Talk:Gardner–Webb University/Archive 1

Untitled
NPOV? Removing tag until editor gives an explanation.YankeeGal 02:28, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Look back at the history of the article and then you will see why the NPOV tag was added. No longer NPOV, I agreee, but the article still leaves a lot to be desired IMO. -- Masonpatriot 03:21, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Agreed. This article is indeed a mess. I am going to make an attempt to flesh it out and Wikify it.  YankeeGal 15:09, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Lacking info....
I see someone has edited out all information about the Dr. Chris White scandal. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.181.104.38 (talk) 02:50, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

The article contains a lot of anecdotal information, and talks about the physical school itself, but says little about its academics (arguably the most important point of a college or university). Could someone knowledgeable about the institution work on the article? (wonder if Wiki has any guidelines on college profiles?) Engr105th (talk) 06:34, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

I skimmed over it, and some parts read like an advertisement for the school: "Gardner-Webb University is a friendly campus... " "Gardner-Webb is a Liberal Arts College that focuses on teaching its students how to think logically about a wide range of subjects, and how to communicate their ideas confidently and without confusion." etc 24.252.205.209 (talk) 20:07, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

If you want student information. You should ask the students. Many of the students at GWU say "GWU is a money trap. It lures you in and makes you take classes that will not transfer so you are stuck there untill you graduate because if you transfer you lose at least a semester; maybe, two of credit hours." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.89.242.53 (talk) 00:46, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

From my understanding, the University's admissions office edits the page and try to operate it as an advertisement for the University. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.44.20.225 (talk) 01:33, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

It is my understanding, as well, that the page is actually edited by the University as a form of advertisement. Maybe the page should be locked? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.1.151.136 (talk) 01:19, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

External links modified
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I have just modified 7 one external links on Gardner–Webb University. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120320230547/http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com:80/best-graduate-schools/top-education-schools/edu-rankings to http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-education-schools/edu-rankings
 * Added archive http://www.webcitation.org/60S3KqGCy?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sacscoc.org%2Fpdf%2Fwebmemlist.pdf to http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/webmemlist.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110718155915/http://www.gwusports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=46210&SPID=4168&DB_OEM_ID=10300&ATCLID=530262&Q_SEASON=2008 to http://www.gwusports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=46210&SPID=4168&DB_OEM_ID=10300&ATCLID=530262&Q_SEASON=2008
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150529024833/http://nmnathletics.com/ to https://www.nmnathletics.com/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150529024833/http://nmnathletics.com/ to https://www.nmnathletics.com/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070301172040/http://www.titansonline.com:80/team/coaches/staff.php?PRKey=7 to http://www.titansonline.com/team/coaches/staff.php?PRKey=7

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External links modified
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Details about scholarships
Enh1905 believes this article should contain a section that has details about specific scholarships that this university offers to some students: "Scholarships offered by a school are an important part of who they are and there is absolutely no reason to remove this." I disagree and believe that this information doesn't tell readers very much about this university and should be left for the university's own marketing and financial aid materials. Do other editors have an opinion? If it's helpful, it's been my experience that this information is rarely included in Wikipedia articles; that doesn't mean that we can't include it in this article but it may be a helpful indicator of prevailing practices and opinions. ElKevbo (talk) 15:44, 20 March 2019 (UTC)
 * ElKevbo, in my experience, they don't belong. This is an encyclopedia article not the college's prospectus. It's basically advertising. The only reason to include it would be if the scholarships were so unusual or notable that they have been written about extensively in independent 3rd party sources. The stuff here is simply referenced to the university. You'll notice that the articles on Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc. do not have this kind of junk. More telling, it does not appear in Featured articles, e.g. Georgetown University, Duke University, Ohio Wesleyan University, etc. Nor is "Scholarships" listed as an appropriate section at College and university article advice. I will further add that this whole article is written like an advertisement for this university and wonder if there is a conflict of interest involved in the editing. I'm going to remove that section and ask Enh1905 to discuss restoring it here rather than simply reverting again. Voceditenore (talk) 17:10, 20 March 2019 (UTC)

