Talk:University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Seems to be a disagreement about Greek life table's insertion/retention

Anybody want to talk about this, or do we need to fully-protect the article until we have resolution on talk? I'm only asking because this edit warring has been going on for well over a week, and the only discussion up to this point has been in edit summary. Anyone want to start? BusterD (talk) 18:14, 9 October 2023 (UTC)

BusterD, I noticed this late in the game, but there seems to be a few users who want the table removed (Greek life,) and the only policy that was cited was WP:DUE. I added the tables back in before going through all edits because they seemed to be sourced, but I fear I should have probably researched this more before taking any action. I'll refrain from making any further edits until I see more input. Apologies for that. SPF121188 ^{(talk this way) (my edits)} 19:21, 9 October 2023 (UTC)

One deletion edit summary claims that the trend is have a stand alone page on Greek Life for colleges. If, if fact, is true, it would be correct to include this content in the main university article until there is a stand-alone page, as is done with alumni lists. As a member of WP Fraternities and Sororities, I assure you that this is not the case. Only a few universities or colleges have a stand alone Greek Life page; most new additions of this type are challenged and end up being deleted. There are indeed two factions with regards to this type of content on university pages. The best case against this information is a lack of a source. However, when this information is sourced, it is an appropriate part of a summary on student life. Rublamb (talk) 00:11, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

Rublamb or BusterD, is there precedent for removing these tables? Or a policy that would say it shouldn't be there? I'm asking more out of curiosity, as it appears we're in a gray area. The only policy I saw referenced was WP:DUE, but since there are sources (which perhaps need to be examined,) it seems to be okay to include. Just my $.02, whatever it's worth! SPF121188 ^{(talk this way) (my edits)} 18:12, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

When I ask myself such a question, I look for featured articles with some of the same project banners and model my edits on what seems to be best practices on the featured works. BusterD (talk) 18:19, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

I added the University of Illinois' Almanac of Fraternities and Sororities as a reliable, secondary source for the list of GLOs at the university, as sometimes the use of the university website as the only source is an issue. The Almanac is a vetted by WP Fraternities and Sororities. I also fixed the U.S. News citation—I would think that source is some indication of the significance of this content to an article about the university. Sometimes the list of GLOs is in prose format instead of a table; I have also seen this content as a list. It may be the table that makes it stand out too much. Certainly, prose is preferred by MOS. As to the history of GLO content in university articles, I am going to ask some experts from WP:UNI and WP:F&S to weigh in: @ElKevbo, @Jax MN, and @Naraht, what do you know about this? It seems to me that these mentions are normal, with some colleges having a stand alone article on Greek Life. Rublamb (talk) 18:39, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

My opinion is that collegiate articles have a great deal of fluff, and excessive fixation on ratings. Minutiae abound. Many list campus radio stations where the audience can be counted in the dozens. Or one-off or sporadic publications that would vanish without a student subsidy, and whose press runs are mostly thrown away. Or lists of LEEDS-certified buildings, or paragraphs on campus blue light emergency phones.

Greeks, who at most schools represent long-standing organizations that serve typically thousands of students each year, and which remain the focus of dedicated alumni, seem to comfortably claim a rationale for inclusion in these articles. While yes, as individual chapters they may endure a lack of extensive outside references, still they exist. Perhaps a summary of school sports teams ought to have a higher priority as a "keeper", but Greeks likely come in second in the hierarchy of things.

Finally, I think the reason we have less separate list pages for the Greeks, is that interested editors have not gotten around to the process of writing them. Collectively, "Greek systems" can offer a large number of references, showing notability and confirming their existence. Jax MN (talk) 20:19, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

In my experience, it is very common to have tables or lists of fraternities and sororities in articles about US colleges and universities. Many of them are poorly sourced and lack any meaningful context so I would not object if someone removed them or significantly improved them. But I don't know of any policy or consensus that forbids or discourages them. ElKevbo (talk) 00:09, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

Tables

As a general question, what is the difference between the dormitories and greek life in terms of tables vs. prose?Naraht (talk) 19:38, 10 October 2023 (UTC)