Talk:Wesley College (Delaware)/Archive 1

Archive 1

Reason for Edits

Undid JonBoi199's edit because it tends to be biased, incomplete, and lacks a neutral tone. Additionally, their references have questionable credibility. WCf-s-aCares05 (talk) 15:07, 20 October 2021 (UTC)

Undid Jonboi199's edit and restored CItationBot's edit (and WCf-s-aCares05 edits) which reflects a more balanced, neutral, and complete narrative. Concur with WCf-s-aCares05 previous comments. SWLVR87 (talk) 14:10, 15 November 2021 (UTC)

The information you restored is blatantly promotional and outdated. Do you have a connection to the institution? ElKevbo (talk) 14:16, 15 November 2021 (UTC)

I disagree. Edits are more complete, balanced and neutral, as reflected in CitationBot's and WCf-s-aCares05 edits. My connection is that of a community member looking to ensure neutrality, balance and completeness. Jonboi199's edits seem to be consistently vandalistic and biased. SWLVR87 (talk) 20:17, 15 November 2021 (UTC)

Please revert your edit. You have begun an edit war. You made your edit, it was reverted, and now we discuss it to come to a consensus.

And don't accuse someone of vandalism simply because you disagree with their edit(s). ElKevbo (talk) 05:30, 16 November 2021 (UTC)

Edit War was and is not my intent, and in fact as already stated, my edits were in line with edits made by several other contributors who seem interested, as I, in balanced, neutral, and complete narratives. I would welcome discussions so we can collectively ensure the article is balanced, neutral, and complete as possible. SWLVR87 (talk) 21:33, 16 November 2021 (UTC)

You say that edit-warring is not your intent but you have continued to edit war with your most recent edits! This is very simple: After you make an edit and another editor reverts your edit, you cannot just reinstate your edit. That is edit-warring and it's not acceptable. Revert your edits so we can discuss them in good faith. ElKevbo (talk) 21:57, 16 November 2021 (UTC)

Edits requested by Robminchin were removed as explained below. SWLVR87 (talk) 22:02, 16 November 2021 (UTC)

A more significant problem than the possible POV here is that from 'a historic acquisition...' to the end of that sentence this is copied straight from the DSU press release, making it an apparent copyright violation. The last sentence is also copied straight from the Forbes article and thus also looks like a copyright violation. I have reverted to a version of the page that does not include these texts and requested revision deletion. Please do not restore this material before an administrator has a chance to review the copyright issues raised. Robminchin (talk) 20:08, 16 November 2021 (UTC)

Robminchin, thank you for your note and actions. I will not restore the material you reference to the DSU Press release or Forbes article until administrator resolution is provided - hopefully a rewording while capturing the essence of the articles would work best. I did restore a few sections to reflect a more balanced, neutral, and complete narrative is in line with other contributors as noted above. SWLVR87 (talk) 21:33, 16 November 2021 (UTC)

SWLVR87, perhaps you could explain in some detail what you are trying to do with your edits? And also, please answer ElKevbo's question about your connection with the college. Are you for example a student? Employee? Alumna/us? Russ Woodroofe (talk) 13:08, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

Russ Woodroofe - Dr. Woodroofe - The purpose of my edits is to try and keep the article balanced, neutral, and complete. As a member of the community (as I answered ElKevbo's question above) who has lived by the College, I think it is important that a complete picture be presented. For example, my edit that reads in part,

In its last decades, the college experienced significant financial challenges and relied on state funding and grants.[4][1] In recent years, efforts by College Administrators, and support from City, County, State and Federal leadership, ensured funding would be available to the college to continue operations and ensuring that students federal financial aid and faculty, and staff salaries would not be impacted. Additionally, unlike many colleges across the country that have had to close because of the impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Wesley College was able to maintain operations during the global COVID-19 Pandemic. A few months before Wesley College was acquired by Delaware State University, members of the college faculty published a no confidence resolution against Wesley's last president, Robert E. Clark II on March 1, 2021, that was forwarded to the Wesley College Board of trustees. The Wesley College Board of trustees voted unanimously on March 20,2021 to dismiss the resolution in full support of President Clark's exceptional performance, and leadership. Additionally, the board of trustees voted unanimously, to bestow upon President Clark, president emeritus in recognition of his leadership, and service to the college and the community.

