User talk:Kvolanto

Welcome!

Hello, Kvolanto, and welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages you might find helpful:

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I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, please see our help pages, and if you can't find what you are looking for there, please feel free to ask me on my talk page or place {{Help me}} on this page and someone will drop by to help. Again, welcome! SchreiberBike | ⌨ 22:50, 30 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Texas A&M University edits

Hello Kvolanto, welcome again in a more personal way. What you said in your edit summary at Texas A&M University and in the note on the page makes sense and sounds like it's probably true, but we can't add things to Wikipedia on that basis. There needs to be a reliable source and it should be referenced in the article. If you've got access to a reliable source, I'd be happy to help format that into a reference. Keep up the good work and let me know if I can help. SchreiberBike | ⌨ 22:54, 30 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I just got your message. Here is a link to the Texas A&M website: https://www.tamu.edu/about/history.html

On this page it states: "The State of Texas agreed to create a college under the terms of the Morrill Act in November 1866, but actual formation didn't come until the establishment of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas by the Texas state legislature on April 17, 1871."

Is that considered a sufficient source? (It doesn't get into the Reconstruction politics, but it clearly states that the school was "established" in 1871.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1700:24D1:6900:1959:CF72:3B15:720B (talk) 01:43, 31 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not a historian, so I'm no authority, but I saw that you had put work into the article and didn't want you to feel discouraged. I think we could change the date to 1871 and add the reference as "History of the University". Texas A&M University. n.d. Retrieved December 31, 2021. The State of Texas agreed to create a college under the terms of the Morrill Act in November 1866, but actual formation didn't come until the establishment of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas by the Texas state legislature on April 17, 1871.

A history journal article or a book published by an academic press would be a better source, but let's try this and see if it flies. How does that sound to you? I suspect that some of the people who watch the page have opinions and this might start a discussion. Thank you, SchreiberBike | ⌨ 02:44, 31 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

That sounds good to me. I am a historian (got my PhD in history from A&M in 2004) and have been telling my classes for two decades now how the date on A&M's seal is not the founding date as implied. The tradition of every college is to use the year that the charter was adopted (some schools like the University of Richmond even put the exact day on their seal, not just the year) and certainly not the first day of classes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1700:24D1:6900:F19B:F253:B0D2:144F (talk) 04:23, 31 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Also, the date in the second sentence of the entire entry needs to be changed to 1871. I will try to do that now with a minor edit....

I've done it with this edit. It's good to have trained historians working on Wikipedia. We have our own culture and standards, so it's not necessarily an easy adjustment from academic standards, but many succeed in both. Happy New Year (and in the future, be sure you are logged in and sign your notes with ~~~~ and the software will add your signature)! SchreiberBike | ⌨ 04:50, 31 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Please see Talk:Texas A&M University#Founded date. Thank you. SchreiberBike | ⌨ 02:52, 4 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]