Talk:University of Massachusetts Amherst/Archive 2

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Sourcing your edits

Thank you everyone who has helped edit this article.

In a lot of recent edits, in-line sourcing has been moved to "External links". In my opinion, this is not beneficial to the reader, as it makes it difficult to find where content comes from. Wikipedia's own style guides note that there are serious issues with using footnotes/endnotes, and would appear to come out in favor of at least partial citations in the text.

I recognize that previous in-text citations did not follow the guidelines for citing in text, for example this section on Residential areas links to the Housing website where much of this information is from, but in the most recent version of that very section, there are few sitations, and no mention of the housing website in the external links.

Future edits should take care to not remove citations as they exist. If there is a problem with the citation, do not delete it- this is standard Wikipedia policy. If there is a problem with certain passages- for example, the other day, someone added the entire mission statement of the Take Back UMass group- you shouldn't delete the entire thing, but simply correct it.

Again, thank you all for helping out. Good luck on finals, and happy holidays!

Vvuppala 05:24, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

External links are different than sources. Links to the housing home page or the athletics home pages are also not great sources. Sources should be links to specific articles or pages which supply specific facts for the article. Wikipedia style is to either link them inline (with no link text, so they appear as a number), or as an endnote using the ref templates. This article has no endnotes. I agree that we should cite more sources, but please don't act as if I was removing sources - I was just moving external links to the bottom of the article. Trust me, external links belong in the "external links" section. Think of it this way: External links are resources where readers can get more information. References are sources that are used to support facts in the article.
I noticed you wrote a section about the riots and the Higgins controversy. I'm disappointed that you appear to be only focusing on negative aspects of UMass and controversy. I NPOV'd the Higgins thing, but I don't think we should add it to the article at all. There is always some SGA controversy going on here. This article shouldn't be used as a forum to attack the school or specific SGA members. UMass isn't perfect. But this article doesn't get any better when detractors keep coming here and piling on the criticism. I still don't think that Take Back UMass is any more notable than any other student group.
It's odd that you haven't tried to mention Rene Gonzalez in this article. I wonder why that is. Rhobite 22:34, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
Yes, I am familiar with Wikipedia style. However, I believe that removing the housing link deviates from Wikipedia convention of fix not delete information. A section that details housing on campus should make note of the Housing Services website.
I would encourage you to look at the fact that when I wrote the section, I commented it out of the article, and prefaced it with "Work in Progress" or somesuch message. I'll be honest, I got here after the Higgins contraversy, I am writing the section as I research it, so if it incomplete, it is not because I'm trying to bias it. If you have something to add to it, by all means, do. I haven't the slightest idea who Rene Gonzalez is, but I'll look into it. I hope that's alright?
I don't want to give you the impression that I'm hear to tear down the school I work for. I was editing the history section, and thought that the contraversy issue would best be dealt with in the history section than having its own section. Certainly UMass has had a lot of proud moments in its history, and I'm sure the article will eventually cover them. I think that any discussion of UMass history would be incomplete without mention of the contraversies. UMass, over its history, has had many many contraversies. Students have taken over Whitmore and New Africa House, they have denounced administration officials, (Joann Vanin, and Mike Gargano are not the first). It is part of the University's legacy, and makes it unique amongst college campuses.
I look forward to continuing this conversation, but I've got RA duty, hope I've straightened things out a bit? Vvuppala 23:19, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
I think that the entire section should try to come closer to NPOV. I haven't been a student at Umass for a couple years, but a whole section afforded to recent campus political squabbles seems a little unneccessary. I wouldn't know how to edit it without axing almost the whole section, since I am not that familiar with the campus since I left. More is devoted to the history of the campus in the last 2 years than the 75 years before WWII. I realize that recency grants some degree of primacy, but really now. Cnkimpel 04:01, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
and that's nothing to say about the somewhat evident anti-administration slant of the section. I flagged it. I hope someone who is a little more privvy to what's happening right now, and a touch more objective could shed some light.Cnkimpel 04:17, 5 January 2006 (UTC)


I covered the Whitmore takeover (at least, the RA Union one) for the Collegian -- I was actually locked in with the protestors and the then-Vice Chancellor. As for Rene Gonzalez, anyone who went to UMass in the late 90s and possibly today (he still pops up) probably heard him yelling into an megaphone at least once or twice. Rene is a very, ahem, out-spoken activist for a wide-variety of causes, and a fixture at most on-campus protests and demonstrations. He frequently comments on various UMass webboards. I'm not sure if he is still active on campus. He was a STEPC undergrad, not sure what his grad studies were. -- Ken Campbell. '02

Privatization Plan

I was hoping someone could put a mention of the plan (was it about two years ago?) to privatize UMASS. This has been attempted at numerous times, and may happen someday. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.254.3.105 (talk) 20:05, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Regional Improvements

I had no idea what to title this, just that I wanted to clarify something.

