Talk:Wiess College

Content

This article is about a college, not a building, yet much of the recent editing seems directed toward focusing the article solely on the construction and layout details of the buildings. However, educational institutions have cultural as well as architectural history, and in many cases the former is likely to be of much greater interest to researchers (including sociologists and cultural historians) than the latter. Even to a non-academic reader, the evolution of student life from a high degree of formalism and communitarian practice, to more individualistic customs, is likely to be far more interesting than the layout of a residence hall. It therefore seems appropriate that both aspects be included.

Historical Information

Someone deleted the list of previous Masters and Presidents which several contributors had compiled over time. One would think that this is exactly the kind of information that belongs in an encyclopedia article. Why on earth would someone delete such information? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Georgewebb (talk • contribs) 02:33, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Old Wiess College is cited as having been built as a temporary structure. It is not a myth; see the citationAniRaptor2001 (talk) 04:23, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Despite the citation, it is still likely a myth. Buildings that have brick walls and tile roofs are not usually intended to be temporary. But admittedly further research might be needed.

"College Night"

There should be more of a distinction made between College Night (a night of celebration at the college) and Pub Night (each college's night at Willy's Pub) in the "College Night" section. I'm not a Wiessman, so I can't say whether this section refers to College Night or Pub Night. Maybe someone could clarify. --Ua747sp 07:46, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Major cleanup needed

This article looks more like an ad or log for all the various things that students do at this residential college. The information about the student traditions is unencyclopedic in its current form, and needs to be fixed or removed. --Coredesat talk! 06:47, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with Image:RiceU BlueSealLogo.png

The image Image:RiceU BlueSealLogo.png is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

• That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
• That this article is linked to from the image description page.

This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. --20:57, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

I have fixed this issue. Kirlinator (talk) 19:01, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Navboxes

Hello, I updated the main "Rice University" navigation box at the bottom of the article to include the residential colleges. I noticed that a second navbox is in use, which is fine but we now have two navboxes with duplicate information. See examples here on Wiess. I propose we keep the main navbox because it is more comprehensive. Let me know how you want to resolve this. Thanks! Postoak (talk) 20:41, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Alumni

Most of the alumni do not appear to be notable enough for an encyclopedia. Please review Wikipedia:Notability (people) and Wikipedia:Notability. There should either be a WP article about them or coverage in a publication. After determining that they are notable, there needs to be a reference stating the connection to Wiess College. Not just that they attended Rice University (those are good citations for the Rice alumni article), but specifically Wiess College. Currently, only one alumnus can be considered notable and none of those listed have any reference to Wiess College. This is standard policy on Wikipedia. Thanks, Alanraywiki (talk) 15:32, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

The alumni listed are Wiessmen. They did not "attend" Wiess College; they were members of Wiess College, meaning they lived there, took their meals there, and graduated with their fellow Wiessmen. It is not clear what additional "connection" could be required for inclusion in such a list. As for notability: as has been discussed in connection with other articles, an alumnus need not be notable enough for his own Wikipedia article in order to merit inclusion in a list of notable alumni. Given Rice's standing in technology fields, a founder or CEO of a high-tech company (which has its own Wikipedia article) would seem more than sufficient for inclusion on such a list. So would the second-highest elected official of the fourth-largest city in America. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.155.226.3 (talk) 18:10, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

What is lacking is any kind of documentation that they were members of Wiess College. The co-founders of ROLM are mentioned in the ROLM article, but there is no mention of the Houston city controller in the Houston article, so documentation is needed there, too. Again, you may want to review the Wikipedia articles I linked, and also Wikipedia:Verifiability. Thanks, Alanraywiki (talk) 18:22, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Are you seriously questioning the factual truth of whether these people are Wiessmen, or are you making some other argument? Their membership in Wiess College has been verified, as recently as today, through the Rice University alumni directory at alumni.rice.edu. Since this directory is provided directly by the university's alumni records database, it is eminently verifiable and is as authoritative as one can get -- certainly more authoritative than hearsay references (such as other Wikipedia articles). Alternatively, if the argument is that other articles on a person must mention their affiliation with an institution before the article on that institution is allowed to mention it, isn't that putting the cart before the horse? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.155.226.3 (talk) 22:46, 31 March 2009 (UTC)