is an attempt to provide a balanced, neutral, and complete narrative using credible references. As currently edited by JonBoi199 (and supported by ElKevbo), this section provides an incomplete narrative. Their edits do not include a more holistic discussion about the challenges the College faced and how they were able to operate during the recent Pandemic. Additionally, where their edit states, “The college faculty passed a no confidence resolution against Wesley's last President, Robert E. Clark II, on March 1, 2021, citing his failures in leadership.” – they fail to explain/report the entire process - members of the faculty published a no confidence resolution two months before the College became part of Delaware State University that was forwarded to the Board of Trustees for action; the Board acted - dismissed the resolution in full support of the President; and then subsequently bestowed upon the President, President Emeritus. Finally, some of their edits have referenced content that in fact is not discussed/presented in the reference they cite – for example when their edit states, “Approximately 60 percent of the Wesley Community were offered employment by Delaware State University, with mostly visiting, non-tenure track positions.”, the article they cite makes no mention or qualification of the positions offered.

I hope this explains my intentions in the detail you request. I welcome these types of discussions and hopefully we can come to a consensus for a balanced narrative for this page. SWLVR87 (talk) 22:40, 18 November 2021 (UTC)

I still don't see a straightforward answer to the question "What is your connection with WC and/or DSU?" Russ Woodroofe (talk) 10:25, 20 November 2021 (UTC)

I lived near the College - "member of the community" - Wesley College is important to many members of the local community, and it is disappointing to see this incomplete narrative perpetuate. Though sad it is no longer independent, at least it did not have to close its doors like many other colleges/universities across the country. Wesley College of health and Behavioral Sciences will continue to provide an educational centerpiece for our town - a much better option then boarded up buildings, loss of an educational center for students, and massive unemployment, all of which would have been devastating for our city, and region. SWLVR87 (talk) 13:55, 20 November 2021 (UTC)

@ElKevbo and Robminchin: I did some work on the page. After looking over carefully the edits from SWLVR87: 1) I think the History section is mostly appropriate as is, and the suggested changes should not be implemented. I would suggest that including Annie Jump Cannon in the history overview is perhaps undue, although perhaps more about her could be included in the Notable Alumni section. (But I made no changes concerning her, apart from improving referencing.) The coverage of the turmoil around the acquisition is needed, and I think that includes the "no confidence" vote. 2) I have removed Robert E. Clark II altogether from the infobox, along with several other infobox adjustments. 3) I boldly stubified down the Athletics section, sourced to [1] in The News Journal. I'm not positive this is the right move, but the coverage of how student-athletes were affected by the merge seems undue (surely all students were impacted by the change), and it seems to me that the facilities would be better discussed in the DSU article or not at all.
What do y'all think? Russ Woodroofe (talk) 14:39, 20 November 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for trying to work towards a collaborative resolution. I added a few minor edits, less than my previous edits, for completeness and accuracy as already discussed. SWLVR87 (talk) 14:53, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

DelawareDude, perhaps you could explain your deletion? In addition to the publicly available Board of Trustee meeting minutes (available last year when the article was updated), there have been other recent sources that corroborate the fact that, “In early 2021, members of the college faculty voted "no confidence" against Wesley's last president, Robert E. Clark II, but the college's board of trustees subsequently dismissed the resolution and supported him.” Additionally, these same sources, reflect the title of President Emeritus that was bestowed upon Clark by the Board of Trustees for his leadership to the College and community.SWLVR87 (talk) 13:41, 13 March 2022 (UTC)

... in particular, per WP:PUBLISHED, sources do not need to be online in order to be usable on Wikipedia. Russ Woodroofe (talk) 16:16, 13 March 2022 (UTC)