Before I registered for an account, I clarified the upgrades to surrounding roads in the History section. Some of the information on the surrounding routes was at best ambigiuous and at worst wrong. I felt that I should report these edits here. While I am no accredited historian, my hobby is tracking the histories (amongst other things) of Pioneer Valley roads and I felt that misinformation should be corrected. At some point I will expound on these a little more, but I had to remove the references to US 5 and I-91, since I-91 was planned and built before the UMass Amherst boom and US 5's traffic problems at the time were as much through traffic as was UMass traffic from Springfield. The roads directly impacted by UMass were 9 and 116, and their improvements required clarification.

kefkafloyd 06:47, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

student of color?

There is a reference to the leadership or president addressing a student of color and telling them to go to a community college if they don't want pay for housing at Umass! This has no source, and seems totally irrelevant, other then to try to prejudice the reader. So what if the person, without any proof mind you, was "of color"? What releveance does this have? I'm taking it out. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.192.100.171 (talk) 11:32, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

IT section POV

Both the section on SPIRE and OWL seem to mostly be complaints about the systems, and are markedly lacking citations. They could probably be combined and trimmed down to a single, concise paragraph. Thoughts? Slackingest 19:59, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Expansion Plan

"Classrooms are often filled to capacity, and past capacity in some cases." This is pointless. It should be removed. Might as well say, "Students often learn at this university. Some students learn a lot." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.25.62.3 (talk • contribs)

Wrong. Have you been to class? There's a correlation between class size and the quality of the course--things such as the difficulty one has taking notes or seeing while sitting in an aisle, the unbearable heat in some cases, the difficulty of hearing in general amidst the added noise, and most greatly, the difficulty having any sort of dialogue with a professor during a class. Certainly, this can nearly all be avoided by sitting in the front row, but that doesn't solve the problem for most people. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.238.23.171 (talk • contribs)

  • It is not a fact that classes are filled beyond capacity. The fire-code requires they not be filled to capacity. However they are often filled TO capacity and a 450 person lecture hall with 450 students there does cause a great deal to sit in the aisle. Classroom seating bears a resemblance to aitline seating, with the exception of the fact that you don't have assigned seats which causes people to prefer to sit in an aisle to climbing over 40 people to get to the open seat in the middle. As an aside however most classes are on TU and Thu with a 30 minute break between them which is sufficient time to get to class early and get a seat. Please sign your post with 4 tilde in the future. UmassThrower 21:39, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

P. S. if you don't want a crowded classroom pick a hard major :-) my classes are never more than 45 students and often less than 25. No one goes to class by the 2nd month of the semester anyways. UmassThrower

Organization section

I have started this section but dont have enough time to add enough information. Can anybody please add organization structure of this university?. Leotolstoy 03:41, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Schools and colleges

I have redone this part from http://umass.edu/umhome/academics/schools.html. Please add individual school/college pages (and if possible department pages. I will create cs dept one in next few days). Leotolstoy 04:13, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I have a feeling that pages on individual departments at UMass are likely to get WP:AfDed as non-notable. Please consider creating them on UMassWiki (where they are most welcome) and linking to them from this article. --Neurophyre(talk) 01:30, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
Some of the departments are undoubtably notable (polymer science, computer science etc). Not sure if the credit passes upto 'school' level. It makes sense to have pages for those departments at least. Leotolstoy 18:38, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
Yes, some are, some aren't. Good luck with it, and information on any and all of them is always welcome on UMassWiki. --Neurophyre(talk) 06:52, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

McDonald and Milne blockquote

Is this actually part of the quote?

This nickname has also carried over to other schools in the UMass network, drawing distaste from those students, who do not wish to be associated with the Amherst campus, or their reputation.


--Neurophyre(talk) 01:13, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Can somebody remove the quote and condense it to a couple of sentences? Leotolstoy 13:38, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup

I think this article needs to be cleaned up. Buildings and Layout section is too large and contains lot of insignificant information. Labs section needs to have more information (It is after all a research university). See the article on cornell (which was recently a FA) on how to make this a better article. Leotolstoy 21:22, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree that the article is suffering from bloat at this point. Sorry if I'm sounding redundant, but info that may be insignificant on Wikipedia is likely fine on UMassWiki, so I'd urge anyone doing cleanup to consider relocating minor details as opposed to simply deleting them. As far as some of the bigger subsections, they may merit splitting into separate articles. --Neurophyre(talk) 21:59, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
Just curious. Who runs umasswiki?. Who pays for it? (or where does all the money go?) Leotolstoy 22:48, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
I run it and pay for it under the umbrella of my business. See http://www.umasswiki.com/wiki/UMassWiki:About :) --Neurophyre(talk) 02:30, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
Finally I was able to do a clean-up. If anybody thinks I have deleted something that was useful, please correct it (Dont do a revert, add the missing information). Leotolstoy 19:01, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Editors needed at UMassWiki!

Hey folks. As you all know, this article is getting extra-huge. Splitting off various topics may run afoul of notability guidelines -- for example, various residential areas probably don't merit their own article on Wikipedia and would likely be deleted. On the other hand, it's good to describe things in detail and offer as much useful information as possible.

