Talk:University of Maryland, College Park

General Housekeeping Comments

I think this page has lost its way a bit. In my view, the main page should really be that--a primary overview. Some of the sections get into far too much detail, most of it uninteresting to those who are seeking general info. I'm trying to use the University of Virginia as a model page. We should leave all these extra details and factoids off the main page since there are so many sub-pages devoted to individual topics (e.g. athletics, notable alumni). Some of the changes I list below have already been made but there are some things that I would like community feedback on before any action is taken.

Suggestions:

• Pictures
  • Why are they so tiny? Perhaps we can enlarge the pictures once superfluous information is removed (see below).
• Academics
  • List the colleges, in two columns if need be, to break up the endless lines of text.
  • Move the info about the Nobel Laureates into this section (see UVA's page).
  • Get rid of the info about the honors programs, except those that are exceptionally interesting, such as Hinman CEOs. The first sentence of the paragraph says it all, "The Honors Program is similar to most other honors programs throughout the country." So why is it on the page??
• Athletics
  • I'm a UM alum and I love the Terps but can we please just move the team histories to the athletics page? I say highlight the major events (NCAA tourneys, etc) and have the general team info.
• Testudo
  • I'll try to find references for those events and add a picture. Right now, it's just a glob of text.
• Notable People
  • We need to cut back on the people. Moving the Nobel Laureates up to Academics will give up some space but others just simply need to be moved to the list page. I mean, do we really need to mention the Athletic Director of the University of Oklahoma? UM's own athletic director isn't even mentioned on the page!
    • The criterion I would use for this section is to think about whether your mother would know who these people are: Jim Henson, Connie Chung, Larry David, Congressman Hoyer? Probably yes. Joe Castiglione? Michael Griffin? Gordon England? I would say probably not.
  • The list of all athletes turned pro is neat but doesn't need to be on the main page; there are just a lot of them. They should be included in the separate Terrapins Athletics article or in the notable people list.
• Sections that should be removed or seriously overhauled.
  • Hoff Theater - remove.
    • I disagree with this. The Hoff Theater is a rather interesting part of being at Maryland for a lot of people.
  • Events - remove.
  • Department of Public Safety - remove.
  • The Greek Life section should really be about ALL student life at Maryland. A list of frats and sororities is, in my view, pretty useless.
  • References: I don't know why the same page (e.g. the UM Timeline) has to be referenced over and over. Isn't once enough to link to the information? Perhaps better primary source references can be found. I will definitely look. Thanks, Epicadam (talk) 22:38, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Point of Failure

I'm a student at U of M, and neither I, nor any of my friends, have never seen this plaque mentioned in the wiki warning students about the legend. I really don't think there actually is one. Can someone confirm? Perhaps I'm just blind. User:70.108.29.250 21:19, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Then remove the information unless it can be verified. Leave the fact tag, however, since the entire paragraph is uncited. --tomf688 (talk - email) 21:55, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

I, too, am a student at UMD. The 'point of failure' is there, but the plaque nearby does not warn freshman of the dangers. It explains what happened and why the point is there, but it doesn't tell people about the legend at all.

Another UMD student here. The only basis we really have for the legend is what our tour guides tell us during Open House and Freshman Orientation, really. There doesn't seem to be any actual "physical" proof. Recalcitrancy 02:48, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Another UMD student, although it's not written anywhere, it's common knowledge, and most people go out of their way to avoid stepping on that spot. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.2.175.87 (talk) 15:08, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

WHICH legend got removed? And, has anybody checked the page on Professor John Pease whose piece I bumped into? --leahtwosaints (talk) 00:10, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

Another UM student, I've heard much about the legend, including sometimes hearing "a friend of a friend of a friend" stories advocating that it is true. I would say the point of failure is the most active superstition still alive at UMD besides the idea that the turtle in front of McKeldin will give you luck if you rub it's nose/put an offering. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.244.223.244 (talk) 19:08, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

History of the anti-war movement at Maryland

I think some mention needs to be made of the history of the radical movement on and around campus during the late 60s and early 70s particularly as it relates to the anti-Vietnam War movement. Beginning in May 1970 the campus was shut down for part of three consecutive spring semesters. I personally recall the events of April 1972 when the campus was shut down by protests, occupied by the National Guard and placed under martial law for approximately a week. In the early 80s I had the privilege of meeting rock star Commander Cody who gave a concert during this time at Ritchie Colliseum which ended in pandemonium as the crowd tried to take over the Armory with National Guard and State Police barricaded inside. Cody recalled the episode during my brief encounter with him on the West Coast in 1983. Then of course there was the food co-op in the Student Union building which I understand still exists almost 30 years after we founded it. Tom Cod 20:30, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

This is the last thing we need on the page. Who cares if Maryland was/is a hippie school? Lots of schools protested the war. User:Titmanisdaman 03:02, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Why's that? these articles are supposed to present an NPOV history of these institutions not sanitized articles acceptable to administrators or those in denial about the past.

