Talk:Harvard University

Semi-protected edit request on 11 March 2016

Hello! I'm the official representative of The Round University Ranking. I would like to offer the information about Harvard's positions in it. More information you can find there http://roundranking.com/universities.html?univ=Harvard+University&back=/ranking.html&sort=O&year=2015&subject=SO. Thanks. Vittoriona (talk) 08:44, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

It's tough to give serious consideration to a ranking system that takes its descriptions of institutions from their WP articles. Extra points for being named for a pioneering scifi play. ElKevbo, you might want be interested in this editor's other contribs. EEng 10:19, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

I rolled back all the spam and left the editor a note about this activity being disallowed. Hopefully that will suffice. Jehochman ^Talk 14:34, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

serial killer Ted Kaczynski

Is that quite right? His entry describes him as a domestic terrorist.

Nikihokey (talk) 23:16, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

Serial killer and domestic terrorist aren't mutually exclusive categories. As a serial killer, he wasn't too successful, killing only three people (as he wrote, "frustrating, but I can't seem to make a lethal bomb"). So "terrorist" may predominate because his murders didn't make much impact. For article purposes, we don't want Wikipedia making up descriptions; we want Wikipedia to use the descriptions used by more reliable sources. And reliable sources refer to Kaczynski both as serial killer and domestic terrorist. Either or both would be fine for our purposes here. It might be worth considering the fact that, though he also pled guilty to bomb-related charges, it was the murders that are the reason he's in jail for life. - Nunh-huh 00:38, 31 March 2016 (UTC)

Endowment main article

There is only a paragraph in this article. I'm thinking of starting a main. We have plenty of PDFs. Thoughts? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 01:26, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Absolutely notably. Search the word endowment in Talk:Harvard_University/Archive_7 (and earlier archives as well, I'm sure) for random discussions on the subject. EEng 01:35, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Splendid. Please see User:Anna Frodesiak/Silver sandbox. Thank you. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 01:55, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Note that Harvard Management Company exists. And note that, until just now, Harvard University article had no link to Harvard Management Company, but instead just a mention of it with no link. Odd. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 02:04, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

I've boldly renamed Harvard Management Company to Harvard University endowment to accommodate the kind of material I think you would be adding. EEng 04:30, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Hi EEng. The trouble is the article is still about the company. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 06:09, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Not anymore [1] (still needs much work, but a start). EEng 12:35, 11 April 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 May 2016

Section about the Campus: "Between 2011 and 2013, Harvard University reported crime statistics for its main Cambridge campus that included 104 forcible sex offenses, 55 robberies, 83 aggravated assaults, 89 burglaries, and 43 cases of motor vehicle theft."

Should be updated with relevant information directly from Harvard University Chief University Spokesperson Jeff Neal indicating that:

As of April 2016 Harvard reported to the Wall Street Journal that 31 % of female Harvard College seniors experienced nonconsensual sexual contact.

Jonsrule (talk) 05:13, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

I'm out of the country so can't get through the paywall. By any chance does the article state, or do you have another source for, how that compares to other schools? As with the other numbers, uncontextualized stuff like this tells the reader very little. EEng 15:29, 9 May 2016 (UTC)

The comments by the Chief University Spokesperson only addresses issues on their campus. In a sence that might be appropriate restraint. The information on the current page is several years outdated and it seems to make sence to provide details from Harvard recently published in the most widly circualted US newspaper. Mr. Neal points out in his comments that the statistic comes from "A recent survey conducted by an independent company" and seeminly stems from the fact that "Harvard [will not] ignore the pervasive problems of sexual assault and inclusion that are plaguing many institutions of higher education across the nation." Jonsrule (talk) 18:31, 10 May 2016 (UTC)

My concern is that college/university articles are plagued with two kinds of "statistics": raw stuff like the above, with no context allowing the reader to envision what it means about the subject institution vis a vis other institutions, and sometimes bizarre "rankings" which do purport to compare institutions, but turn out to do so based on shockingly flimsy and ill-considered mishmash statistics. Did Neal really say that 31% of female seniors experienced nonconsensual contact, or that 31% reported such experience? And is this really the %age of all females seniors, or the %age among a sample of some kind (perhaps self-selected)? When details like that aren't reported along with a figure, it's a red flag. EEng 22:17, 10 May 2016 (UTC)