Well, there is a place where all useful, interesting and fun information about UMass Amherst is welcome. That place is UMassWiki. I founded UMassWiki over a year ago. It's picked up steam since then and a lot of information has been added, but there are still a lot of gaps. The skeleton is all there in terms of categories and lists, but we still really need people to fill in those red links and expand all the stubs.

Aside from being a useful compendium of information about UMass Amherst and the surrounding area which is far more in-depth than this Wikipedia article can ever be, one of my hopes for UMassWiki is to be a fun resource as well. The criteria for inclusion of information is less strict on UMassWiki, and I'm really hoping to pick up some of the lore and legend that makes UMass what it is, for instance legends and ghost stories about dorms, trivia about certain buildings, and facts and tidbits about the surrounding towns that would never cut it in a "professional encyclopedia" but are interesting and useful to the UMass community.

Please consider contributing to UMassWiki. It's a well-maintained wiki, open edit (no account needed!). My ultimate goal is for the wiki to become a resource useful to every segment of the UMass community, from high school seniors researching schools to current undergrads and grad students to alumni looking to relive a bit of the past. We can only accomplish this together with help from wiki editors like yourselves. --Neurophyre(talk) 21:34, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

The need for editors is even more pressing as I've left UMass. UMassWiki is serving 45,000-90,000 pages a month during session and at least one class per semester is using it to do collaborative homework, but the main portion of the site needs more information and improvement. I have less time to tend to it now that I'm gone. Wiki enthusiasts, please help. http://www.umasswiki.com/ --Neurophyre(talk) 09:50, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject Universities not Schools

I think that we may be doing more harm to the structure of this article by refering people to the Project Schools guides for article standards on school when it should really be linked to the Project Universities guides. I am not involved in either project, but prima facie it looks like we should hold by the University standards. I will not change anything unless people follow suit in further discussion, but note that even the School Project's article starts off with them saying "Project members also make some suggestions about how to organize school articles (excluding colleges and universities)." This should be looked into before people start wasting their time restructuring this article. Tdmg 04:30, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Court Case Info removed from History Section

I removed the following from the History section of the page. While it may belong on this page, it certainly does not belong in the history section. Cosentino 21:36, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

In 2007, an undergraduate student filed, in the United States district court, Springfield, Massachusetts, claims against UMass alleging the university and particularly a graduate student, Jeremy D. Cushing, teaching assistant, unilaterally breached an agreed upon fall 2006 Philosophy 161 syllabus's contractual terms by arbitrarily reducing a 92.1 numerical semester average to a final grade award of C; this occurred in contravention of the syllabus's sectional grading scheme.

Mr. Cushing, in an e-mail to the student, annouced that he did not like the way the class fared according to the present grading scheme, so he revised it to measure a different outcome. Once the new outcome produced a 84 in plaintiff/student's favor, he then decided askance to this method to issue a final grade of C.

The case remains active in federal district court as 07:cv-30015-KPN.

I don't think it belongs in any section. Can you imagine what the article would look like if it included two paragraphs for every time a student had a complaint about his grade? JustSayin 19:17, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

UMass News

I've been adding stories to the UMass news section, but they could probably use some cleaning up. I was growing tired of only seeing the "most violent campus" crap in the news section. I encourage others to make note of the many newsworthy accomplishments and events that go on in and around (or in relation to) UMass and to add them to the section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.183.177.191 (talk • contribs)

I don't think a lot of it is encyclopedic, but it's something that would be welcome on UMassWiki, perhaps in a new "UMass in the news" article. --Neurophyre(talk) 10:23, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
I had hoped that it would be edited/revised as needed. Obviously some of the entries (the science entries?) are simply news blurbs. The restructuring entry seems pertinent, especially if the "most violence campus" meme is included, and I think the Andrew Card Protest(s) is at least in the public consciousness enough to merit mention. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.183.177.191 (talk • contribs)
"News" should probably be renamed to something like "notable events" or similar, or split into notable contributions and notable incidents sections. See WP:NOT and please sign your comments using four tildes: ~~~~ --Neurophyre(talk) 10:36, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

GLBT Privacy

This may be a small issue, but I think the author of this article should not have pointed out which floor of Mary Lyon is the 2 in 20 floor in the "Northeast" section of the article. Wikipedia can be seen by too many people, and for safety reasons I think that information should be private. I think this information is somewhat secretive on campus for this reason. I propose removing the words "in the fourth floor" from this section of the article. -Katie, a freshman at UMass—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.19.87.130 (talk) 21:56, 1 April 2007 (UTC).

