for news nor original research, and neither is it a place for notices about personal issues. Bearian 19:09, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

The same seems to be true of 'Maureen O'Shauggnesy' who was listed as a 'Forerunner in the field of fashion merchandising', though that name does not return a single hit on google. Caidh 00:55, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

People need to stop listing their names as 'notable alumni' when they are frankly - non-notable. Removed "Samuel H. Jaafar" who's name (with or without the H) did not come up on a google search anywhere other than the 'notable alumni' section of the SUNY New Paltz wikipedia page.

"Gretchen O'Reilly" and "Gretchen O'Reilley" and "Gretchen O'Rilley" all fail the Google Test. Who is she? Bearian 20:09, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

"Joseph Davidson" may not be notable, either, and fails Google also. Bearian 20:14, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I added Ed Falco, a distinguished American novelist. Someone removed him for unknown reason, so I put him back! 71.160.233.243 05:23, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

moved references for "Rich Bagala '88 - Emmy-award winning sports producer of WWOR-UPN 9 in New Jersey" to appropriate place and added clarification that Bagala received LOCAL Emmy, one of about Fourteen Hundred awarded annually.Pupluv 05:28, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Removed reference for Tom Breuer. No offense intended but a 'lit support project editor and out of shape hockey player' does not sound like a notable enough alumni to merit listing here. Tom Breuer is a common enough name with many links (to obviously different people) when being searched for in Google. If you wish to readd, please state (on the discussion page) a link to a site or sites with more information, preferably one which shows merit for inclusion in the Notable Alumni section. (claiming edit of 13:36, 11 September 2007 137.140.3.13 - forgot to login before making the edit).Caidh 13:43, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WP:UNI

I am working with the universities project to improve this article. Bearian 21:41, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Website link

Let's get something straight: newpaltz.edu is the state-run website for SUNY New Paltz. It is one of many "official" SUNY New Paltz websites, which include the website for the Student Government, the one for the Auxiliary Services Corporation, the one for the Foundation, and WikiPaltz, which is run by the Student Senate. These are all official websites of SUNY New Paltz, and there is no reason to refer only to the state-run one this way. RadicalHarmony 21:27, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

All of the examples of good University pages given by Wikipedia's university project page would disagree with you. It should be pointed out to casual observers that RadicalHarmony's opinion in this is not neutral as he and others on the Wikipaltz website have been trying to establish terminology to lessen the perceived importance of the administration of the college. He being engaged in legal actions against the university I'd say he is less than neutral on the topic when he makes such edits. My opinion in this is not exactly neutral either so the last edit I performed of the link was made to make it match what I see on other university topics. - blocke0
"good" examples? It doesn't matter if there are a million examples out there, they are not "good" unless they make sense. Please explain how referring to only one of the many official websites for this institution as "official" makes sense. How is this neutrality? It is true that I'm engaged in legal action against SUNY - because they have repeatedly violated the law. They have also heavily edited this page and needless to say, neither of us are neutral. However, I'm doing my best to engage in discussion so that reason can prevail over force. I really believe that 'state-run' is a more neutral and accurate description of the website, and I'm not hearing any sensible argument to the contrary. RadicalHarmony 16:58, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Crazy POV edits

The recent edits from 137.140.48.96 were pretty much completely POV and failed to cite a single source. I move that they all be reverted, with the exception of those that have already been cleaned up. This IP address is a campus address, and much of the rhetoric used comes directly from SUNY public affairs - I think it's reasonable to believe that these edits were made by a state official with an agenda. RadicalHarmony 17:00, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Miscellaneous Discussion

Removed the line "The college has a greater population than the Village of New Paltz." This line is too ambiguous. Does it mean "The College's on-campus population" or "the student body" or the "student body combined with faculty and staff"? The first one is definitely false due to the on campus population being under 2500 and the village population (including the students on campus) of 6,034 (as of the 2000 census). If it refers to the entire student body, that doesn't make sense because most of the student body does not live on campus. Also - the college's entire grounds are technically part of the Village of New Paltz.Caidh 03:35, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Student Militia

Disclaimer: I am Justin Holmes, referenced in the student militia section and elsewhere in this article.

I must ask: Is there any reason that the "Student Militia" gag remains on this page? Surely if we were to play "one of these things is not like the other" in the "controversies" section, this one would be the one. It is of drastically less relevance or magnitude than the others. Furthermore, it is portrayed in such a (warped, POV) way to give it the appearance of relevance, but no sources are cited.

It is my belief that the string of edits made by the campus IP address 137.140.48.96 were made by someone in the SUNY Administration hierarchy. Not one of them cites a source, and many of them are either POV or weasel words or both. I admit that I have a personal interest in this material being removed insofar as that its current (completely outrageous) portrayal of the situation casts me in a negative light. However, I believe that any reasonable objective assessment of this article would have to conclude that this section serves no useful purpose.

I move that the Student Militia section be stricken. RadicalHarmony (talk) 21:04, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Now it has been done. It was poorly sourced, potentially libelous, and trivial. Bearian (talk) 17:44, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Student Leader Controversy Section

I don't think that this so-called "controversy" is worthy of being put on the wikipedia. I believe it was, in fact, put up by friends of or one of the persons involved themselves. User "RadicalHarmony" has posted previously to this talk page and is one of the two student leaders himself. This controversy was not, in fact, a major issue for the SUNY New Paltz campus; and controversies of similar scope are not mentioned on wikipedia articles in other universities. In fact, the controversy section of this article is longer than the description of the school and its history itself, and from familiarity with the persons involved, it seems to be serving the complaints and interests of students involved in this same student leader controversy. While I don't think the other issues should be omitted entirely, I do find it odd that so much attention has been devoted to PCB's rather than, let's say, sports teams: which is very different than Wikipedia's treatment of other schools.

I propose that the Student Leader Controversy section be eliminated and the other sections be shortened, and perhaps (i would be willing to assist) other areas of the article be expanded. The current makeup of the article presents a very negative this-school-is-controversial point of view, that I as an alumni and others familiar with the school do not agree with. I do know however that a small group of wikipedia-savvy students (who run a new paltz wiki) are usually both the ones involved in the controversy and the ones essentially trying to cause such controversy aided by the internet. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.225.245.110 (talk) 17:27, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Concurred; I'll take a shot on shortening that section. Bearian (talk) 19:53, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

So I admit to being on the SUNY New Paltz faculty. But I think I have a halfway neutral viewpoint, despite that. My opinion is that the entire "Controversy" section should be made part of the History section. I went and looked at the Wikipedia page for UC Berkeley, which is famous for controversy. That's what was done there. It seems to me that putting that material in a separate section violates NPOV by giving it more prominence than it merits. DavidHobby (talk) 02:51, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:WikiProject Universities/Article guidelines

This article needs to be brought up to the standards noted above. Bearian (talk) 18:34, 31 March 2008 (UTC)