Voceditenore, ElKevbo If you read through several prestigious schools including Duke, Wake Forest, and Davidson, the three most prestigious private schools in North Carolina you will see that they all mention what scholarships the school offers, they just put it under a heading of Admissions or Financial Aid. I will revise this page to do the same. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Enh1905 (talk • contribs) 19:08, 20 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Even if you do mention scholarships under Admissions, you will need to trim the previous material considerably. You'd even included scholarships that aren't even awarded yet. The material should be no longer than what is in Duke University, and actually shorter since Gardner–Webb doesn't practice need-blind admission. I'm going to be blunt here, Enh1905. What is you affiliation with this university? Voceditenore (talk) 07:11, 21 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Voceditenore I have no affiliation, I am merely an alumnus.  I will make changes and add it under admissions, although the not yet awarded scholarship is important as it is only one year away from its genesis and certainly relevant.  I didn't realize there was a policy against putting future events that have been announced on Wikipeida.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Enh1905 (talk • contribs) 18:32, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

Restoring deleted facts, w/ improvements? (Opinion of a random onlooker)
(I never heard of this school, or anyone involved - whether as subject, associate or contributor, until a few hours ago. I write here in the interest of wiki content. This post is limited to a narrow section that was removed.)

A huge chunk of info was removed and was not restored when the editor was blocked for conflict of interest editing.

Noeltmanning ''19:22, 19 December 2019 diff hist -1,785‎  m Gardner–Webb University ‎ →‎LGBT speaker Cody Sanders and reaction: I serve in the Communications Office and this event is not a "major event" for a wiki-info page. Tags: Visual edit references removed''

Personally, I don't believe the section removed was well-written, or that the facts shared were effectively communicated from that deleted passage. (What was written does need editing.) I don't know if this is why it was not restore - or - if the opinion of the blocked editor was regarded as valid (i.e. insignificant).

Information about Gardner–Webb University alumni, author and LGBT+ advocate Rev. Cody Sanders should be included in the notable alumni list, at least. (IMHO, Rev. Sanders should have his own Wikipedia page, unrelated to his involvement with Gardner-Webb and based on his personal merits.) It may, or may not be, significant enough as an event to discuss the opinions and statements made in response to when Rev. Sanders was a speaker at the school by those critical of a Baptist minister that is openly gay. This happened concurrent to one's opinion on same-sex marriage being a predominant, national discussion.

Gardner–Webb is regarded as a Baptist college with a ministry program. In 2014, it was notable to have an openly gay alumni and active minister speak on a Christian campus. It would have been easy to exclude Rev. Sanders because he was gay without publicly saying so.According to the school, they choose him to appear for his accomplishments as a alum and did not want to discriminate because of his beliefs, noting that students benefit from mature discussions. The controversy did result in the University President issuing a statement clarifying that the school's official position on the definition of marriage was a traditional one. The school president also explained about Rev. Sanders speaker invitation, "In reality, the LOTS speaker was invited to share his research on how, in part, the Christian community might guard against contributing to the staggering statistics that he shared, statistics which show the remarkable increase of incidence of homelessness and suicides among non-heterosexual youth as opposed to the general population."  (Aside: It would be useful to provide more info about Gardner-Webb's Life of the Scholar (LOTS) programs, as it was under LOTS speaker program that Rev Sanders was invited to speak. The wiki only provides a brief reference to the Life of the Scholar-Multidisciplinary Conferences (LOTS MC). There are more events and programs under the Life of the Scholar title at Gardner-Webb than the annual conference, and these should be discussed at greater length.)

In the greater picture, Rev. Sanders is an example of changing attitudes toward homosexuality tolerance in the Baptist religious community. Gardner-Webb University's history has other examples of alumni that went on to become gay activists or academically explored tolerant perspectives toward homosexuals. There may be value in cataloging positive, negative and neutral events related to homosexuality in/tolerance and the school. That could help prevent erroneous assumptions. A a former staff member and a graduate of GWB, commented in support of Rev. Sanders and the direction of the school in becoming more tolerant. She commented her dismay in hearing that Rev. Sanders didn't feel he received the support as a student.