I think we should take this as a verifiability issue. Is this information available from a reliable, public source, or was it added by someone who just happened to know? The Storm Surfer 20:47, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Go down that road, and this article is going to shrink drastically. --Neurophyre(talk) 11:07, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Well (perhaps unfortunately), that's how Wikipedia is supposed to work. The Storm Surfer 19:50, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
It is probably for the best that we not name which dorm the program is in. The article is now in line with the UMass Housing website, and only references the living area where the floor is located. Vvuppala 00:35, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
I'd still like to know whether the information is verifiable from a publicly available, reliable source. If it isn't, no further discussion is needed. If it is, then, yes, further discussion is needed. Dpbsmith (talk) 17:19, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
Available in a Chronicle of Higher Education article (via Google): [1]. Also mentioned on UMassWiki, although that's not a reliable source: [2] It's well-intentioned, but misguided to think that withholding this information from Wikipedia will increase safety in any way. However, I don't think the article needs to go into a floor-by-floor level of detail on the location of various residential programs. Rhobite 04:13, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
Yes, that's for good old "unreliable" UMassWiki. ;) --Neurophyre(talk) 05:06, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Added updated Times Higher Education ranking

From the 2007 stats. Before it had said "45th in the world," which was a stat from 2004 (when, by the way, the Times Higher Education Supplement listed the school as "Massachusetts University"). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.4.221.155 (talk) 15:15, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

"Most violent campus" controversy

An un-logged-in user deleted this section, with the edit comment "outdated and irrelevant."

A November 2005 news report is hardly "outdated."

The question is, is this relevant? I'm not sure. I didn't put it in, although I did have a hand in sourcing it properly. I happen to think it probably is relevant.

Is it neutral? Is it a factual description of what ABC said, and of UMass' rebuttal?

Did ABC ever retract its statements?

Is there any reason for removing it other than its being uncomplimentary to UMass? Dpbsmith (talk) 21:08, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm on the fence about whether it should be included in the article. In general I don't think we should add every bit of criticism of the school to this article. And news magazines produce these shock stories all the time. On the other hand, the report was kind of a big deal - it did get a lot of coverage in the Collegian this semester. I don't know. I do think it is placed much too prominently in the article. There are three sections for the school's history, and one whole section is devoted to a single TV report. Too much coverage. I can confirm that the description is accurate, but there is a problem with the citation.. it just reads "UMass violence". Rhobite 04:07, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
Fixed the citation.
I agree that it's overemphasized; my fault, not sure how to remedy it; it takes a few sentences to summarize the charge and the UMass rebuttal.
The history was: an anon added an unattributed throwaway remark to University of Massachusetts asserting simply "The University of Massachusetts-Amherst has the highest crime rate of any university in the country." It was removed as unsourced; I found a source, expanded it, and put it back. I then realized it was specific to the Amherst campus and belonged here, not in the UMass system article. I moved it here without thinking too much about how to integrate it into the article, and it looks as if I bungled moving the reference.
Along the same lines: an anon added the sentence to the University of Massachusetts article, "Students at the Amherst campus refer to the school as "The Zoo" or "Zoo-Mass Slamherst," according to sophomore Mike Shulman." Well, Mike Shulman is not exactly a verifiable source, and again this is a reference to UMass Amherst, not the UMass system. I did, however, feel, that the "Zoo Mass" moniker is sufficiently well-known that not to mention it at all would be whitewashing, so I dropped in what looked like a well-informed and balanced description from a book on sport marketing.
It, too, is probably out of proportion at the moment. My inclination is simply to hope that balance will be achieved through natural expansion of the history section.
Does the "most violent" stuff belong in history, or should there be a section on "UMass Amherst in the news"—near the end of the article—that could be used to collect factoids of that sort? I think I'll try that and see how people react. Dpbsmith (talk) 13:59, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
I think the new placement is much more in line with the report's importance. Thanks. Rhobite 16:10, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Removed "This is a flawed theory since counting only the on campus residents would actually increase the crime rate on a per student basis" after the quote from after the quote by O'Malley. While it is true that this would increase the crime rate on a per student basis, UMass Amherst has a higher percentage of on-campus students than most other universities and this would effect the results. So a university of the same size as UMass Amherst with fewer students on campus but with the same on-campus crime rates would be portrayed as having much lower rates than UMass Amherst, even if they are the same. (Tdmg 06:16, 20 March 2007 (UTC))

Also, the quote "Many students believe that UMass received this ranking because of Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Michael Gargano's alleged requests to the University Police that police resources be concentrated on the enforcement of alcohol and marijuana laws, instead of on violent crimes, crimes against property, and crimes against public order" is internally incoherent and is uncited, so I am removing it until it is cleaned up and cited. (Tdmg 06:19, 20 March 2007 (UTC))

It should be removed, if this piece of information is left in and is considered legitimate then the taser incident should be left on the UCLA main page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by MinuteManSam (talk • contribs) 20:45, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Off Campus Living

I removed this entire section. For starters, it was housed within the campus section, which makes no sense. It wasn't worth moving anywhere else because it mentioned only a single off campus location, had no sources, and was written poorly.dmp (talk) 15:52, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

U. S. News list

I'll check with the print edition when I get a chance, but I believe their "national universities" list is limited to the top 100. If UMass Amherst is now #102, then it just barely misses being on the list and can no longer be cited as testimony for UMass being a "top" university. Those who live by the U. S. News rankings shall perish by the rankings; if we make a point of calling a university a "top" university when it's on the "national universities" list, even if only just barely, then we need to stop calling it that when it's no longer on the list, even if only just barely.

If I'm wrong about the "national universities" list consisting of the top 100, then I apologize and the description should be reinstated.

