Talk:Lafayette College/Archive 1

Introduction and History

Potential Additions

• Replace the information originating in Daniel Weiss's Inaugural Address — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dumaisj59 (talk • contribs) 01:56, 12 March 2013 (UTC)
• Initial charter was for Military and Civil Engineering
• Financial Solvency - Presbyterian ties for monetary gain?
• Charter explicitly stated no exclusion based on religion
• Six years after the charter, Rev Junkin - Manual Labor instead of Military/Civil Engineering
• After seven years, abandoned this and moved to raising silkworms
• Next experiment was a Model school, but no education students matriculated
• 1863 - Enrollment dropped to 50 (Civil War)
• Catell becomes president, Pardee donates $$, Pardee Hall, v1.0 erected - School of Engineering?
• 1879 - Pardee Hall burns.
• ~18 months later, Pardee Hall v2.0 erected, President Hayes present for dedication
• 1897, Pardee Hall burns again, this time Arson
• Pardee Hall v3.0 erected in ?
• Lafayette Censured for academic freedom while Warfield (sp?) president
• McCracken (sp?) replaced Warfield in 1915 and re-organized the college
  • Fraternities Emerge
  • Major/Minor system
  • International Students
  • College Publications (The Lafayette)
  • Calculus Required
    • Cremation Plays?
• 1889 First Junior Hop (Dance)
• 1890 First Fraternity Dance
• 1900 First indoor plumbing, steam heat, electric light in dorms
• WWI - Drilling on campus
• WWII - Drilling on campus again
  • 89 men lost during the war
• After WWII, 2 Tuskegee Airmen, first black students in over a century
  • Lafayette College President rejects the Sun Bowl due to racial prejudice
  • 1948 Civil Rights rally
• 1949 - Nishiyama - Kamikaze pilot, scholarship
• 1954 - First full-time female professor
• 1970 - First female students
• 1971 - First (full-time?) black professor
• 1983 - Willams Center
• 2001(?) - Visual Arts
• 2000 - Kirby Sports

Athletics and Student Life

Deletion of list of championships: This was deleted from the Athletics section, in order to keep pace with similar Wikipedia pages, like Bucknell's and Providence's pages. We are attempting to receive a 'Good Article' award, and using pages like those as examples. In addition, all of that information is available on the 'Lafayette Leopards' page. - ginamorrone — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ginamorrone (talk • contribs) 18:23, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Potential Additions

More precise captions on available images. Images with people in them. Cohesive language, better organization. More relevant sub-headings. More comprehensive student life representation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.147.111.165 (talk) 19:58, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Apology

I'd just like to apologize for originally listing Alpha Phi Omega's founding at Lafayette College as being Lafayette University. Naraht 12:50, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Beer Pong?

Beer Pong? The beer pong article says Lehigh or Bucknell, with no mention of Lafayette. It was after my time, so I can't help. tim 19:15, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

It's Beirut. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.74.28.52 (talk) 01:26, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Lafayette College Presidents

I am confused. Somewhere in Wikipedia, I thought I saw a list of Lafayette College presidents. Can someone tell me where that is? 71.225.51.30 (talk) 15:00, 27 February 2009 (UTC)Dthomsen8

List of presidents is at List of Lafayette College people.--DThomsen8 (talk) 00:27, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

More pictures available

I'm a parent of a prospective student who took pictures of the beautiful Lafayette campus on a tour yesterday, and I uploaded them. Problem is, I don't know the names of buildings. I added some photos but please feel free to choose the best photos and order them accordingly on the Lafayette wikipage. I photographed many buildings and views although I didn't get to the Kirby Sports Center. I asked if I might take a picture of a student; unfortunately, an admissions person named Anne-Marie refused to let me take a picture of an actual student (reason: "we have to clear it with communications..." sheesh -- bureaucratic fear???). So this article still suffers from a perennial problem, namely, zombie-ism, like there's a school with no people in it which, perhaps, the marketing department of Lafayette will get wise to, and write something here (on this talk page) and I can help them get pictures of people uploaded to de-zombify the wikipage. Beautiful school overall. Here are photos which you may wish to consider adding. Check out the one with me climbing the ladder -- I'm such a daredevil, aren't I??? --Tomwsulcer (talk) 20:11, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Sir/Madam; Wiki Community: Speaking of photos of the campus, a shot picturing the brilliant cement Archway entrance to the Hill, from the town, should be taken. A wonderful idea, and probably a class gift. If one parks in the town (below), the entrance is commonly through this arch, and up the path to the college. (John G. Lewis (talk) 16:12, 16 September 2015 (UTC))

