Talk:University of Akron

Akron U

Please tell me who took this edit out and why:

"The University of Akron is commonly incorrectly referred to as Akron University (or Akron U) not only nationally, but especially by locals [3]."

This is a pure fact and I can provide a countless number of sources and documentation if needed.

After all, even this article is redirected from "Akron University"

It says in their fight song, "Akron U" so this is obviously false. I can provide you with the fight song to prove this.

The Black Keys?

I'm from the area (originally Ashland County, then Stark County), and I've never heard of this group. Especially considering that they dropped out of UofA, should they be included in this article? I'd remove them, but without a second opinion, I don't feel confident doing it.--Cheezymadman 20:09, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Given that the Kent State page lists Joe Walsh (Also a drop out, though later given an honorary Music Ph.D.), I'd say this is probably a legit bit to have... 76.189.59.18 (talk) 03:30, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Endowment

Three sources give radically different numbers for the University's endowment. The one cited in the article has an endowment of $212 million while the U.S. News and World Report page lists it at $53,543,726. Further the Yahoo Education page lists it at $176 million. Go figure. Which one is right? --JonRidinger (talk) 03:48, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

I have noticed the same issue above. I tried to bring some equality across the board with using the same reference for both KSU and Akron. I feel that we need to identify a reference that is most reliable. USNews seems to be it as of now. Pacificboyksu (talk) 12:52, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, we need to find out where each of these "sources" got their information from and what they base it off of. As far as I can find, there are several ways to define an "endowment" and how much it actually is (assets vs. actual money), so that may explain why there are such radically different numbers for Akron. Different sources have different numbers for other schools too (Kent State included), but not that much different from each other. But with one source saying $212 million while another lists $53.5 million and both sources are credible?? What we're after here is accuracy more than anything. --JonRidinger (talk) 05:31, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

It is blatantly obvious that the US News information is incorrect, as both KSU and The University of Akron have the same endowment reported. It has been reported by the university that the general endowment is in excess of 250 million and one of the top 100 endowments in the country. Apparently though some people feel that information from a university's home page is unreliable. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 167.127.107.8 (talk) 18:44, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Again...since three third-party sources all have vastly different numbers, it leads me to believe that there are different ways to define how big an endowment actually is. I found a fourth source that listed the top 200 endowments in the country and it had Akron at #198. A fifth source, the Sustainable Endowments Institute did a report where they "graded" the top 200 institutions with the largest endowments in the U.S. and Canada for 2008. Akron was not on the list. The only Ohio schools listed were Ohio State, Miami, Case-Western Reserve, and Oberlin. A side note, the U.S. News and World Report source listed endowments for both KSU and Akron that were similar, but not "the same". The reason we have to be careful with sources directly from the university, especially on outstanding claims, is that sometimes they are exaggerated for promotional reasons. That may or may not be true in this instance, but having a third party verfify independently what Akron's actual endowment is would make this a better article among many other improvements. KSU's endowment is really irrelevant to this article: we are looking for credible sources here to create a scholarly article, not a promotion of this or any school. See WP:SOURCES for more info on why this article needs as many non-University of Akron sources as possible. --JonRidinger (talk) 01:08, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Updated endowment using USNews reporting. USNews is more reliable than Petersons. Did the same for Kent State. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.149.71.100 (talk) 16:28, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

John, I would prefer if you did not manage the University of Akron page any longer. Regardless of you intentions, you are a graduate of Kent State, UA's rival university. To those who may not know, that is the equivalent of an Auburn football fan editing an Alabama page. Unfortunately, I will be forced to report you if you decide to edit Akron's page in the future. I apologize for this inconvenience, I hope you understand my concerns. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.56.14.212 (talk) 02:20, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Three points: First, I do not manage this article; I am a contributing editor and have removed quite a bit of vandalism from this page and other UA-related pages. There are others who contribute far more than I do and others still who have purposely vandalized this article. It isn't even close to one of my main interests. Any changes I make to this article like any article I edit are made in accordance with Wikipedia policy.

Second, my being a graduate of KSU is irrelevant and it is inapproriate to bring that up as a reason for me not to edit a particular article. Nowhere have I made edits that are negative, biased, nor inappropriate on this article or any UA-related article for that matter. You'll also note much of the Akron Zips men's basketball article was written by me (history in particular) using the university's own website and media guide as sources.