Of course, if someone can find a suitably neutral source that uses the phrase "top university" to characterize UMass, then it can be inserted using that source, not U. S. News and World Report, as a reference. Dpbsmith (talk) 17:39, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

My apologies, I was wrong. I checked the print edition. The (correct) title of the list in the 2008 edition is "Best National Universities" and it includes 113 entries. Edited article accordingly. Dpbsmith (talk) 00:21, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

Notable faculty/alumni

Does it make sense to combine Notable Faculty and Notable Alumni into one Notable People page? The description next to the person's name specifies their relationship to the school. For example:

Pictures of the campus

The article needs a lot more pictures of the campus. Can we find some quality pictures of the stadium for the athletics section and maybe pictures of each housing complex for each housing section? A picture of the old chapel would be good and/or a picture of the minuteman statue. —Preceding unsigned comment added by AnalogKid (talk • contribs)

There are plenty of quality pictures available on the UMass webpage. For the last few months there have been a significant number of new pictures rotating on the mage page, but those pictures are always available. (Tdmg 04:11, 20 March 2007 (UTC))
Uploading those images (if that is what you are suggesting) to Wikipedia would probably present copyright problems. I've taken some photos around campus, certainly including the library and the church, but I'm not sure how appropriate they would be to the article. The Storm Surfer 00:08, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
I would think any images displaying the various buildings would be appropriate. Take a look at articles for other major universities and you'll notice they include a number of images from all over campus. For example, the UPenn article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upenn —Preceding unsigned comment added by AnalogKid (talk • contribs) 20:13, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

AfD for Degree programs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

A AfD has been filed for Degree programs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Please comment on the discussion here. Madcoverboy (talk) 15:13, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

Removed Information Technology Section

I've been trying delete or move to separate pages many of the subsections that are not all general or informative and bloat up the page--such as the Information Technology section. I'm thinking the Study Abroad subsection should be deleted as well. Thoughts/suggestions? CampTenDMS (talk) 20:27, 11 May 2011 (UTC)

List of Research Labs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst?

This list seems to be an incomplete collection of various research centers at UMass. It seemingly has little to do with specific research labs, which is probably a good thing since trying to list each and every lab would be completely overkill. There's also no assertion of notability for each of these; there are centers on there that I've never even heard of and many that I have heard of seem to be completely omitted. Looking at this list you'd think the Chemistry, ChemE, PSE, and MCB graduate programs don't even exist. Aside from MassCREST I don't see a single Physical Science even represented there. (+)H3N-Protein\Chemist-CO2(-) 14:32, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

I've also brought this up on the talk page of this list. (+)H3N-Protein\Chemist-CO2(-) 17:53, 8 September 2011 (UTC)
This page wasn't even created by a UMass student. I've only heard of a few of these labs, and the Apiary Laboratory isn't even an active laboratory anymore. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 18:01, 3 October 2011 (UTC)
All I can say in rebuttal is that the list is meant to represent as many research centers on the campus as possible, it should be renamed "List of research laboratories at.." or "List of research centers at..". Also should note the Apiary was still an active laboratory as of this last month. I wasn't a proponent of making this list its own article, but just because it is underrepresented in certain departments isn't necessarily grounds for its deletion, rather encourage others to expand it. At the same time, I don't see it necessarily serving as much more than a link-farm, as most of these centers are highly specialized or ephemeral, which I don't think is something Wikipedia encourages.--Simtropolitan (talk) 19:15, 3 October 2011 (UTC)
I have nothing against this particular list just that inclusion seems rather arbitrary and incomplete, and as I said originally it doesn't actually appear to be a list of specific research labs which is what the title implies. (+)H3N-Protein\Chemist-CO2(-) 23:30, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

Who from the UMass administration is editing this page?

I'm a UMass alum, and proud of my school, but this article seems designed to put UMass in an overly flattering light. There are multiple overtly biased statements, from saying that UMass is ranked favorably compared to other "local" doctorate granting schools such as Northeastern while ignoring MIT, Harvard, BC, and BU, to fluff about UMass being a "leader" among sustainable design that reads as if it were from a fundraising letter. Again, I'm proud of my school. But just as I'd say that we've got some all time great basketball players like Dr. J I wouldn't make us out to be in the ranks of Kansas and Duke. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.232.1.97 (talk) 06:12, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Use the power of Wikipedia then. Flag things you think are biased with POV. Bring up specific points on this Talk page and let's debate. Show us exactly what you're talking about, then we can take it from there.--MikeUMA (talk) 02:12, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Current Controversies on Campus

Someone under the name Studentssecondumass added this section today. I had removed it, as it appeared to be very biased, thereby violating the Neutral Point Of View (NPOV) guidelines. Even the author's name suggests a biased point of view. But the section was promptly restored by Studentssecondumass.