At GWB's Divinity School (M. Christopher White School Of Divinity Of Gardner-Webb University) had a program described as "a dialogue concerning homosexuality and Christian faith." The outcome was a project called "An Experiment in Civil Dialogue". The students were evaluated after the program to assess their opinions toward homosexuality.

The school uses various textbooks addressing the care of LGBT individuals in psychological, religious and medical settings. This includes widely used secular books like textbook "Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice" by psychologist Derald Wing Sue. This textbook is sensitive toward addressing conflicts that arise for religious conservative counselors whose faith values oppose same-sex orientation when working with sexual minorities.

GWB is a CACREP accredited school. CACREP (Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs) accreditation has received criticism toward its stance on institutions that disavow LGBT+ issues, though CACREP has gone on to try and address the concerns that were raised in recent years.

A Gardner-Webb psychology graduate, Mackenzie Renner, wrote about the need of counselors to be more gay-affirmative and developed a workshop to address counseling in same-sex domestic violence situations. She discusses this journey in her research paper: "Becoming a gay-affirmative counsellor in the area of same-sex intimate partner violence". In the paper's "Personal Statement of Interest" section, she mentions being a student at Gardner-Webb and how she made positive friendships with those identified as homosexual and bisexual while attending.

North CarolinianDan Mauney, went to Gardner-Webb to be a minister (studying religion and psychology) but went on to become a "local Charlotte LGBTQ pioneer" and businessman. (Aside, Dan Mauney may be notable to receive his own wikipedia page.)

The school president publicly announced "a pastor of one of our strong Baptist State Convention churches has offered the helpful suggestion that the University implement a series of presentations and lectures on what it means to see our homosexual neighbors through the eyes of Christian compassion. As the same pastor has shared, “There is much in the recent press about why Millennials are leaving the church, and one of the reasons given is because they feel they are forced to choose between compassion and holiness. At Gardner-Webb, dialogue is available to model for students and churches the possibility of an environment where compassion and holiness are able to meet face to face.”

In 2013, The Gay & Lesbian Victory Institute held three sessions of its LGBT Movement Leaders Fellowship program at Duke University and at the Gardner-Webb University’s Charlotte Campus.

Alumni Tim Wilkins is founder of Cross Ministry, an organization that describes itself as a iew=article&id=219&Itemid=28 "equipping ministry" providing conferences and other guidance resources "to equipping the Church to evangelize and disciple the homosexual." Wilkins is associated with the ex-gay movement, a member of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), and is an undergraduate of Gardner-Webb.

Alumni with a Doctor of Ministry from GWB, Rev. Dr. Jarrett Banks, advocates a Open & Affirming Ministry Program and new expression of church called, Northshore Disciples: A Movement of Selfless Love. that preaches church acceptance for LGBT.

Graduate Mel Hartsell related negative experiences she was aware of while a student at GWB campus."...I thought it was only the very extreme who hated LGBT people, until I went to Gardner-Webb University . . . as some of my classmates started coming out, the school removed them from leadership in extracurricular activities (which were all under the campus ministries umbrella). Our campus minister, who was a primary leader on campus, sent a cruel email to students during the summer of 2008 warning them that we were coming out, saying things like, “The devil is at work on campus” . . . We tried to start a Gay-Straight Alliance in my third (and final) year there and were denied by the student government."

These are just some examples I think could help expand the deleted section. Depending on the reader, what is regarded as a positive or negative example could be reversed based on personal opinions. For example, tolerance and inclusion could be regarded as both good and bad, depending on who is asked. There is no intention to weigh in a personal opinion. I added what was found using the same keywords. Roxanne-snowden (talk) 21:53, 17 July 2020 (UTC)