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GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Lafayette College/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: H1nkles (talk · contribs) 15:13, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

I will undertake this review. I will provide suggestions here for how to improve the article. My suggestions do not necessarily mean that the article is not GA quality, or that the issues listed are keeping it from GA approval. I also undertake minor grammatical and prose edits. After I finish this part of the review I will look at the over arching quality of the article in light of the GA criteria listed below. If I feel as though the article meets GA Standards I will promote it, if it does not then I will hold the article for a week pending work. I will watch this page and reply to questions regarding the review here. H1nkles (talk) _{citius altius fortius} 15:13, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

Mr. Hinkles: I think it would help if the first 70 odd years of the school were expanded, in the history section. Especially helpful would be notes and explanations concerning the move up to the top of the Hill. As a Lehigh graduate, I did not know the College was originally on the south bank of the Lehigh River -- as is, and always was, Lehigh Univ. itself. The locale for Lafayette is one of the most stunning on the East Coast: it owns a large expansive flat topped hill (I presume now on the north bank of the Lehigh River?). If this history could be expanded, it would be wonderful and interesting. Further, notes and greater biographies of key Presidents might be emplaced. Such as for instance Pres. ____ Mather Lewis. I helped expanding Lehigh's Wiki article, but fortuitously I was aided by a brilliant history of the school by W. Ross Yates. (John G. Lewis (talk) 15:51, 16 September 2015 (UTC))

Criteria

Good Article Status - Review Criteria

Further information: WP:WIAGA

A good article is—

1. Well-written:

(a) the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct; and

(b) it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation.

2. Verifiable with no original research:

(a) it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline;

(b) reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose); and

(c) it contains no original research.

3. Broad in its coverage:

(a) it addresses the main aspects of the topic; and

(b) it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).

4. Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.
5. Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute.
6. Illustrated, if possible, by media such as images, video, or audio:

(a) media are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content; and

(b) media are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.

References

Review

Lead:

• You normally don't need to put in-line citations in the lead since the lead is supposed to be a synopsis of the article. It is assumed that any assertions made in the lead are repeated in the body of the article and referenced there.
• Make sure the lead is a complete synopsis of the article, covering the major topics of the article.

History:

• There seems to be a big jump from founding to WW1. Is there no more information about the college from 1857 until 1917?
• In the Degression sub-section you indicate a drastic change in enrollment...I assume this was a reduction in enrollment but it might be good to specify.
• In the Decade of Progress sub-section, "As the college moved out of the great depression, the college's new President, William Mather Lewis, began what it called..." Who called it the Decade of Progress? The sentence has two subjects.
• Again a big jump from 1970 (co-ed reform) to 2004 (recent history). Anything of note happen during that time? H1nkles (talk) _{citius altius fortius} 16:08, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

Athletics:

• I assume Lafayette competes in NCAA Division 1? I added it to the article given the later reference to the college's ranking amongst other NCAA schools for graduation rates. If this is incorrect please fix.
• Usually you want to put in-line citations at the end of a sentence rather than right in the middle as is the case one time in this section. Not a big deal it just helps with readability.

Student life:

• I'm concerned with Engineers Without Borders sub-section. In my opinion it gives undue weight to one club at the exclusion of the rest of the campus clubs. Is there a reason this club is highlighted over the rest? Is there a reason this club should get an entry in the article while the others do not? I would suggest either eliminating this section or creating a "club" sub-section that would highlight several of the clubs (not all of course) and their philanthropic endeavors. H1nkles (talk) _{citius altius fortius} 17:57, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

Notable alumni:

• A couple of the names have translations in parentheses and some do not, not sure why the discrepency and it certainly isn't enough to hold up GA but it might be good to take a look at it.
• The referencing in this section is a little odd to me, three entries are referenced but five are not, I think they should all have a reference.
• Refs 9, 23, and 24 are dead links and should be repaired.