So instead of and I starting an edit war, I left the section displayed, but added an NPOV template above it. Let's get other opinions. Please chime in here, let us know what you think. --MikeUMA (talk) 01:16, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure someone involved in the UMass Peer Mentor controversy is editting this page. I already left a note there telling them to keep it tame, but honestly the whole section should be removed and rebuilt from scratch. I mean, I do agree with the points there, but I don't like how it slanders the names of these people. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 02:17, 28 January 2012 (UTC)
Screw it, I just removed the entire section. If anyone plans on adding it back in, don't. It needs to be re-written completely, it was a complete mess, and it violates way too many rules to even be counted. Wikipedia is not a soapbox, and should not be used to spray blatent propaganda and lies (I know some of those things aren't true). As I said before, I am all for the protests, but that stuff is slanderous, and extremely pointy. Honestly, a lot of those grievances are so slanted towards recent events that it gives the school a bad rap, when in fact there are more long-term issues that have been going on for a number of years (i.e., how the school inhibits free speech). Kevin Rutherford (talk) 06:48, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

"..otherwise known as UMass, Massachusetts or UMass Amherst"

I don't think I've ever heard anyone call it "Massachusetts" at least not without it being preceded by "University of ..". (+)H3N-Protein\Chemist-CO2(-) 19:38, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

UMass is more usual, but it is referred to as "Massachusetts", primarily but not exclusively in the sports area. Many flagship campuses are referred to by state alone (North Carolina for North Carolina Chapel Hill, California for California Berkeley......If you look back at NCAA tournament records, they often refer to UMass as Massachusetts. The official song of UMass (Twighlight Shadows) and the UMass Fight Song refers to the school as Massachusetts...........Pvmoutside (talk) 20:35, 11 January 2012 (UTC)
Perhaps we can clarify this in the article rather than going back and forth with it, then, because I don't believe it's known as Massachusetts anywhere outside the sports arena that I am aware of. Kate (talk) 22:54, 11 January 2012 (UTC)
I'm not strongly invested in the outcome of this discussion, but isn't this the sort of thing that should be clarified here, on the talk page, rather than with back and forth reverting? (+)H3N-Protein\Chemist-CO2(-) 14:18, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Admissions

Admission section needs some updates. I did some updates regarding the class of 2015 based on UMass press release. Commomwealth Honors College admission needs to be updated. Ashowmega (talk) 02:54, 22 May 2012 (UTC)

Edits by juicy_fruit146

The most recent two edits by User:juicy_fruit146 are taken from Umass promotional materials almost directly word for word. I'd reword, but they also don't actually add any information to the page IMO, as they admissions office promotional fluff. I'm going to post to the user's talk page and explain the problem, but could someone else keep an eye on these repeat edits? Thanks. Kate (talk) 09:40, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

List of University of Massachusetts Amherst notable faculty

This list seems somewhat arbitrary, as if someone simply combed through the university's "news" page looking for any professor whose name was mentioned more than once in a 2 year period and then listed them here in no particular order. There's also no citations of any kind, and while I recognize some big names in there it certainly strikes me as odd that there isn't so much as a single reference. Also "notable" appears to be largely subjective, and there are a few names on the list such as Goessmann who is only even a UMass faculty by an extreme technicality. Moreover, this list makes no attempt to even distinguish between present and past faculty.. emeritus or otherwise. (+)H3N-Protein\Chemist-CO2(-) 14:25, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

Does anyone have anything to add?(+)H3N-Protein\Chemist-CO2(-) 20:52, 16 October 2012 (UTC)
Feel free to make any appropriate changes......Pvmoutside (talk) 03:08, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
I'm not really sure what changes are appropriate; it's essentially an uncategorized and unreferenced list of arbitrarily notable professors some of whom aren't even technically considered UMass Amherst faculty. Not to mention as a grad student I'm not really in a great position to declare which faculty are or aren't notable.(+)H3N-Protein\Chemist-CO2(-) 00:24, 27 October 2012 (UTC)
Go ahead and play around with it. Honestly, if you feel that they don't meet guidelines, then it wouldn't hurt to remove them. Should they somehow become notable, someone could add them at a later date. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 01:30, 17 December 2012 (UTC)
As I said, I'm a UMass grad student so I'm probably not the best person to be pruning a list of notable UMass faculty. WP:COI certainly implies that you're not supposed to be writing about people you know, and since I know a number of the faculty on the list at least in passing that would seem to disqualify me from making major edits to this page. (+)H3N-Protein\Chemist-CO2(-) 14:52, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Discussion to rename UMass Minutemen and Minutewomen to Massachusetts Minutemen and Minutewomen

a discussion has ensued to rename UMass Minutemen and Minutewomen. See Talk:UMass Minutemen and Minutewomen if you would like to comment....Pvmoutside (talk) 15:15, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

Name

UMass' name is the "University of Massachusetts Amherst," not "UMass at Amherst," or "UMass, Amherst." 173.76.34.74 (talk) 18:09, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

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Rubber Bullets used in 2013 riots

Is there a source saying that the UMPD used rubber Bullets in the 2013 riot? I was in the 2006 riot (much bigger, for the record) and they deployed tear gas grenades and paintballs filled with powdered mace (fired at 300 fps minimum I estimate) but no rubber bullets. I do not believe the UMPD utilizes these at all -- would be extremely dangerous. Let's cut the sentence about what non-lethal weapons were used unless there's some actual backup. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:647:5803:1240:DC46:1EB:4567:4C83 (talk) 04:57, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