Failed GA

This article failed the GA noms due to lack of inline citations. If you feel the this article is still GA quality please feel free to seek a review. --Tarret 21:58, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Academics and Rankings Section

I added both an academics section and a rankings section to the article. I realize that a lot of these rankings are criticized, but people use them as references and that makes them relevant.

The Academics Section, I believe, should be where we add the content regarding academics at the university. I realize I didn't start off with much, but I think that together, we can all do research and make that section better.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Krobilla (talk • contribs) 05:36, November 13, 2006 (UTC)

Original research

The section regarding campus legends clearly contains some original research. These claims need to be cited, or they may be deleted. --tomf688 (talk - email) 05:01, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

I have added citations to some of the campus legends, but I was unable to find anything about the biology-psychology building. I am going to keep looking. Krobilla 00:44, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

After searching UMD's web page, doing a google search, and searching The Diamondback, I was unable to find anything about Bio-Psych building. I propose that the section be removed. Krobilla 00:50, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your work. I agree, and I'm going to remove it. --tomf688 (talk - email) 04:11, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

"Prior to the establishment of the medical school at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, the medical school was located in College Park, and Morrill Hall is actually where the cadavers were kept." This seems highly unlikely since the medical school was founded in 1807 and Davidge Hall on the Baltimore campus was built in 1812, well before the College Park campus was established.SHJohnson 02:26, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Greek life

The "Greek life" section has a list of the fraternities/sororities on the campus, but doesn't contain much other content. It would be nice to have it expanded to at least a couple of paragraphs. --tomf688 (talk - email) 05:07, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

I added some very basic information, which I will cite fairly soon. Krobilla 00:45, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

The section about hazing needs to be removed. Sure, they were large events on the campus, and Dr. Clement got criticized, but this is not how I want my school to be advertised to someone who did not know much about the school. I'm sure there are much more positive things that could be written. Also, there should be a distinction between academic and social fraternities. Titmanisdaman 15:29, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

New Userbox template

Here's an alternative Userbox template for any Terp to use: JGHowes 16:06, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

This user is a student or alumnus of the University of Maryland.

{{User:JGHowes/Templates/Univ_MD}}

GA Fail

Just looking at it the first thing that I notice about this article is it's lack of references. There are entire sections that have no references. Do not post anything without a reference. While there are other things this is the biggest area of concern that you should try to fix, in the meantime I will thoroughly review the rest of the article. I really feel like putting a fact tag on the entire article. It is well written but without sources it cannot be verified. Professor Davies 18:17, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Name

Isn't the school officially entitled: University of Maryland and not University of Maryland, College Park, which is just a form of clarification when discussing the University of Maryland System? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Josephabradshaw (talk • contribs) 14:41, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

The correct name is the University of Maryland, College Park. (It helps to hold a position in the Undergraduate Admissions office! :) FINALLY, answering all those emails is paying off! --leahtwosaints (talk) 00:10, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

Jim Henson statue

There is a very special Jim Henson comemmoratory statue at the University. Angie Y. (talk) 19:39, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

University of Maryland Food Co-op

The University doesn't want to advertise the existance of a student owned, run, and controlled Food Co-op in the Student Union Building, since they view it as financial competition. I'd like to see a mention of the Co-op, and do it myself. I'm mentioning it now, since I was one of the founders of the co-op. It's noteworthy because it opened only after students had the foresight to use unclaimed money from a mandatory "student activities fund" which had been underused, unnoticed for years, and which the Administration quietly kept. When the Admin. refused to allow use of any facility or funds, the students responded. Several hundred students demonstrated, at a time when huge demonstrations no longer took place. It is student owned & controlled. So, would anyone mind if I word it properly and reference it? I mean, affordable (and in 1976 edible) food for an hour of volunteering between classes? Not to mention the fact that the students have continued to keep this vital alternative open for over 30 years now. I'm mentioning my desire to include a very concise entry on the page, because I plan to adhere to NPOV, but yes, I was involved in starting that place. Thanks. --leahtwosaints (talk) 00:10, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

I say go for it. Not sure you have to go into all the detail about student funds, etc. for one because that was 30 years ago and two, unless them hiding funds has any particular significance today, it's not really worth mentioning.