The statistic is not trivial and it comes from page 31 of a study supported by Harvard's Task Force on Prevention of Sexual Assault [2],

the results are here: [3] On page 30 (and elsewhere) there are some stats that show Harvard's reporting relative to the 27 other institutions that accepted the Association of American Universities' invitation to participate in the survey which was conducted by Westat. In short, this information is current, significantly supported by Harvard itself and relevant to life on campus. Jonsrule (talk) 23:15, 10 May 2016 (UTC)

I didn't say or imply the statistic was trivial. I said (implied, I guess) that I wanted to avoid the reduction to meaninglessness with which many other statistics/rankings are presented, and asked what Neal actually said. I don't see what you're talking about on page 30 -- what's the first few words of the page you're looking at? EEng 23:57, 10 May 2016 (UTC)

Original edit request has not replied to EEng for 15+ days. Closing for now. It's also become unclear what is the scope of the change requested. — Andy W. (talk · ctb) 08:24, 26 May 2016 (UTC)

The request is to update this section. The information on the current page is outdated and contrary to even the public comments of the Chief Spokesperson for the University. The objection to my update request was that the information was out of context or didn't related to other Universities. In response I provided data supporting my point that comes directly from a Harvard supported study (link above and here: ]) across a large number of institutions. Just today in the Washington Post is analysis showing the disproportionate number of sexual assault cases at Harvard:

I suggest the Section about the Campus: "Between 2011 and 2013, Harvard University reported crime statistics for its main Cambridge campus that included 104 forcible sex offenses, 55 robberies, 83 aggravated assaults, 89 burglaries, and 43 cases of motor vehicle theft." should be updated with more current and relevant information from directly from Harvard University Chief University Spokesperson Jeff Neal and possibly include the germane analysis provided from the Washington Post:

As of April 2016 Harvard reported to the Wall Street Journal that 31 % of female Harvard College seniors experienced nonconsensual sexual contact. Analysis done by the Washington Post in 2016 documented that Harvard ranked 6th for total number of rape cases in 2014.

Jonsrule (talk) 04:25, 8 June 2016 (UTC)

Not done: According to the page's protection level you should be able to edit the page yourself. If you seem to be unable to, please reopen the request with further details. Looks like you are autoconfirmed. — Andy W. (talk · ctb) 04:59, 8 June 2016 (UTC)

• Jonsrule: You say, "Just today in the Washington Post is analysis showing the disproportionate number of sexual assault cases at Harvard". Where in that article is that said or implied? EEng 05:20, 8 June 2016 (UTC)

The text I propose (above) says "Analysis done by the Washington Post in 2016 documented that Harvard ranked 6th for total number of rape cases in 2014.". This is straight from the analysis by Washington Post. Jonsrule (talk) 06:05, 8 June 2016 (UTC)

First of all, this isn't the number of rapes, it's the number of reported rapes, and as the second paragraph of the Post article says, "The data reflect what victim advocates say is a positive trend: Growing numbers of students who may have experienced a sexual assault are stepping forward to tell authorities about incidents that in years past might have gone unreported."

And even putting that aside, a high number of assaults is completely different from a disproportionate number. You said the Post's analysis shows "the disproportionate number of sexual assault cases at Harvard", when in fact it's the opposite: Harvard's rate of 1.1 per 1000 compares quite favorably to the schools which really are in the top 10 (i.e. top 10 by rate, not by the meaningless raw count) which run from Reed (12.9) down to Dartmouth (6.7). Harvard being in the top 10% with respect to # of students, it wouldn't be surprising if it was also in the top 10% with respect to # of reported assaults.

And it's quite obvious that there are severe apples-to-oranges problems here, in several dimensions. As the article itself notes, "Sometimes the campus layout affects how the data are reported. At 49,200-student New York University, for instance, there were zero rapes reported on campus in 2014 but six reported in off-campus properties linked to NYU. Most of NYU’s residence halls in Manhattan are off campus." So in-residence assaults at NYU don't count (and thus NYU shows zero rapes -- you really believe that?) whereas at Harvard (where essentially 100% of undergraduates live on campus) the opposite is true.