Motto inaccuracy

The motto on the page reads "we racist asf" which, avoiding any kind of commentary, is not the actual English translation of the Latin motto. 192.5.110.6 (talk) 20:55, 12 October 2021 (UTC)

Honorary degree recipients are not alumni

An unregistered editor is insisting that honorary degree recipients be included in this article as notable alumni. The lede of our own article on Alumnus tells us that an alumnus "is a former student who has either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution." This editor has cited other Wikipedia articles that include honorary degree recipients among their alumni but the fact that other articles either have errors or are written about institutions in other countries that allegedly have different practices is irrelevant. ElKevbo (talk) 17:09, 9 January 2022 (UTC)

Honorary degree recipients are definitely not alumni. They aren't even due for articles focused on alumni, let alone main articles. The most I'd accept is a link in the external links section of an alumni article to a list of honorary degree recipients. {{u|Sdkb}} talk 17:24, 9 January 2022 (UTC)
a) The tradition of bestowing honorary degrees began in European universities in the Middle Ages. Honorary degrees are not pieces of paper to be used as toilet paper to clean shit. Illiterate understanding of a few individuals does not matter. The European understanding and Asian understanding of this subject is different. An honorary degree given in India is considered to be a degree and that person is considered and listed as alumni in the university's database. University of London, University of Oxford and University of Cambridge all in the UK give honorary doctorate degrees and these universities consider honorary graduates to be members and alumni of the university.
b) If an honorary doctorate degree is not a real degree, then why do Harvard University give the same degree to Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Are they all frauds? MIT also gives the same degree as well.
c) The only way Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg can only be called a Harvard alumnus or degree holder is only by the position of having an honorary doctorate degree and not a Harvard College degree. Harvard has awarded thousands of honorary degrees. In 1753, Benjamin Franklin was granted a master of arts degree.
d) Sixteen presidents of the United States have received honorary degrees from Harvard, some before they became president. They include George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt, Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and George Herbert Walker Bush.
There are a whole lot of independent articles that exist on this subject
— Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.172.201.32 (talk) 19:03, 9 January 2022 (UTC)
Agree with other experienced editors that honorary degree recipients are not alumni for the purposes of Wikipedia categories and lists. Russ Woodroofe (talk) 19:55, 9 January 2022 (UTC)
I do NOT agree. Independent bias and personal opinions of Wikipedia editors don't matter. Wikipedia rests on facts and data and not individual bias. Wikipedia is not a personal website but an encyclopedia that does not rest on stupid individuals and personal hatred. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.172.201.32 (talk) 20:08, 9 January 2022 (UTC)
e) Again, honorary degrees are not given privately, but always given on university full convocation day. All honorary degree holders have given commencement speeches at their universities. After Bill Gates was awarded honorary doctorate degree, he was referred to as Dr. Bill Gates by Harvard University at the commencement speech. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.172.201.32 (talk) 20:13, 9 January 2022 (UTC)

Agree that honorary degree holders (who did not study at the university in question) are not alumni. This isn't Wikipedia editors making things up, it's the dictionary definition of alumni: "The alumni of a school, college, or university are the people who used to be students there."[3] Both Gates and Zuckerberg have been Harvard alumni since they left; it's nothing to do with their honorary degrees, it's because they studied there. Honorary degree holders may, of course, be eligible for inclusion in a list of alumni if they are former students, or on a list of "People associated with X University" if they are former students, staff members, or office holders, but not simply on the basis of having been honoured by that university. Robminchin (talk) 06:17, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

Robminchin is wrong. That's a deviant, pervert way of understanding of what an alumni is. A honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. When you go for a degree, you write exams, complete required set of credits and have a GPA and get the degree. However a honorary degree is for which the university itself has waived all credits and all requirements because of prior significant academic or non academic accomplishments.
Just a high logic, Desmond Tutu studied for bachelors and masters at Kings College London and was awarded University of London degree. He is a well known theologian, priest and a bishop. His accomplishments are world renowned. Now telling him to study for a PhD in theology is a joke considering his towering accomplishments. His life work is equal to PhD. By the way, University of London later awarded him honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.
Larry Page went to Stanford so he could do PhD and do research so he could invent a company like Google. But he did it by not doing it. His alma mater, University of Michigan later awarded him Doctor of Science in his subject. His accomplishment and creating Google is greater than PhD in computer science.
Several British monarchs have been awarded honorary LLD from University of London and now telling them to sit for papers in law and PhD is a joke because the crown is the law in UK and the head of Church of England. Supreme Court Judges in UK take oath to the Monarch and not the other way around. The national anthem mentions the queen.
If degree is a piece of paper, so is a honorary degree. University of Edinburgh in Scotland started awarding honorary doctorate and honorary masters and even honorary bachelors degree from 1600's. So this more European than American. Americans just copied traditions of Europeans. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 106.206.4.135 (talk) 23:53, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

