Talk:Drexel Shaft

Neutrality
Princeton Review rankings:
 * #7	Long Lines and Red Tape
 * #14	Professors Get Low Marks
 * #4	Professors Make Themselves Scarce
 * #17	Teaching Assistants Teach Too Many Upper-Level Courses
 * #1	Campus Is Tiny, Unsightly, or Both
 * #11	Least Happy Students

For mentions of "The Shaft" see these articles in the university paper:

Given that I don't think this article is non-neutral, just not very well sourced. The Shaft is most definitely a part of student culture, as well as a very noticeable part of the Powelton rail yard. --TexasDex 21:46, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Notability
So a school paper mentions it and someone set up a website. Where's the notability? Mdbrownmsw 22:02, 1 December 2006 (UTC)


 * This should most likely be renamed (something along the lines of Pennsylvania Railroad Steam Plant) and should be expanded upon for its history with the 30th Street Station (Philadelphia) and benchmarking importance. The Drexel University shafting reference should be a side note in this article if any reference is made to it at all. It looks like there is a book detailing the west Philadelphia railway system, I'll see about tracking it down and expanding this article. --ImmortalGoddezz 22:54, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

The term "getting shafted" by "The Drexel Shaft" is a very well known reference on campus. I feel like the individuals who are against this article are mostly staff members or were never a student at Drexel. I see no reason why this should be deleted or merged with Drexel's main article. The only reasonable option, as I see it, is to rename it to something that has to do with its actual use. Do not delete. -JC —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.124.107.226 (talk) 05:30, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

A Sociological Icon for Thousands
"A topic is notable if it has been the subject of multiple non-trivial published works, whose sources are independent of the subject itself." Define non-trivial. Thousands of students have graduated Drexel University, highly aware of The Drexel Shaft, a very prominant landmark of the Philadelphia skyline as seen from the college campus. It is iconic to the students and alumni. We're not talking about a few people who just decided to "make this wikipage up." We're talking about thousands of people who know what this is and the meaning it embodies. And while the article has yet to be fully expanded with information of The Drexel Shaft's actual history as a power plant (mostly because many of the sources regarding this history cannot be found online, but would require going to city hall or the Free Library of Philadelphia to find some public records about it), it doesn't make the topic any less trivial. It just means it needs to be expanded, like so many other articles on Wikipedia.

Two extra and very important notes - the reason why there are not more "credible sources" to site regarding this topic is that most information is coming from oral histories told by alumni. I added to this article that the Drexel Shaft was the graduation scepter. This information came from my father, Drexel alumni, class of 73. These are still very credible sources regarding The Drexel Shaft and should not be discredited.

Secondly, these types of articles are an asset to linguistic research on american college slang. The reason why I came to this page in the first place is because I am doing a graduate paper on college slang and this is a term unique to Drexel University students. Wikipedia has gone beyond the traditional encyclopedia and has beeen heralded for its unique ability to provide information on a wide array of topics that a traditional one could not. This is one of those instances. --Aurora 20:04, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
 * The problem here is WP:OR. Your edit summary is "I spoke...". I think the article is worthy of inclusion because of my personal connection to it, but I also think it is highly inaccurate because when I was there, it didn't really have a true physical embodiment. But, when it was referred to in that manner, it was always the smokestack, never the fountain, contrary to the current state of the article. (CoE '93-98) &mdash; RevRagnarok  Talk Contrib 22:44, 9 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Then why don't you contribute the fact that The Shaft had no physical embodiment when you went to Drexel? Are you not a reliable source? You, me, and my father are all primary sources. We all went to Drexel. We all experienced The Drexel Shaft and what that term has been based upon has changed over the years. Were you a commuter student? Did you live on campus or in the immediate area (Powelton Village, University City)? These are all relevant to understanding the origin of The Drexel Shaft. Perhaps those that lived in the dorms knew it to have a physical embodiment while commuters did not. But nonetheless, primary sources are legitimate according to the WP:OR page. Unfortunately, we're not published yet, but that doesn't make us any less legitimate. Aurora 01:41, 10 December 2006 (UTC)


 * C'mon, RevRagnarok, you should know that you are class of '98, not class of '93! We were freshmen in '93! LOL. How ya' doin'? Anyway, I certainly thought of that thing as "The Shaft", though most while we were there seemed to give that moniker to the phallic fountain in the Quad instead. I guess you and I never discussed my plan to hang a banner from that thing as a senior prank. I, of course, never did anything to that end, but I had my plans... I thought that I'd bothered everyone with them, but I guess not.--MightyYar 01:45, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
 * D'oh never noticed that Yar! I just fixed it - I had meant to write 93-98 as the time there. In response to Aurora's Q, I lived in the dorms all 5 years because my 2nd year they had ethernet in the dorms and those internet connections beat dial-up in an apartment hands-down... If anyone remembers the AppleTalk Zone of "Calhoun Penthouse" that mysteriously appeared in 1994 on Drexel's ResNet, that was me. ;) &mdash; RevRagnarok  Talk Contrib 06:13, 21 January 2007 (UTC)