Once again, even if Harvard's rate was unusually high -- and it's not -- that might very well mean Harvard does a good job of helping victims feel comfortable about coming forward. You seem to be trying to make some point, but whatever it is it can't be made by serving up a raw number and ranking it with no explanation or understanding of what it means. EEng 06:58, 8 June 2016 (UTC)

Continuing

To EEng, the edit completely meets Wikipedia requirements, while your objections are your own interpretation of the data. In your argument you imply that NYU is falsifying data, and seem to believe this is a valid reason to exclude this edit. That has no bearing. Do you want to have this arbitrated? Formulairis990 (talk) 23:45, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

There is no person or body that "arbitrates" content. If you want to discuss this usefully, you're going to have to start by reading carefully what I wrote above (which your comment re NYU shows you haven't) and responding to it. Stuff isn't included willy-nilly just because it's out there; it needs to serve the reader's understanding of the subject, and a raw number of reported rapes (instead of a rates-per), with no recognition of the apples-oranges problem of residential vs. non-residential schools and so on, doesn't do that.

Your contribution history [4] suggests that you're here to WP:RIGHTGREATWRONGS re rape at leading colleges, and that's bound to lead to frustration for you. In addition, edits like this [5] are WP:CANVASSING, which is a no-no. EEng 00:13, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

You consider it canvassing that I informed the other person involved in this discussion? Why do you assume I'm frustrated? And what bearing does this have on the validity of the edit? By arbitration I was referring to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee

Mediation only applies to a dispute between 2 editors. But here we have 2 for and you against. How should we proceed? Formulairis990 (talk) 01:22, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

Given the earlier discussion in this thread, it's canvassing -- for example, why didn't you notify the editors who have participated in other threads on this page? The purpose of notification in a case like this is to broaden participation, not to prompt someone who agrees with you comes to come running. I didn't assume you're frustrated; I predicted you will become frustrated if you try to use WP to RIGHTGREATWRONGS.

I don't know where you get the idea that mediation (see WP:DRN) is only for two editors, but anyway we're way, way far from that, and ArbCom doesn't settle content disputes, as I've already explained. As for 2-against-1, see WP:NOTVOTE. We should proceed by you reading, understanding, and responding to my points above. Otherwise this discussion is over before it's even begun. EEng 02:34, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

I reread your arguments, they're erroneous as in the first reading. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Formulairis990 (talk • contribs) 20:32, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

First: my original edit is half of Jonsrule (talk)'s original edit.

But I will argue in support of his edit as well.

My edit contained two elements: the number of reported rapes on the main campus, and the ranking based on that number.

Do you object to either elements being included?

Jonsrule (talk)'s original edit was:

As of April 2016 Harvard reported to the Wall Street Journal that 31 % of female Harvard College seniors experienced nonconsensual sexual contact.

You seem to object to this edit regardless of the validity of the number, but you also object to the methodology of the survey behind the number and question the wording in the cited Harvard report, regarding what the number represents, aside from the other objections you raised.

Is this correct?

You also object the current section the edit will update, why haven't you excised it?

I will continue after you respond to the above.

Regarding mediation, I meant WP:3 which is for two editors only.

Regarding arbitration I meant WP:DRN.

Please focus your argument on the validity of the edit and the arguments for it, rather than attacking your projection of me.

Regarding WP:RIGHTGREATWRONGS that is an essay, not policy, and it explicitly supports this type of edit in the closest scenario it provides.

It states:

"if you want to: Expose a popular artist as a child molester...you’ll have to wait until it’s been reported in mainstream media or published in books from reputable publishing houses."

The edit fits this description.

Formulairis990 (talk) 20:22, 21 June 2016 (UTC)

Please learn to format your comments. They're almost unreadable as you've laid them out. I'm afraid I have deadline coming up, so won't be able to participate further until at least Friday. I suspect that in the meantime other editors may come by who can explain this to you better than I've been able to so far. EEng 00:35, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

How would you like me to format my comments? You mean spaces between paragraphs? Formulairis990 (talk) 15:59, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

It would be nice if your comments weren't a long series of one-sentence separate paragraphs, so the flow of what you're saying can be followed. Now let me ask you a question Why isn't your proposed edit,

In 2014, Harvard University had 33 reports of rape, the fifth highest of any college in the nation on its main campus. According The Washington Post, this "reflects what victim advocates say is a positive trend: Growing numbers of students who may have experienced a sexual assault are stepping forward to tell authorities about incidents that in years past might have gone unreported."

