Talk:Lethbridge College

Not to be confused

I added the "not to be confused with University of Lethbridge" hatnote to the top of Lethbridge College because both institutions are in the same town, Lethbridge, Alberta, and share a similar name. Someone unfamiliar with the schools or the area (like me) might be looking for a college or university named "Lethbridge" that is in Lethbridge unaware that there are two (in the United States there is no universally accepted difference between the terms "college" and "university"). -Mabeenot (talk) 22:11, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

The only thing similar about their names is the word “Lethbridge”. In Canada, where these two institutions are located, there is an established difference. Lethbridge College doesn’t even offer degrees. I feel that such a practice could lead down a slippery slope, especially given the American usage. After all, it wouldn’t make sense to create college redirects for every US university article, and university redirects for every US college. --Kmsiever (talk) 03:48, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm with Kmsiever on this one. The USian interchangeability of "college" and "university" isn't terribly relevant in this situation; the institutions aren't in a USian context. And if you were actually trying to find a college or university in a town you weren't personally familiar with, wouldn't you go to the town's or city's main article (or category) first to look for an "Education" section, rather than randomly typing "City University" or "City College" into the search box just to see what might come up? The latter strategy, frex, wouldn't help you find Laurentian University or Dalhousie University or Camosun College — or a vast number of American schools either, for that matter. Bearcat (talk) 04:26, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

Fair enough. You're more familiar with Canadian higher education. In response to Kmsiever's slippery slope comment, we already have redirects and disambiguation pages that mix universities and colleges in the United States (for examples, see the hatnotes for Boston University and Trinity University (Texas)). -Mabeenot (talk) 05:38, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

Those aren't really parallel situations to what's been done here, though: one is an article hatnoting to a dab page that lists multiple entries, and one is a disambiguated title backhatting to dab pages (which isn't really necessary in the first place). Neither one is really comparable to an A-to-B hatnote between things that are both undisambiguated unique titles. Bearcat (talk) 09:08, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Ok. For a closer comparison, check these out: Dartmouth University, University of Santa Monica, and Hamilton University. -Mabeenot (talk) 17:52, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm Canadian, and I understand the difference between University of Lethbridge and Lethbridge College, but I see absolutely nothing wrong with hatnoting the pair of them. There is a chance that some (possibly non-Canadian) reader might confuse the two, and the names do share a similarity. PKT(alk) 23:36, 4 December 2009 (UTC)