Overall

• Overall I believe the article meets the GA criteria. The three issues that give me pause are:

1. The gaps of information in the history section may violate section 3a.
2. The emphasis on engineering aspects of the college vis a vis the "Engineers without Borders" club sub-section, which may violate criterion 1b for MOS compliance.
3. The three dead links and the odd referencing in the "Notable alumni" section, which may fall short of criterion 2b in the referencing portion of the GA Criteria.

• That said in reading the GA Criteria I do not believe the gaps in information is sufficient enough to hold GA passage on comprehensive lines, I also do not believe that the article violates 1b since it does not specifically call out the undo-weight portion of the MOS. My reading of 2b is that in-article refs are required in specific circumstances and the "Notable alumni" section and the facts supported by the broken refs do not meet those circumstances.

• I will pass to GA with the hopes that the author will take the time to make the fixes recommended above. H1nkles (talk) _{citius altius fortius} 18:03, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

External links modified

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Lafayette College Alumni

Please add the tag {{User Lafayette College}} to your user page, if you qualify!--Dthomsen8 (talk) 18:36, 25 February 2018 (UTC)

Campus of Lafayette College

I've been working on the Campus of Lafayette College page for about 6 months now and finally felt it complete enough to add to the main article space. I have most of the important buildings added, though a few important ones (Hogg, Farinon, Acopian, etc) have yet to be included. I'll get around to them soon. I'm posting here for visibility so we get more eyes on editing the page to Wikipedia's standards. I know not everyone has access to the Skillman and Gendebien references (nor does everyone have such a vested interest that they want to read 1000 pages of school history, lol) so if you have specific questions on those references I can definitely assist with those. Appreciate all the help I can get - thanks! SEMMENDINGER (talk) 01:09, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for doing this. See my addition below. Bellagio99 (talk) 12:53, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

Other Significant Faculty?

I'm wondering if other significant faculty should be added. The ones I know would be: K Roald Bergethon, the President starting in 1958, who got rid of the Jewish admission quotas that Lafayette had had until then; Whatever President led the move to coeducation WW Watt -- English prof in the 1940s onward-- who was a BMOC, had a best selling edited compilation (which I still use), and coached Lafayette's undefeated College Bowl Team Albert Gendebien, who did the significant history of the college ?? Welch, who edited the Federalist papers. This is just my era. Bellagio99 (talk) 12:54, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

One of my goals a while back was to make a page for every Laf president who didn't yet have one. Bergethon is on my list (he's the one who led the change to make the school co-ed), but I'm having a hard time finding good references to meet WP:GNG. He's featured prominently in Gendebien's biography, as the book ends with the last days of Bergethon's administration, but as for other sources, they are scant. Same problem with Arthur Rothkopf.. just not a lot of non-trivial mentions of him in the newspapers. Gendebien likely suffers the same problem but I haven't done a thorough search on him as of yet. I like the ideas though, I'll start digging deeper once my Newspapers.com premium subscription renews. SEMMENDINGER (talk) 13:58, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

McDonogh additions

Last year an addition to the page introduced a short history of early two African American students, David K. McDonogh and Washington Watts McDonogh, and their education at Lafayette. I merged the main focus of this addition into the early history of the school (see diff). Today, another attempt to re-introduce the story appeared, which I removed outright. I wanted to open up a dialogue before this turns into a regular thing. I feel that the vignette about these two individuals is out of place and WP:UNDUE. The removal is even more so bolstered by the fact that they are redlinks, and the story is a copy and paste from John McDonogh, where they are already outlined. The only addition that is relevant to Lafayette College (and therefore this article) is that they both studied there, which is trivial at best (see WP:HOLE). The rest of the addition serves as a minor biography, which has no place on this page. (If it did, we could add little life stories for all our past alumni, even the ones without their own Wikipedia pages... that's the premise of WP:BALASP.) SEMMENDINGER (talk) 18:37, 14 June 2020 (UTC)

For the sake of thoroughness I did a little more research and there is in fact a Lafayette-centered legacy of McDonogh that can be added to the article. This would be the McDonogh Network. This would best fit in the student life section. No need for any biographical information on either individual though, I'll blue-link them through John McDonogh instead if I'm the first to get around to it - likely this weekend. SEMMENDINGER (talk) 14:23, 15 June 2020 (UTC)