- ? EEng 17:30, 26 June 2016 (UTC)

In it's current form, your edit is improper editorial synthesis wp:syn misrepresenting the sourced material, because it makes the quote appear as if it is specifically about Harvard. Your edit implies that Harvard's rape ranking is more accurate than other schools and as a result higher, due to a survey bias, when in fact the subject of the quoted speculation is not Harvard students, but student reporting across the nation taken as a whole. It is not specific to any school, and makes no claims one way or the other about Harvard. You seem persistent in trying to minimize Harvard's relative ranking: You earlier opposed the edit based on your own personal unsourced doubts of Harvard's statistical methodology and the accuracy of a WSJ quote by a Harvard administrator, but now you want to misrepresent speculation attributed to unidentified "advocates" in the Washington Post.

I do think the edit should include both Harvard's ranking in reported rapes per main campus, as well as per 1,000 students. This addresses your pov giving more weight to the second ranking and dismissing the first. The edit should also include the WSJ quoted stats on 31% of senior female students experiencing "non-consensual sexual contact", and 47% of those who also attended an all-male club event. The edit should also include male stats; these would come directly from the Harvard presentation and study.

I would support adding text on Harvard's efforts to get students to fill out the survey, such as having alumnus Conan O'Brien urge students to fill out the survey: http://sexualassaulttaskforce.harvard.edu/sexualconductsurvey . But it would be misleading wp:syn to use this to imply that Harvard's numbers are more accurate than other schools'. For all you know, a community college could have staged Punch and Judy, with a party clown giving out balloons about the survey.

The edit should go into detail with material from http://www.wsj.com/articles/harvard-to-bar-members-of-single-gender-clubs-from-leadership-in-official-groups-1462548655 about the all-male clubs' role in sexual assaults as identified by the Harvard Task Force on Sexual Assault Prevention and described in the WSJ article: "deeply misogynistic attitudes," "strong sense of sexual entitlement," "women admitted for social occasions, based in part on their appearance or ties to members, according to current and former Harvard students." And describe Harvard's efforts to combat them.Formulairis990 (talk) 17:50, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

No, it's not misleading, since the Post made the point ("The data reflect what victim advocates say is a positive trend: Growing numbers of students who may have experienced a sexual assault are stepping forward to tell authorities about incidents that in years past might have gone unreported.") as the second sentence of its article. What would be misleading would be reporting a shock-value "fifth-highest number of rapes in the nation" -- a raw # unadjusted for enrollment. It's like saying that California has the most rapes of all the states, as if that meant something -- it's stupid. Reporting the raw #, followed by the rate-per-1000, seems to be acceptable, as would adding the ranking of the rate-per (if it was available), [bolding added to aid backward ref from later post] but reporting the rank of the raw # is out of the question, because it either (a) says nothing at all (to the discerning reader who realizes it's meaningless) or (b) completely misleads (in the case of the naive reader who doesn't see that it's meaningless). I'm not trying to minimize Harvard's relative ranking but rather prevent the inclusion of meaningless numbers which don't serve the reader's understanding of the subject; newspapers report all kinds of raw stuff for the record which has no place in an encyclopedia article. EEng 18:55, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

Really? Sentence location trumps semantics?

To focus on your objections to the Harvard reported rapes per main campus ranking: Could you explain your apparent double standard when it comes to your edits involving the raw ranking of Harvard's endowment and library? In your edit https://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?oldid=714717632&diff=prev you modified the article from Harvard endowment's being the largest in the US to being the "largest in the world". Aside from your use of a primary source, a Harvard HTML web page, that currently makes no such claims. You assert a raw ranking: that Harvard is largest in the world. By your objections to the reported rape rankings per main campus, your asserted raw ranking is meaningless. According to https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment Harvard is third in endowment per student ranking, and way behind much smaller Princeton. And by your objections, your raw endowment ranking makes "no recognition of the apples-oranges problem" involving significant differences between the universities such as Harvard having a two century head start over the 4th place university, and likely close to three centuries over a significant number of all schools in the US (financial performance evaluation always involves time), never mind other significant factors.

