Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Illinois Institute of Technology/archive1

Illinois Institute of Technology

This article is well written, and contains references for all data and material contained within. All and all it's an excellent article that pretty much goes into detail to the extent possible to explain this institution. Chuck 12:33, 3 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Object. This is a nicely written article, but it's a little heavy on lists (maybe consider splitting off alumni into a list and making the faculty a good prose paragraph) and very light on references. Only one inline cite for a 23.4 KB article? All of the figures under the "Today" section beg for inlines, and I think some information about the student body demographics would be fitting. The pictures could also do with a bit of changing around to give the article a more pleasing flow, particularly the one closest to the infobox. Michigan State University could perhaps be helpful as an example to those working on this article. Thanks! Air.dance 13:46, 3 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Object. Both too heavy on lists and nowhere near enough refs. Staxringold 14:24, 3 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Object per above and lack of peer review. —BorgHunter ^ubx (talk) 18:09, 3 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Object. This is somewhere in the range of "OK" to "good," but it's not terribly interesting to read--history section is the best. As others have noted, it is heavy on lists, light on references, and, like virtually all of our college and university articles, suffers from academic boosterism, in this case relatively mild but diagnosable ("IIT bills itself as one of the safest campuses in the city. The university maintains its own public safety force, which roams the campus in clearly-marked Chevrolet Impalas. Any call to Public Safety can be responded to in under 60 seconds..." "Today, Illinois Institute of Technology is experiencing a resurgance both nationally and in the Chicagoland area...." "plans are to reach 2,500 by 2010, as estimate that is looking increasingly conservative..." "Stuart Graduate School of Business, though low on students, boasts the 11th ranked Finance/Financial Markets program in the world." Well, there you have it. There shouldn't be explicit "boasting," billed as such, in a featured article. Not everyone will agree with me on this, but: I don't see much color or personality or campus culture here. What are IIT students like? Shouldn't a college article have something in it to raise a smile? Dpbsmith (talk) 14:32, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There's very little color or personality at IIT. Discussing what IIT students are like certainly would not raise a smile, as very few IIT students ever raise smiles. I suppose at least we share some comradery in being overworked, typically unhappy, and surely left wishing for any kind of normal college social life. --User:iitstudent

To be fair, the blurb about public safety is the only explicitly referenced bundle of sentences in the entire article. (I should know; I wrote it, and moreover tried to stick to the facts. :P) —BorgHunter ^ubx (talk) 22:23, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You're right, it is. Dpbsmith (talk) 01:02, 7 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Good points. One of the hard things about IIT, as I've mentioned on the talk page is that very, very few references exist. Nearly everything found is circular at one point or another back to the university's archives. The facts and figures can be referenced to the university's website, but other than that, most if not all the information is first- or second-person knowledge, especially the history section. Once a few publications get out I might be able to reference myself to back up my own writings, but that's a little odd. Anyway, beyond the reference issue, I think we definitely have a clear direction to move in. There could definitely be more done to address the campus life and students, and I disagree with the above iitstudent that there is little but negatives to highlight. -Duncanr 03:55, 9 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]