Talk:Queen's University at Kingston/Archive 1

Privatize

I think we should privatize Queen's. Just a thought. QueensuStudent08 23:24, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

Quite a loaded statement. If the the Faculty of Arts & Science deregulates, then it might not be far away. But I don't think privatization would work as well in Canada as it does in the US and Japan. I mean, there are private universities in BC, but they're nowhere near Queen's/McGill/UofT in terms of quality or international reputation. And history would suggest that Queen's is unwilling to offset the inevitable increased tuition cost with financial aid. This would compromise the University's ability to recruit the top students from a large, diverse, international pool. It would need a financial aid system like Princeton, which has a "needs-blind" admission policy (i.e. "if you are smart/extraordinary enough to get in, we will help you through it"). That being said, I wouldn't put it past the Queen's administration. If any one of the G10 universities were to privatize in the next 10-15 years, it would probably be Queen's. --Greenmind 23:41, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Queen's userbox

Apparently, Queen's is one of a select few universities that does not have a Wikipedia userbox template. I created the one below really quickly. Any suggestions on how it can be made more attractive? Feel free to change it at Template:User Queen's University.

This user attends or attended Queen's University.

--Jelgie 04:46, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

Hey, kudos for taking the initiative. I made an alternative design, below. Actually, in hindsight, I probably shouldn't have made a new one on a new page, but I was thinking my design was significantly different enough that I wanted to leave it open for people to edit the box with the format already designed. figure people can more or less decide which one to use, and we can scrap the rest. I also thought about making a minimalist one in the style of CMU with just the word "Queen's" in the box section (replacing the "CMU" is this box). If people think that would be cool, I'll make one in that style. --Greenmind 19:52, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

This user attends or attended Queen's University.

So after several iterations and a minor violation of fair-use guidelines (apparently it's not cool to use the old generation Q logo on a userbox), I think we now have something usable. For information on usage check out Template:User Queen's or Category:Wikipedians by alma mater: Queen's. Cheers. --Greenmind 00:41, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

Lack of diversity at Queen's

This article in the Toronto Star discusses perceived lack of diversity and a culture of 'whiteness' at Queens. Thought this might be worthwhile to have noted on the main Queen's page, but not sure where it would go.--PIngp0NG 21:47, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Queens is known as being a WASP stronghold. I read the star article and it isn't very surprising. Probably worth noting somewhere.

Clean-up

This article on Queen's University needs lots of clean-up. Also lots of the categories need to either be expanded or merged together. I agree History should be moved to the top and greatly expanded. Zipperfly 03:38, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

History

The History section of Queen's should be moved to the start and MUST be expanded on greatly. Also this article needs to be cleaned up. 130.15.207.217 01:25, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

Misc

How well can we rely on the story that ice hockey was invented at Queen's? RickK 01:03 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

A lot of areas claim the invention of hockey. The most credible seems to be the claim that it was invented in Windsor, Nova Scotia by students from King's College. SimonP 02:13 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

See http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/hockey_history.html . And don't forget bandy.

What is the authority for the assertion that Queen's students have the highest entry marks? I've heard the same claim made for Western. Trontonian 19:44, 9 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Really? I think Western may just like to think that, because I seem to recall the entry requirements for Queen's were a little higher (I actually know some people who came to Western because they didn't get into Queen's). Adam Bishop 18:40, 25 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Source: Maclean's, year after year

-In fact, in this new Macleans, McGill has the highest entrance avg at 89.3%, with Queens at 89%. HOWEVER, Queens has 100% of its entering students have averages over 75%. An edit may be in order, gentlemen and others.

Queen's Centre

I re-wrote this section because it was clearly an attempt by someone on the losing side to fight the battle again. I invited User:Arctic.gnome to re-write what s/he had submitted on the basis of Wikipedia's Wikipedia:Neutrality policy, but s/he declined to do so. Ground Zero 11:01, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I was working on making it natural, but you beat me to it. The problem now is that every time a point is added for one side, a counterpoint can be added for the other. For example, now that it was mentioned that there were both a yes and no campaign, I was able add that the yes side got a huge budget from the school and the no side got nothing. On issues like this is it normal for articles to keep getting longer and longer or is there a way to cap it at a certain length but still have all relevant information for all points of view? Arctic.gnome 17:07, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC) Furthermore, I don't see any reason why you deleted any mention of the 1000-seat theatre or the two restaurants. Why is the article only aloud to mention sports-related facilities? Arctic.gnome

The information about the theatre and the two restaurants were not supported by the sources that I could find. If you will provide a link to such information, feel free to add the info back in. Regarding your concerns over point/counter-point edits, I believe that eventually the points become trivial and both parties agree to trim back to an NPOV state. Failing that, an NPOV dispute tag can be added to the article, attracting other Wikipedians to look into the issue —UTSRelativity 17:46, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

An NPOV tag isn't meant to stay on a page forever. It's there to help resolve the situation. --Spinboy 19:20, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Even eternal NPOV tags eventually get looked into. :-) —UTSRelativity 20:27, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Since when does the wikipedia require citing another website as the source of all information? On the QC map, the octagon on street level is the theatre and the restaurants are just north of it. Arctic.gnome 20:04, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

It doesn't. But if another editor disputes something you have written, then either you provide a source, or the information can be removed. This being an encyclopedia, you are expected to provide more evidence than your say-so if challenged. Perhaps you should provide a link to the map. Ground Zero 20:07, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

What Ground Zero says is true. Because Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, the information has to be factual and accurate. You don't have to put the link in the article, but here on the talk page is fine. --Spinboy 20:10, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

@Arctic.gnome: I can't find a legend on the map, but it seems like you know what you are talking about. It would be great if you could point to something more obvious. —UTSRelativity 20:27, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Applied Science slant

I feel like this article needs a little more about Arts and Science, and other faculties, to be balanced. What about Alfie's (I know there's a recent story there)? What about ArtsSci traditions? Maybe I should take this upon myself - I'm just learning about Wiki, however.