But, the co-op is one of the more interesting features on campus. I'd say it should be part of a new student life section, instead of info about just frats and sororities. Epicadam (talk) 19:57, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

Do please add stuff about the co-op! Add whatever you feel like, and we can look over it to help make it more NPOV. Jussen (talk) 02:41, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

• More re: the Co-op

Sorry it's been 6 MONTHS since I brougt up the Co-op. Thanks for the encouragement. I agree with Epicadam that it might merit only a short blurb and then a link to another page about it. I was the V.P. of the Co-op back then (we had to be incorporated in case of personal lawsuits) but I'd keep it to a bare minimum. I began college at age 15, and was the youngest founder, so I recall nearly every detail and own clippings from the Diamondback, from '76-'81 with great photos -anyone have a scanner?- and know where most founders now are, who may have some refs too, and some other sources. Once I find time from Wikimedia Commons, I want to make a page for the Co-op because it sprang out of unusual circumstances, initiative, hard work, and shows both diversity and ingenuity of which few other schools can boast, surviving over 30 yrs., developing a culture and community on Campus all its own. Anyone else here who would be willing to contribute? --leahtwosaints (talk) 16:53, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

This has already been said, but for a major State university that has been around since before the Civil War, the plight of a food co-op doesn't merit much of a place in the article. There is also wp:coi issues here. Perhaps a tiny part in student life, and start a new article about it, though I'm not sure if you can find enough references to establish notability. I used to buy incense sticks there. --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 21:15, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Public Ivy edit war

I see there's an edit war going on about the Public Ivy claim. Perhaps qualifying the sentences with "according to ..." would make everyone happy. BTW, I think that the detractor's statement "Until it is demonstrated that the tiny journal JBEH speaks on behalf of all of academia, or that anyone takes the Public Ivy books seriously, THIS DOES NOT BELONG." is asking for an impossible to achieve standard; "all academia"? Seesh. UMD's grad program is ranked above many Ivy League schools in some areas, e.g. Physics and Computer Science, and these rankings come from sources other than JBEH. VasileGaburici (talk) 11:14, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

"According to..." is completely unnecessary verbage. It's obvious to anyone who actually takes 5 seconds to read the article that only Moll and his co-authors can categorize an institution as a "Public Ivy."

If you, our disruptive friend, or anyone else wants to move this fact to somewhere else in the article that's perfectly fine with me. If someone wants to remove it because they have evidence that it's not notable, not important, discredited, etc. then that's fine with me, too. But I am not okay with anyone removing information from any article simply because they don't like it or agree with it. --ElKevbo (talk) 11:58, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I see your point regarding "According to..." being unnecessary. But the average reader may not be aware that Public Ivy is a "proprietary" label dispensed only by Moll & Co. I certainly wasn't aware of it before I clicked the link, and I do have a (graduate) degree from UMD, CP. So, I suggest we move the Public Ivy statement to the "rankings" section because this label is a qualitative statement, so it is a (boolean) ranking originating from a single source, just like the US News & World Report rankings are produced only by that magazine. VasileGaburici (talk) 14:51, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Sounds good to me! --ElKevbo (talk) 15:54, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Rankings

Perhaps these should distinguish between graduate and undergraduate programs. UMD generally does better on the former than the latter. VasileGaburici (talk) 11:14, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually, I beg to disagree. It depends on the major. I strongly advise any current student to speak to Barbara Gill, the Director of Undergraduate Admissions. There is a lot to be said for some of the LEP (Limited Enrollment Programs), such as the business school. The Undergraduate Office are unable to allow any student into their desired LEP major even if they jump the hurdle and make it into the incoming frosh class, without them having significantly higher grades than are required just to be eligible for Fall admission, so she surely has references to show the necessity for this, and why UMCP is such a sought-after school. In addition, don't underestimate the Honors program. I don't know if it is still as good as when Dr. Mack was head of the main program until 2005? I seem to recall 2004, UMCP was ranked 4th, or something like that for the residential living-learning communities (I hope I'm remembering correctly.) Wish we could do research, but that's forbidden here.. another question for Barbara Gill, perhaps. --leahtwosaints (talk) 17:41, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Food Co-op