Similarly in your edit of https://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?title=Harvard_University&diff=prev&oldid=710958889

In the following edit you spruce up the copy of the raw ranking of Harvard Library as the largest private one in the world, though you do not state what they are large in: https://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?oldid=624939548&diff=prev . Aside from your current source only covering the "largest libraries in the United States by volumes held", by your objections you have "no recognition of the apples-oranges problem": Yale has more volumes per student.Formulairis990 (talk) 18:16, 28 June 2016 (UTC)

• Dividing X reported rapes by Y students (to get 1.1 reports/1000) makes sense because it yields a measure of the "risk" of being raped (albeit with extremely serious reporting and definitional questions, as already noted). To not do that, and state in the article that the raw count is "#5 in the nation" would be like a headline declaring that "California leads the nation in rapes", which would be ridiculous.
• The size of a research collection acts a (crude) measures of the breadth and comprehensiveness of research materials available at the institution. These materials aren't divvied up among students, so dividing A million books by B thousand students ("sorry, due to increasing enrollment you get only 673 books each this year") would be, to put it charitably, laughable.
• Endowment is a mixed situation. Where an endowment allows a school to (e.g.) build and operate a museum, that museum isn't "diluted" by a larger or smaller student body, so to that extent dividing by enrollment makes no sense; to the extent an endowment is used for student financial aid, such a ratio would makes sense. There's certainly an argument for including both raw and per-student endowment numbers (just as "GNP" for California might usefully be presented as a raw # -- showing its economic size and influence -- as well as in per-person terms -- measuring the wealth and income of individuals). Your idea of dividing endowment size by the length of time since a given school's founding reflects a misunderstanding of higher education in the US, since (a) the purpose here is to reflect endowments as a piece of what each institution is now, not to measure the investment acumen of various schools' portfolio managers in some mythical race over time; (b) the huge endowments of the top institutions were all built during the last 100 years anyway.
• The apples-oranges problem has to do with things like e.g. residential schools (which count in-residence incidents in their figures) vs. non-residential schools (which don't), and this is still there regardless of whether you divide by student body size or not.

So there's no double standard, as you claim. I think it's cute the way you combed my contribution history trying to catch me in a contradiction, but you're going to have to try harder. EEng 10:13, 30 June 2016 (UTC)

Let's go to dispute resolution. The absence of this information is very conspicuous.

I see why you've been repeatedly banned for: "clearly not here to contribute to the encyclopedia... disruptive editing... personal attacks... uncivil nature against other editors" Your comments on endowments are just bizarre. You just make stuff up, like your false edits. Every single response you made to the original editor and me has been disingenuous, starting with your groundless trivializing, as Jonsrule (talk) said, of a survey conducted by the chairman of the Havard Economics department.

You even attempted to convince me to make an edit with a misleading claim.

The way I came across your false edits was that I was reviewing the endowment info in the article to cite here, the superlative description raised a red flag, I looked for other superlatives and found the library one. So I read the sources, and found they made no such claims. So I looked for the source of the edits, and sure enough it was you. No surprise. This is in kind with your pattern.

Regarding the Washington Post data analysis: You make repeated groundless assumptions and you seek to impose your pov by precluding different interpretations of the data by censoring it. Your assumptions are:

• there is a linear relationship between rapes and population size
• there is a uniform distribution of rapes
• that the above holds across within schools and across all schools
• that rapes per institution is an invalid measure
• that rapers per capita is the only valid measure
• the rape stats are of only interest for risk evaluation
• that rapers per-capita is an actual risk evaluation
• that people evaluate schools with uniform expectations and standards
• that there aren't significant alternative povs to yours
• that only naive readers should be served

The reason the WPost provides both per capita and per institution rankings is because it is doing what is called: exploratory data analysis. It is almost certainly because the Washington Post understands assumptions such as yours are groundless, that it explores both units of measure to provide different perspectives on their own and in combination. It does this because significant patterns may be buried in the per capita unit of measure. At a minimum it may indicate institutional leadership, policies and approach, and community norms and dynamics that may underlie the numbers seen. For instance a reader may justifiably wonder if the Harvard number stems from Lawrence Summers' leadership [6] because of his views on women in academia. A per institution measure may also reveal clusters that are responsible for a significant amount of the numbers, as Harvard has identified in associations with male only clubs.