Finally, the endowment comment made by me above was made nearly two years ago and was based not on comparing UA to KSU, but actually in comparing three very different sources and trying to determine which one was correct if any. I also stated: "KSU's endowment is really irrelevant to this article." --JonRidinger (talk) 02:37, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

John, I see that you corrected my changes to the UA page merely hours after they were added. For someone with little interest in the UA page you seem to be right on top of that. Regardless, I appreciate your work on the Akron pages and I hope that we can come to an agreement on future additions to the page. Good day. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.56.14.212 (talk) 17:37, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

That's because the pages are on my watchlist...along with over 800 others that I have edited previously or am interested in (any article I edit is automatically made part of my watchlist). I check Wikipedia fairly regularly, so I see when changes are made as the pages with the most recent changes are on the top of the list. I'm hardly checking this article itself very much at all (my last edit to this article was some time ago). By "little interest," I mean I don't devote a lot of time gathering sources, writing or re-writing large sections of the article, or going out and taking pictures like I have for other articles. I mostly keep an eye out for vandalism and incorrect, false, or unsourced information. As an editor I am editing solely as a Wikipedia editor and nothing more, meaning I follow the guidelines and suggestions here and try my best to add neutral, well-sourced, and encylcopedic information to any article when possible. School rivalries have no place how we edit articles. --JonRidinger (talk) 21:20, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

I do not see anything wrong with JonRidinger's contributions to this page. His place of graduation is indeed irrelevant, and I have seen no edits that would lead me to believe there is a conflict of interest in his editing of this page. Perhaps you could cite a specific instance where he makes a malicious edit and we can discuss it from there. JEN9841 (talk) 03:39, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Recently and update was made citing US News as more 'reliable' as a source for the endowment over a national independent report. I backed this out as several Universities have refused participation in the US News & World Report rankings as the Universities deam that as biased toward "selectivity" and historical "top tier" institutions. As evidenced by looking at the US News Link that reports the number of undergrads at a pre 2005 level. Particpation in the US News survey was 46% in 2007. Check this article if you don't believe me. http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2008082814333094 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 167.127.107.9 (talk) 16:31, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Numerous discussions over the years at Wikipedia:WikiProject Universities have resulted in a consensus that the NACUBO Endowment Study (now NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments) is the most reliable source for endowment values. The US News numbers are often outdated or just plain wrong. Alanraywiki (talk) 19:25, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

Third largest revisited

Please see my previous comments about the "third-largest" claim. The source provided merely validates the Fall 2009 enrollment number at UA; it does not state that Akron is the third-largest university in Ohio and therefore cannot be used as a source to the claim. The enrollment number also does not specify whether it includes the students at Wayne College or the Medina County Center or just the main campus (though they are mentioned in the report). When all students are counted, Akron is 5th largest from the most recent enrollment stats behind Ohio State, Cincinnati, Kent State, and Ohio U. It's similar to Ohio State's claim of largest university in the US...it's the largest campus in the US (or near it), but not the largest university since a university can and often does include more than one campus (Akron included). And even then, each school deals with and classifies its regionals very differently. If anything, Akron is the third-largest campus in Ohio based on enrollment as far as I can see using total number of students (graduate and undergraduate/full-time and part-time). --JonRidinger (talk) 02:51, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

I tagged the citation for the statement "third-largest main campus in Ohio" with the self-published tag as the source is a Google document that contains large amounts of opinion written specifically for Wikipedia by someone clearly connected to the University of Akron. It also does not take into account the fact that Akron's enrollment stats do not specify whether or not it includes those at its own regional campus of Wayne College (or even the few in Medina) or that the reported numbers are only the main campus. Further, statements in this Google document about the role of regional campuses has absolutely no reliable sources backing it up what it says, such as equating the regionals with "community colleges". Claims like these need to be substantiated by reliable sources such as news reports and statistics. Personal opinions on what one believes should count as enrollment and size rankings and what shouldn't are irrelevant here. --JonRidinger (talk) 17:06, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

The "The"

As a current student, the University is placing significant emphasis that the "The" is a part of the name, an auxiliary department even going so far as making a correction (no points deducted) on an assignment of mine for omitting it. Not sure what Wiki policy is on this, so I didn't want to just start editing up the article. 76.189.59.18 (talk) 03:35, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

See WP:THE#Universities. I think it's more an issue of common usage vs. official usage. The UA websites and materials generally have "The" capitalized consistently. --JonRidinger (talk) 19:08, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Indeed, the University does call itself consistently as "The" (on the website and elsewhere), however, it has never caught on in common usage (I am open to be proven otherwise). --Truther2012 (talk) 22:14, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

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External links modified

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POV issues

This article rightly has tags at the top of the page for POV issues. I have been working over the past week to alleviate these concerns basically by doing nothing other than deleting POV material and rewording where appropriate. The tag for citations to self-published sources does not seem appropriate though. I do not see the citations to self-published sources. I welcome anyone to help with this article's POV issues and to enlighten me why it has the self-published sources tag. JEN9841 (talk) 05:56, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

Since no one has responded, I am going to remove the "no self-published sources" tag, leaving the others for now while I continue to work on this article's POV issues. JEN9841 (talk) 18:11, 29 December 2016 (UTC)

I have removed quite a bit of what I deemed to be POV material from this page over the past few weeks. I think the article is basically ready to have the tags for press release and advertisement removed. Unless someone points out any further issues with the article, I plan on removing the POV tags at the top of the page in a few days. JEN9841 (talk) 06:05, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

@JEN9841: It looks like you have done good work. I don't object to removing the tags so long as nobody else does either. Piguy101 (talk) 00:55, 12 January 2017 (UTC)