Please see my tardy addition to the Co-op question above. Thanks.--leahtwosaints (talk) 17:41, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

John Walter Smith

He was just removed from the alumni list. Hrm. His article says he attended the Agriculture College of Maryland. Isn't that now part of UMCP? Henrymrx (t·c) 05:37, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, UMD was known as the Maryland Agricultural College until 1916. However, the John Walter Smith article was incorrect (I fixed it); the second source cited there says specifically that he did not attend college. As governor, he did do some things involving the management of MAC, which I guess is where the confusion for that article's editor arose. Strikehold (talk) 05:59, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Whether the "flagship" status of a university can be presented as objective fact

There is currently an RfC on this question at Talk:University of Maine#Flagship RFC. ☺Coppertwig (talk) 12:54, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

Well, I don't know about Maine, but the College Park campus was declared the "flagship" campus by the state legislature sometime in the late 80s or early 90s. No, I don't have a source for that. I can probably dig one up if you want to make a big deal out of it. Henrymrx (t·c) 13:10, 16 May 2009 (UTC)

The College Park campus is referred to as the flagship campus on the University System of Maryland's website: http://www.usmd.edu/institutions/Profile.php?Inst=UMCP CheeToS (talk) 06:45, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

GA Nomination

Isn't generally best for someone who is actively working on the article to do the GA nom? Perhaps they still plan on adding more content, cleaning things up, etc. --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 19:54, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Content wise, I think this article is at the GA level already, and I think the reviewer will likely ask us to do things like reference secondary sources, format them using the cite templates, and other technical things that I do well, so I decided to try for GA status. If anyone doesn't want to try for that, let me know. JamaUtil (talk) 21:37, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

The article is coming along well, but there are still several sections with no footnotes (starting around the faculty section onwards). This will be asked for in the GA review... Strikehold (talk) 21:53, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

I see no reason to rush the nom. While it's likely not to be reviewed for at least a few weeks, it could be picked up anytime. I feel it's best to withdraw the nom for now and go over the tasks to improve the article. --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 22:02, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Let me know when you're ready! JamaUtil (talk) 17:33, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Unnecessary footnotes

I recently noticed that there were a few new footnotes linking to pages for maps and whatnot. Is this truly necessary? For example, under the "Campus Description" header, it says "A map of campus can be found here [59] and a walking-tour map featuring campus landmarks can be found here.[60]" with the footnotes linking to PDFs of maps. Can't you simply mention the information without linking to it? Plus, aren't footnotes supposed to be used to validate a statement rather than transfer you to a page like a bibliography? I just think it's weird and I don't see other university wikis with that.

The footnotes are also in the Resident Life header (can't you just name the halls in a grid rather than redirect people to the DRL website?) and the Transportation header (I doubt anyone besides those associated with the university care about Zipcar services, and those who do care already know how to access them so a link on Wikipedia is really unnecessary)

Like I said, I just think the footnotes and the sentences in general are weird and unnecessary. Why write "you can find this thing here" when "here" doesn't even lead to anywhere? --Kamaki (talk) 01:03, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

I agree they were weird, I changed them to: ..X is here and ..Ys are here. I do think they have some useful information, I only took out the one on current parking rates, but left all the location ones in. JamaUtil (talk) 14:55, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, but inline external links are even worse. See #2 in this guideline about External links. I left a note on your talk page. --Omarcheeseboro (talk) 15:03, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Page Move?

This hasn't been brought up in a while, so I want to gauge current consensus. Does it make sense to move this article to University of Maryland? I believe doing so satisfies WP:COMMONNAME and "University of Maryland" redirects here anyway. Thoughts? Best, epicAdam^(talk) 16:32, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Out of Date Rankings

The Rankings section of this article is in shoddy shape. Rankings from different years are used, and there's no consistency. New 2010 numbers are out there and available, we just need to find the best, most WP:NPOV, and most WP:RELIABLE sources. Here are a few after a quick search:

• UM Newsdesk 2010 Facts and Figures
• Academic Ranking of World Universities Official Website