It is easy to see alternative povs on the data. Imagine Harvard is Tesla, and the rapes are crashes. There are justifiably different expectations of Tesla. Imagine the rapes are terrorist attacks or mass shootings and the schools as countries. The common unit of measure country, not capita.

Harvard to its credit -- at a cursory glance -- appears to be taking the institutional responsibility perspective head on, as opposed to saying judge us by our per capita ranking, least because it knows few will do so but will note the absence of most of the Ivy League schools: comparably sized Columbia, Cornell, UPenn and smaller Princeton and Yale. And if rapes significantly go down, this will be used as a point of evaluation of how the school operates. And then it will join the ranks of most Ivy League schools on this standard. Take a lesson from Harvard on this. Formulairis990 (talk) 17:15, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

• If you thought you'd embarrass me by bringing up my various blocks, you must have missed the box at the top of my userpage --

This user has been blocked several times, and isn't embarrassed about it - (see my block log here!).

-- not to mention such threads as "Hands-down the worst block I've seen in my time on Wikipedia, and I've seen some whoppers" and Review_of_EEng's_indefinite_block and Unblocked and so on.

• Since I have a degree in statistics I really don't need any tips on data analysis, nor am I making any such assumptions as "there is a linear relationship between rapes and population size" or "there is a uniform distribution of rapes" and so on (some of which aren't even intelligible as propositions, much less propositions one might or might not assume), nor do you understand the concept of "POV" as used here on Wikipedia, though you throw the term around a lot.
• I haven't tried to convince you to make any edit, much less one with "with a misleading claim."
• I have made no "false edits". (In this diff you linked [7] I accidentally dropped the Crimson source for largest endowment -- a fact you would have seen on the left side of the diff if you were as concerned about improving articles as you are about continuing your ham-handed attempts to catch me out -- but that's not a "false edit", and anyway I've fixed that now [8], adding up-to-date sources. My "library" edit [9] was strictly copyediting with no changes to facts asserted or sources cited, so I have no idea what your complaint could be.) I personally don't care about being on the receiving end of self-indicting attacks, but others aren't so forgiving, and if you hang around Wikipedia long enough you will find that such accusations will get you into very hot water very fast.

I've proposed [proposal now bolded in my earlier post, above] reporting raw # and rate-per, but omitting the rank of the raw #, but you've ignored that proposal, preferring to ramble on about what you think I'm assuming and my alleged biases. That kind of behavior won't serve you well, either here or elsewhere at Wikipedia.

EEng 06:11, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

References

Nobel Prize count

Discussion transferred from User talk:EEng:

Dear EEng, I would like to open a new folder in the discussion-page about that topic, but my experience tells me that this would be pointless, there are countless opinions criticising the wikipedia standards about nobel prize and ranking related topics for a while now and it stays this way, especially because they are merely a discussion. Any serious review is in vain, simply by ignoring it.

You should not interpret my edit as an attack, I refer to valid source material which has the only authority. You say that the harvard page does not count all people as the wikipedia page does, due to different counting methods. But why shall we use an easy solution if we can make it more difficult, if we replace a fact by an offical source by disputable wikipedia tables, (which are pictured as "correct" althoug highly controversial and not solved until universal satifaction and than showed as supporting material ) we would damage the foundation of research-based argumentation.

You imply that the 150 names by the wikipedia community is the valid table, if harvard or any other official source not arrange itself on that it is only subset, a highly disputable logic, it should be the other way. interestingly does wikipedia count the fields medal winners for harvard by the official source of the International Mathematical Union but you delete supporting evidence concerning the amount of nobel laureates, which support the claims in other articles for e.g University of Chicago, Heidelberg University or University of California, Los Angeles.

What type of argumentation is desired?

