College Name Mistakes... looking to fix on Wikipedia

[naraht]

"Standford University" has about 400 hits, so it is next.

"Dartmouth University" actually existed as a part of an effort to force "Dartmouth College" to be public. US Supreme Court got involved. But my guess is a good number of the hits are wrong. I'll take a look.

"California University" may get some hits to 90210. more likely would be google hits on pages with strings "attended University of Southern California, University of Texas", so may be too many false positives...

University of North Carolina Charlotte
The page starts "The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, also known as UNC Charlotte, UNCC, or Charlotte, ..." . While it would be inappropriate to delete UNCC because there are lots of people who use that albeit improperly, I think that *adding* what the formal abbreviation is (with reference to UNC Charlotte's marketing web page) would be appropriate.

As for why? If I saw it in a paper encyclopedia, I'd write the company. Since it is Wikipedia, I'd fix it myself. I live in the DC area and have worked with the students at that school (as well as others in DC/MD) so I've had to check it in my own work.

I've got a semi-automated tool, so it isn't quite so bad, but I've got to do each language separately with "John Hopkins University Press" showing up in references in languages that I didn't know *existed*, it was an adventure.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by naraht

University of North Carolina Charlotte
The page starts "The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, also known as UNC Charlotte, UNCC, or Charlotte, ..." . While it would be inappropriate to delete UNCC because there are lots of people who use that albeit improperly, I think that *adding* what the formal abbreviation is (with reference to UNC Charlotte's marketing web page) would be appropriate.

Personally, I'd assume that a school like UNC Charlotte or any other major university has someone monitoring its Wikipedia page, and that if they wanted it changed they would have already taken care of it. Correcting references elsewhere might be one thing, but I don't think I'd correct something like that in the page on UNC Charlotte itself.

Just my $0.02.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Personally, I'd assume that a school like UNC Charlotte or any other major university has someone monitoring its Wikipedia page, and that if they wanted it changed they would have already taken care of it. Correcting references elsewhere might be one thing, but I don't think I'd correct something like that in the page on UNC Charlotte itself.

Just my $0.02.

Well, that is part of the issue. By Wikipedia's Conflict of Issue rules, the people *least* appropriate to change the wikipedia page about UNC Charlotte are employees of UNC Charlotte. Though if you declare your conflict of interest, you can be OK. Preferred for an employee would be to edit the talk page with the preferred changes and have someone unrelated make the changes..

Not equating the two groups but, I wouldn't want the preferred people to keep the page about Westboro Baptist to be the members of the church...

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by naraht

Well, that is part of the issue. By Wikipedia's Conflict of Issue rules, the people *least* appropriate to change the wikipedia page about UNC Charlotte are employees of UNC Charlotte. Though if you declare your conflict of interest, you can be OK. Preferred for an employee would be to edit the talk page with the preferred changes and have someone unrelated make the changes.

But you're not talking about things like public perceptions of UNC Charlotte (or Westboro Baptist) or other matters about which insiders might lack objectivity or evenhandedness. You're talking about correcting the name of the institution in the article about the institution. If the entry doesn't bother UNC Charlotte, why should it bother anyone else?

And just to go a bit further on UNC Charlotte specifically, the Wiki entry on that school has the following as the first sentence:

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, also known as UNC Charlotte, UNCC, or Charlotte, is a public research university located in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States.

That is accurate. Whether it's the school's preference or not, and whether it is how the school refers to itself or not, it is known by many as UNCC. In fact I'd hazard a guess that UNCC is how people in North Carolina are most likely to refer to the school. [ETA: On re-reading, I caught that you've basically already said this. Sorry.]

Much further down in the article this can be found:

University name
The official name of the university is "The University of North Carolina at Charlotte." "UNC Charlotte" has been accepted as a shortened version of the name and the athletic department has used "Charlotte" since 2000.

UNC Charlotte's branding guidelines are cited for this statement.

So, it looks like they've got it covered.

[DrPhil]

Many colleges and universities have people who correct this.

Just like many GLOs, companies, and (inter)national professional organizations have people who make corrections wherever necessary.

[ASTalumna06]

Through a Google search, I found a Facebook group called "Standford University students". There are over 2,000 members. When I clicked on the page, there was a giant seal with the correct spelling staring me in the face.

This makes me sad.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Many colleges and universities have people who correct this.

Just like many GLOs, companies, and (inter)national professional organizations have people who make corrections wherever necessary.

Wikipedia has specific rules to try to limit this (Exxon-Mobil employees have a conflict of interest in editing the page about Exxon-Mobil). Does it happen anyway, yes. Can an author be banned for doing so, yes.

[ta kala]

People misspell "Pittsburgh" all the time as "Pittsburg."

And I am always the annoying alum who asks for it be changed. A quick search on wikipedia for "University of Pittsburg" reveals about 60 results.

[naraht]

Originally Posted by ta kala

People misspell "Pittsburgh" all the time as "Pittsburg."

And I am always the annoying alum who asks for it be changed. A quick search on wikipedia for "University of Pittsburg" reveals about 60 results.

If you'd like to fix those, then go ahead. Or I can put in on my list. And there is a Pittsburg State University in Kansas, I wonder how often people spell that with an h.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by ta kala

People misspell "Pittsburgh" all the time as "Pittsburg."

And I am always the annoying alum who asks for it be changed. A quick search on wikipedia for "University of Pittsburg" reveals about 60 results.

This one is a little more understandable, though. There are many cities and towns named "Pittsburg" across the US. I actually camped out in Pittsburg, NH on senior prom weekend

Still, I understand the frustration!

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

This one is a little more understandable, though. There are many cities and towns named "Pittsburg" across the US. I actually camped out in Pittsburg, NH on senior prom weekend

Still, I understand the frustration!

I had a friend who refused to accept that my university was in Champaign, not Champagne.

[honeychile]

FYI, the reason was Pittsburgh, PA has the H at the end is a tribute to the predominately Scots-Irish heritage of the founders. In the late 1800's, the post office tried to turn all city names ending in -burgh into the more Germanic -burg, and Pittsburgh, PA went along for a few years. Then those wild and crazy Scots-Irish got all feisty and demanded that they get their H back.

To my knowledge, it's the only city that demanded the H, yet even as I type this, I know that somebody will prove me wrong.

I have been known to yell at the television when some former jock says, "Mo-Non-Ga-HEE-La". It's like finger nails on the chalk board to me!

[naraht]

Originally Posted by honeychile

FYI, the reason was Pittsburgh, PA has the H at the end is a tribute to the predominately Scots-Irish heritage of the founders. In the late 1800's, the post office tried to turn all city names ending in -burgh into the more Germanic -burg, and Pittsburgh, PA went along for a few years. Then those wild and crazy Scots-Irish got all feisty and demanded that they get their H back.

To my knowledge, it's the only city that demanded the H, yet even as I type this, I know that somebody will prove me wrong.

I have been known to yell at the television when some former jock says, "Mo-Non-Ga-HEE-La". It's like finger nails on the chalk board to me!

I've always heard "Mo-Non-Ga-HAY-La"....

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by honeychile

FYI, the reason was Pittsburgh, PA has the H at the end is a tribute to the predominately Scots-Irish heritage of the founders. In the late 1800's, the post office tried to turn all city names ending in -burgh into the more Germanic -burg, and Pittsburgh, PA went along for a few years. Then those wild and crazy Scots-Irish got all feisty and demanded that they get their H back.

Of course, the Scots would have pronounced -burgh as "bərə/boro," not "burg."