Honorary degree recipients can't be considered as alumni. I would strongly oppose any attempt to include them in "lists of (university name) people". Honorary degrees aren't earned through academic labor. Thus, they shouldn't be included. Larry Page's accomplishments are great, but he didn't earned PhD at Stanford. His honorary PhD can't be considered as the real PhD. On this website, we have to be objective. Ber31 (talk) 18:09, 20 January 2022 (UTC)

a) Ber31, again the logic is wrong. Where are these fallacies in information coming from? I strongly support inclusion of honorary degree holders as alumni or honorary degree titles within the article. American understanding is totally false and wrong on this. in the UK and Ireland, at University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and University of Dublin, the degree of Bachelors of Arts are promoted to the degree of Master of Arts or Master in Arts (MA) on application after six or seven years' seniority as members of the university (including years as an undergraduate). As such, it is an academic rank, and not a postgraduate qualification. No further examination or study is required for this promotion.[1][2][3] An academic rank may and may not be stated in the CV or resume and I have seen a mix of this on professional resumes on this in Europe.
b) Honorary degrees are usually given officially at the commencement address of the annual convocation of the university. There are no separate fake functions for this. Bill Gates (only attended 2 years) was awarded honorary doctorate degree from Harvard and after this he himself gave the 356th Commencement address. Amartya Sen (faculty but not alumni) was also awarded an honorary doctorate degree and gave 349th Commencement address.
c) As from this Youtube 356th Commencement, Harvard referred officially Bill Gates as Dr. Bill Gates on the commencement address. Please see (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPx5N6Lh3sw&ab_channel=HarvardUniversity). Also, in this Harvard University officiaL Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBHJ-8Bch4E&ab_channel=HarvardUniversity), it is written William H. Gates III COL '77, LLD '07 (if this is not a degree, it wouldn't have been mentioned and stated right up front in the video caption itself). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBHJ-8Bch4E&ab_channel=HarvardUniversity — Preceding unsigned comment added by 106.201.111.32 (talk) 14:18, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

References

  1. ^ "The Oxford MA". Oriel College. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  2. ^ "The Cambridge MA". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  3. ^ "Regulations for the degree of Master in Arts (M.A.)". Trinity College Dublin. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
IP user, consensus appears to be running steadily against you as far as including honorary degree recipients in this article. Instead of WP:BLUDGEONing the point, perhaps you should think about alternatives? Russ Woodroofe (talk) 15:03, 21 January 2022 (UTC)
Re American understanding is totally false and wrong on this. in the UK and Ireland..., I'll just note here that this is an American university we're talking about. signed, Willondon (talk) 15:27, 21 January 2022 (UTC)
Consensus is not running against me. It is just a bunch of friends barking together who don't get paid for editing a free and open encyclopedia. Not being able to understand the logic and the point due to arrogance and ignorance and playing 3rd class politics is remarkable. University of Massachusetts Amherst is an American university, and no one is disputing it. However, the tradition of giving honorary degrees is a concept stolen from Europe, not something that is original to USA. As per records and history, awarding honorary degrees and recognizing them as formal alumni and listing them as alumni in universities goes back to middle ages in Europe.
All human beings are equal and live on planet earth. Americans are not an alien race living on some other planet. The rules of all universities and academics are the same. I have already given the example of Harvard University, Bill Gates and Amartya Sen getting the degree and giving the commencement address. This is an American university.
American proof from Harvard University. As from this Youtube 356th Commencement, Harvard referred officially Bill Gates as Dr. Bill Gates on the commencement address. Please see (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPx5N6Lh3sw&ab_channel=HarvardUniversity). Also, in this Harvard University officiaL Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBHJ-8Bch4E&ab_channel=HarvardUniversity), it is written William H. Gates III COL '77, LLD '07 (if this is not a degree, it wouldn't have been mentioned and stated right up front in the video caption itself). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBHJ-8Bch4E&ab_channel=HarvardUniversity — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.181.55.53 (talk) 10:39, 22 January 2022 (UTC)

Endowment

The endowment listed (2020) is over $100m short due substantial contributions in 2021. The citation links to a living webpage with a new value of $494 million. I would fix this myself but I'm not registered, would somebody care to change this? Also, the citation should be changed to a static webpage. 24.147.31.161 (talk) 00:33, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

 Done – I'm not sure what's to be done about it not being a static web page, though. signed, Willondon (talk) 01:02, 28 February 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 12 March 2022

In section 6.2.1, "SGA" I would suggest that the dollar amount of the Student Activities Fee be changed from $248 to $266. In February of 2022, the SGA voted to increase the fee by $18, meaning the fee is now $266. This can be fact checked by visiting the SGA's website, or the university's newspaper, the Massachusetts Daily Collegian Iharv726 (talk) 19:02, 12 March 2022 (UTC)

Updated, along with updating the most recent budget. Gbear605 (talk) 19:07, 12 March 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 5 April 2022

The acceptance rate is lower than 65%! It has dropped to 56% according to umass official sources. Thanks!! 186.109.159.119 (talk) 02:45, 5 April 2022 (UTC)

 Not done: USNWR still shows 65. Can you show a reliable secondary source with this claim? Happy Editing--IAmChaos 05:53, 5 April 2022 (UTC)
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