Mulhollant (talk) 19:18, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

Despite your reservations I've moved the discussion here, because this is where it has to take place to be of any value. I don't interpret your edit as any kind of attack, but there is a misunderstanding here. The Harvard official page is apparently (though it's not entirely clear) counting persons who won Nobels while on faculty, plus persons who won Nobels after graduating. The "List of Nobels by institution" article additionally counts those who won Nobels and later came to Harvard, faculty who left Harvard then won Nobels later, etc. It's as simple as that. Footnotes at the "List of" page (e.g. List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_university_affiliation#cite_note-affiliations-3) explain why the broader way of counting is used -- not just for Harvard but for all institutions. EEng 20:50, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

Removal of "one of the most prestigious"

I am all in favor of outlining the strengths of the university but I think the line "whose history, influence and wealth have made it one of the world's most prestigious universities" is too much. If you look at Stanford University, (a comparable institution), it reads "is a private research university in Stanford, California." That sounds objective and more importantly encyclopedic. This is nothing against Harvard, I would just like this article to be a bit more formalized and objective. I would like it changed from

"Harvard University is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts (US), established 1636, whose history, influence and wealth have made it one of the world's most prestigious universities."

To:

"Harvard University is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The college was founded in 1636..."

WP:UNIGUIDE clearly issues the following: "Claims that an institution "ranks highly" or "highly exclusive" are just as vague as claims that it is "prestigious" and "excellent." As mentioned in the last attempt we should not use rankings to synthesize an image of the institution in the lede... Elizabeth I of England (talk) 17:53, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

Agree. Yes, I made the hyperlinked edit but it was reverted some time ago. I agree with the move. ♔First Lord of Downing Street♔ 17:55, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

• See [10]. EEng 18:12, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

There is a reason this has been battered to death so many times. No university not matter how well received is immune from WP:WEASEL, and most importantly the Holy Grail of my argument. Elizabeth I of England (talk) 18:34, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

No, the reason it's been battered to death so many times is that uninformed editors go off half-cocked without understanding the fact background, sources, and applicable WP guidelines, and without reviewing prior discussions, a link to all of which you will find within the small thread I linked above—and which, for example, directly speak to your WEASEL reasoning. As one participant said [11] in one of those discussions, "If you honestly believe that Harvard is not one of the world's most prestigious universities then you are incompetent to edit or contribute to this article outside of very narrow confines e.g. grammar, MediaWiki markup."

Do not fuck with others' posts again, as you did here [12] (now corrected by me), ever. EEng 20:29, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Slightly more politely: there's no question of "WP:SYNTHesizing from rankings" here, because as the quotes in the refs show, this language is directly supported without OR from multiple high-quality sources. Reviewing past discussions is advisable, to avoid having to rehash old discussions when policy-based consensus was reached (or to see which policies, if any, have been seriously overlooked). And we have a guideline instructing editors not to change others' talk page comments except in a few specific cases. FourViolas (talk) 21:42, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

Some editors need to calm down. I made the first revert on the article with the same reasoning as presented above. I agree that Harvard is prestigious and I am more thank okay with including the sentence in the "ranking and reputation" section; its inclusion as the first sentence just seems ridiculous. There is a reason this article has been failed as a Good Article twice. I think we all know why. (Hint: take a look at Dartmouth College, and Columbia University.) ♔First Lord of Downing Street♔ 21:37, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

• Just a friendly note that I assume the first two respondents here are the same person or know each other otherwise. Regardless, there appears to be several discussions of this very point in the archives, so I suggest our friend(s) start reading up. Talk:Harvard_University/Archive_4 looks to be the most pertinent. Calidum ¤ 22:06, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

This discussion would actually appear to be the one where the issue was settled. And while we're on the subject, WP:UNIGUIDE, which is being held here as some sort of Magna Carta, is only an essay and not any sort of policy or guideline. All the information in the lead the user(s) object to is properly sourced. Calidum ¤ 22:11, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

(Edit conflict -- I was about to say the same thing, except they're obviously sockpuppets, not meatpuppets.) Since the not-too-cunningly-named First Lord of Downing Street and Elizabeth I of England have blundered into revealing themselves to be a pair of sockpuppets‍—‌(a) Elizabeth fucks with other editors' posts; (b) First Lord's defense of what Elizabeth did begins "I was only trying..."; (c) quickly First Lord reverts himself, realizing he was logged in to the wrong account‍—‌there's no need for further discussion here. Come back when you can remember who you are at any given moment. EEng 22:15, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

Good catch. Thanks for filing the report. They've both been blocked now. Calidum ¤ 01:57, 11 July 2016 (UTC)

Well, this isn't like the Yale article where you can just pull the wool over everyone's eyes with those Elis none the wiser. Here's we have standards. EEng 04:55, 11 July 2016 (UTC)