Let's try to bring all the facts and figures up-to-date.  Amit  ►  13:07, 4 September 2010 (UTC)

A recent edit (diff) altered a lot of the University's national/international ranking numbers. The edit summary that was given states "I have updated the ranking for this current year", but there are no updated references or new references. In fact, some of the older references date back to 2007 and are either dead links or completely invalid now. These facts/figures are contentious, but important to this article, so please, before updated ranking numbers, make sure you have a reliable source ready to include as a reference. Thanks!  Amit  ►  13:48, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

Misspelled "School"

The "Robert H. Smith School of Business" redirects here. Unfortunately, "School" spelled "Scool"! Probably a Duke ?..lol.. and it would be really funny except Facebook picks up Wikipedia's university pages and so the misspelling is carried over there too. Several friends have commented that I went to a school that can't spell "school." Anyone here know how to fix it?

University of Maryland, College Park From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Robert H. Smith Scool of Business) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.191.197.234 (talk) 01:04, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

I had the scool article deleted. "Robert H. Smith School of Business" has its own article.. the scool redirect was created in 2005 for some unknown reason. As you may able to guess, there's no way for Wikipedia to delete it from Facebook. I tried "reporting" the page on facebook, though the options were about pornography and spam. --CutOffTies (talk) 13:03, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

Fear the Turtle

The article says this was coined in the early 2000's, but that's simply not true. I went to MD from 96-00 and I clearly remember the phrase on T-shirts and posters in 98 or 99.. Bethereds (talk) 00:54, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

Employees/criticism section removal

The section titled "Employees" and then titled "Criticism" was removed for "WP:RECENT. this is an article about a university that's been around since 1856 see WP:WEIGHT. also the sources are from the student paper written by same author, or some bloggish site seewp:RS."

The section listed relatively recent labor disputes with the contracted Wings construction company, contracted Daycon cleaning supplies company, and direct employees of the University who have been alleging abuse. Here is the last version before it was removed.

Included among the sources was a report by the National Labor Relations Board, an impartial adjuciations board, as well as a report by the Black Faculty and Staff Association at the University of Maryland. These two reports were both well-researched and put out by respected institutions.

I understand that a student newspaper is not a favored news source, though the Diamondback is ranked 8th best student newspaper by the Princeton Review (link to article). At any rate, there were actually two authors at the Diamdonback who were cited. The "bloggish" site also had two authors, at least one of whom was also incredibly well-researched and versed in the happenings.

Between these sources, I believe the section should be allowed to stand, particularly if it is given a disclaimer noting that these situations are relatively recent (though still valid to the understanding of the university and its functioning in a way that contributes to the historically long-standing study of labor relations which predates the founding of the University). Samtastic02 (talk) 20:27, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

The material that was removed seems to be much too long for this article. A few sentences may be appropriate but multiple paragraphs is out of proportion for this particular article. ElKevbo (talk) 22:12, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for bringing this to the talk page. I was the one who originally removed it, mostly per wp:undue: Discussion of isolated events, criticisms, or news reports about a subject may be verifiable and neutral, but still be disproportionate to their overall significance to the article topic. I'm no expert on this, but I believe that these type of labor concerns are in no way unique in a University context or in general. In the context of everything else you could include about this subject, it is insignificant.

One way to refute this is to provide citations in third party independent reliable sources. The school newspaper is obviously not independent. The other sources is a blog which is not a reliable source, and The Black Faculty and Staff Association at the University of Maryland, and the National Labor Relations Board are not independent. --CutOffTies (talk) 00:50, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Please explain how the school newspaper and NLRB are not independent. ElKevbo (talk) 01:13, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

I mean independent of the subject matter. A school newspaper (particularly a daily one) is going to write about the school. The Black Faculty and Staff Association at the University of Maryland is concerned about Black Faculty and Staff Association at the University of Maryland. The Labor Relations Board is concerned with Labor Relation issues. Compare that to publications like The Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Time Magazine - etc... Given that the editor is trying to establish significance to the content, I think it needs to be in one of these 'independent' publications to assert it --CutOffTies (talk) 01:36, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Ah, ok. I think you're placing the bar a bit too high but it's not entirely unreasonable. For me, if the NLRB had to get involved then it seems somewhat significant since they literally "made a federal case out of it" so a brief mention seems warranted. ElKevbo (talk) 05:02, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

File:UMD Testudo Statue.JPG Nominated for Deletion

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