Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Florida Atlantic University

The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted 04:16, 23 October 2007.

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Florida Atlantic University

I'm nominating this article for featured article because I think it meets the criteria. I have put a ton of work into it, and it has also been through an exhaustive peer review here. I was able to get a number of of experienced editors to look at the article and I believe I have addressed all of their concerns.

Thanks, KnightLago 19:21, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

• Self-nomination KnightLago 19:50, 13 October 2007 (UTC)
• Support. The peer review (to which I was a contributor) tidied up the edges of what was already a very strong article. I've just re-read through it, and can't find anything to criticize. Excellent work! Dylan 21:34, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

• Support Comment: Nice piece and, for once, a genuinely enticing introduction! I enjoyed the enthusiasm and the local-school-makes-good sub-text though it isn't overtly POV. You weave in many statistics without clunkiness and the occasional colloquialisms adds unobtrusive color. Anyhow, now the flak :)

1. Trivial typos and inconsistencies: controvery > controversy; was comprised of > was composed of? or comprised?; "the The Scripps" > "the Scripps"; "The HBOI" > "the HBOI"; Army > army (generic use) and Air Force > air force (ditto).  Done
2. Punctuation of abbreviations is inconsistent, tho "no points" dominates. I suggest either U.S. > US and S.E. > SE per Wp:mos#Acronyms and abbreviations or points everywhere throughout :)  Done I left it S.E. because the official name of the library is S.E.
3. Drifts a bit? By the end of 1945, about 100 planes were stationed at the airbase.[16][17] The conclusion of World War II marked a significant point in the history of the land that would later become Florida Atlantic University. Boca Raton Army Airfield saw a steady decline in use. Perhaps By late 1945 about 100 planes were stationed at the airbase though the end of World War II marked a significant decline in use or similar?  Done I moved the sentence down a bit to make it flow better. What do you think? KnightLago 17:25, 14 October 2007 (UTC) Good solution - RD.

--ROGER DAVIES ^TALK 16:32, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

• Support, although I admit to bias, having just done the copy-edit :). Also admit to being not familiar with criteria like "wikification". But I do believe the article meets the listed writing criteria, gives an interesting history, covers past and current issues, and would describe the topic well to any uninformed reader. I myself had heard the name, but knew zero about FAU before editing. Very educational to copy-edit! Unimaginative Username 21:42, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Just read through again (as requested), after the changes for consistency of referring to the school were made, as Karanacs suggested. (I also caught another couple of minor nits). I agree with Karanacs' suggestion. It reads very smoothly now that those changes were made. Fine article. Unimaginative Username 01:45, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

• Support Well-written and informative. Karanacs 13:35, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

*Comment So far I have not done a full read-through of the article (that is coming), but here are some things that should be fixed: **Be consistent in how you refer to the university, either as FAU or as Florida Atlantic. I am not sure if this is an issue. See Ohio Wesleyan University (featured) which uses abbreviations and the name of the school throughout. Ohio Wesleyan's usage was a special circumstance according to the FAC nom, so I will change to Florida Atlantic.  Done KnightLago 22:44, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

• • Check all your citations for publishers (see 15)  Done
  • Citations should be consistent in how newspapers are done. It looks like some of them have the newspaper name in italics (preferred) and others do not; choose one template method and stick to it.  Done
  • I would trim the external links, and have only the official website for the school  Done I left the main website, the main athletics website and the newspaper.
  • Don't need wikilinks to 1940s, triangle, senior citizens, or other simple terms  Done any others?
  • "Owl's football team" should not have an apostrophe in it  Done

Karanacs 21:05, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Here's a few more from me

• • The History section bothers me a bit. In the Beginnings section I expected to read about the foundation of the school, but that doesn't happen until the Expansion and Growth section. I think I would rename the first section Establishment, and have it start

"On July 15, 1961, to meet the burgeoning educational demands of South Florida, the state legislature passed an act authorizing the establishment of a new university in the City of Boca Raton"...Should City really be capitalized?...Then go into the existing Beginnings section. Lastly, grab the first two sentences out of the next section and add them into this one.  Done

• • Furthermore, on the Beginning section, do we need to know about the amount of money spent updating the airfield in WWII? I would remove that sentence and the one directly after it, as the second is an unneeded transitionary sentence. Air Force should be capitalized.  Done
  • I'm confused over what you mean by "upper division" students. Are they graduate students only or juniors/seniors?  Done Both, the sentence reads "university in the nation to offer only upper-division and graduate level courses."
  • I would reword the sentence about the presidents to something like "...the university has been led by five presidents. The fifth, Frank T. Brogan, assumed office in 2003 after resigning his position as the Florida Lt Gov." (and president in the following sentence does not need to be capitalized)  Done
  • Article needs non-breaking spaces between numbers and their qualifiers (Ex: 22181 undergraduates) Instead of a space, use & nbsp; or {{nowrap}}  Done
  • I don't understand this sentence: "It offers a liberal arts education in the platform of a public institution."  Done I looked at the source. By public institution they mean public university. I tried to make it more clear.
    • Why don't you wikilink liberal arts to liberal arts college -- that should clear up the confusion? Karanacs 13:35, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

I will, thanks. KnightLago 13:40, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

• • Need a citation for the 364,000 square foot research facility  Done
  • Need a citation for why the owls find the campus appealing  Done
  • Need to fix number formatting in first paragraph of Residential Life section. Do you mean the "within a 50-mile [(80 km)] commutable?" The brackets are because the 80kn part is not from the quote. If that is the problem then  Done

Karanacs 16:46, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

• Comment -

• 1.) In the Rankings section, the last two sentences tell the reader virtually nothing. What does "fourth tier" mean? How many schools in the US are first through third tier? And how many other schools were named as one of the "Best Southeastern Colleges"? 10? 100? 1000? We need these numbers for those sentences to have actual context.  Done
• 2.) Full sentences in captions should have periods. Fragments should not.  Done

•  Not done These are complete sentences: "Here is the Glades Road entrance sign, Boca Raton Campus." "The Glades Road entrance sign, Boca Raton Campus, looks pretty." This is a fragment: "The Glades Road entrance sign, Boca Raton Campus." A sentence must contain a noun and a verb. Many fragments in the captions still have periods. I guess I could just personally delete them (would take like 2 seconds), but I just wanted to let you know the rule for captions.

•  Done Ok, I fixed them for you. :)

• 3.) The first sentence in the lead is somewhat contradicted by the second sentence. The first sentence states that FAU is in Boca Raton. The second sentence states that there are six other campuses in other cities. A clarification is necessary (e.g. "...university with its main campus in Boca Raton" or something like that.)  Done
• 4.) "Florida Atlantic's seven campuses serve a" - repetitive; you just named the seven campuses. We don't need to be told the number again. Every word in the article should be valuable - it's a tough task to say the most important thing about a university is such a short article. Delete unnecessary words -> "Florida Atlantic serves a"  Done
• 5.) History - "1940s&ndashera" - fix please  Done

I honestly haven't read the vast majority of the article, so I cannot support it, but it looks fine on a cursory glance. -Bluedog423^Talk 01:54, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.