Yeah, there's more mention of ApSci stuff than ArtSci stuff. But, I guess ApSci students/traditions generally dominate the Queen's culture. Its' not like ArtSci's have anything cool to report? Just kidding there! :P A section on crest painting?? That's pretty big...and especially the charitiy events which Queen's is pretty big on...such as 'Cover your Crest' - Luckyluke June 6, 2005

Frosh leaders called Nerds?

I've never heard of frosh leaders called Nerds. If they're in Computer Science, they'd been in Arts and Science and have Gaels. If they're in Applied Science they'd have Frecs.

Can anyone confirm this? JohnnyB 19:41, May 27, 2005 (UTC)

The School of Computing has their own frosh leaders apart from the ArtScis. — Flag of Scarborough, ON, Canada  UTSRelativity (Talk)  01:59, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. I guess it's been a while. JohnnyB 03:49, May 29, 2005 (UTC) ArtSci '97

I participated in the School of Computing's first independent frosh week in september 2004. It was a huge success, and did wonders for creating a sense of pride and community in the QSC. "Nerd" was one of the options for the new frosh leader title (it was voted upon by the first generation of leaders), but the term "nerd" was deemed "derogatory" by the senate orientaion review board (much to my disappointment, i thought it was hilarious). Computing frosh leaders are called Techs. -proud compSci '07

Ivy League Comparison

I know there are some who will debate this issue, so here is my basis:

Queen's is marketed internationally as Ivy League level university, and in many ways, it is the closest thing you will find in Canada. Rich history and traditions, international prestige, strong alumni network, small student population and high faculty ratio, highest endowment per student in Canada, and unfortunately, being known for some of the highest tuition costs in Canada are some of the factors that are cited in the claim's defense. Queen's is sometimes referred to as the "Harvard of the North" [1][2] because of its international prestige, small size, tradition, and other parallels such as having the top rated business school in the country, extremely high academic standards, and a more prevalent alumni network than any other university in Canada. The title is sometimes contested by students of McGill University. Principal William Leggett was especially known to refer to Queen's by this name in his Welcoming Address. --206.212.89.240 7 July 2005 20:31 (UTC)

Nonetheless, I think that this is just a bit of puffery that doesn't really belong in an encyclopaedia article. Besides, in my day, we referred to Harvard as the "Queen's of the South". Ground Zero 7 July 2005 20:34 (UTC)

I agree with Ground Zero. --File:Ottawa flag.png Spinboy 7 July 2005 21:23 (UTC)

I agree with Ground Zero; aside from being unencyclopedic, the comparison is absurd anyway (Queen's is not in the same league as Harvard or the other Ivy League schools, unfortunately). Neilc 8 July 2005 06:27 (UTC)

I disagree with Neilc, Queen's is comparable to Harvard and the rest of the Ivy League schools. In fact, Queen's and McGill are known to have more difficult classes and overall better professors than most Ivy League schools in the US. (Queens09 05:16, 5 April 2006 (UTC))

Queen's cannot compare with the Ivy's in the United States. To be able to compete with these top universities, Queen's must have MUCH more money. Also Queen's must market itself a lot more internationally and in the United States. Many people attending Queen's believe that Queen's markets itself internationally very well but it doesn't really. Queen's University must market itself more actively and intensively around the world and recruit top talent from everywhere. The Queen's student body mainly comprises of students from the Ontario region. Basically the only way Queen's can be ranked up there with the world's top universities is to find a way to greatly, greatly, greatly increase the size of their budget and endowment AND market and recruit more actively around the world. 130.15.207.217 01:25, 18 April 2006 (UTC)

School Buildings

I think it would be interesting to have a section about the buildings at Queen's. So many, yet all so fun. Like the new ones (ILC,...etc) and the ones that they tore down (Frost Wing), the ones that are pretty (Douglas Lib, Business school building), the ugly ones (Jeffery Hall etc al.) and the leaky ones (too many, but ESPECIALLY BIOL SCI) --Sjschen 07:25, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

I agree. Queen's has beautiful architecture, so it would be nice if we could create an informative section about the various buildings on campus, the classes they house, their overall function, and architectural size/characteristics. I know that Grant Hall, Ontario Hall, the Theological Hall, Summerhill, etc. have a great degree of history behind them and were crucial in the university's development.

JaysCyYoung 20:21, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Queen's Bands

Deleted section due to plagiarism from Queen's Bands website; the section was a direct copy/paste from http://clubs.myams.org/bands/aboutUsPage/aboutUs.html.Boort 23:15, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

I've reintroduced a Queen's Bands section, non-plagiarized. Can't talk about Queen's traditions without talking about the Bands! HDC 21:50, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

I would agree, I was a member for 3 years. Just haven't had the time to wrtie up a spiffy article. Would have liked to write about each individual section as they appear in marching order from front to back. Will get o