Talk:Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences/Archive 1

"First in Boston"
The statement that the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy is the oldest institution of higher education in Boston is supported by the college's own claims. MCP’s website states that the college was "founded" in 1823 (http://www.mcphs.edu/MCPHSWeb/about/about.html). However this claim is flawed: Dec 8, 1823 represents the date on which the Boston apothecaries first met to organize their guild. Their reason for meeting was not to specifically to found the college. The college officers were only organized in 1830, and their charter granted in 1852. More importantly, MCP's first lectures were only held in 1867 and its first actual class graduated in 1869. Given that Boston College was holding classes as early as 1827 (albeit without a charter from the Commonwealth), this would still make BC the first institution of higher education established in the city of Boston.140.247.125.10 23:23, 9 August 2005 (UTC)


 * From (www.mcphs.edu): "MCPHS is the largest college of pharmacy in the United States. MCPHS was founded in 1823- the second oldest college of pharmacy in the United States and the oldest institution of higher education in the City of Boston-, and is located in the heart of the Longwood Academic and Medical area of Boston."  Another source from (http://www.thehighschoolgraduate.com/editorial/BO/MACollege.htm) :  "Founded in 1823, MCPHS is the second oldest pharmacy school in the U.S. and the oldest college in the city of Boston. In response to change, MCPHS expanded its mission over time to include a number of science and healthcare programs. With its distinguished history and international reputation". It seem that MCPHS is, technically, the first institution of higher education in Boston.  What reasons could MCPHS have to lie on its official site? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.239.10.72 (talk) 00:49, 10 August 2005 (UTC)


 * It is not lying per se, but PR-copy often involves tweaking the facts. Without the meeting of the Boston apothecaries in 1823, it is likely MCPHS would never have come into existence. By the same token, Boston College could point to the meeting of the first Jesuits in 1534 as the root of its existence. However, neither can be considered a founding date. For a detailed account of the history of MCPHS, see Ernest C. Marshall's Early History of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. 140.247.125.194 17:19, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

From the Boston Contributor
My objective in writing the article is to bring focus to the broad institutional and academic objectives of MCPHS, and the college’s commitment to excellence in educating healthcare professionals as well as MCPHS 's commitment toward scientific scholarship and research, so the article includes essential information to that ends, however a more structured and formal introduction and article, that should continue to include information about the clinical training students at MCPHS receive in some of the worlds best medical centers and teaching hospitals that have chosen to affiliate with MCPHS as well as demonstrate MCPHS’ s commitment to excellence in patient care, through recognition by numerous venerated professional organizations and licensing boards would be a welcome contribution.

Unfortunately those not familiar with Boston or New England on a tangible level may have failed to understand the important, significant and positive impact MCPHS has on this region of the country through the institutions contribution to quality patient care, nor comprehend the continued contribution of the college’s alumni to the health care of patients through standards of excellence in professional practice in innumerable communities throughout New England, rather chose to blatantly embarrass the college slander its fellows and demean our integrity by accusing us of dishonesty. By focusing on an attempt to delete this article, thus negating MCPHS preeminent position among health care professional institutions of higher learning in Boston, does a great diservice to the readers.

I have decided to delete the content I contributed for the article because I personally feel that Wikipedia lacks objective academic integrity and scholastic legitimacy and engages in postmodern relativistic views of history, science, society and culture.

The fact is that Boston College did not receive a charter from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1863, additionally during the years preceding that date the school was not in continuous operation. Most importantly, the BC campus has been located in the city of Newton Massachusetts since 1913 and not in Boston so it is curious how one can claim BC as the oldest college in Boston when the college has not been in the city of Boston for almost one hundred years.

MCPHS does not need to rely on PR or the tweaking of facts, The college has an illustrious history and is well respected in the medical community nationally as well as internationally, whoever made the claim for BC predating MCPHS seems to disregard the standards and purpose associated with the granting of a legally sanctioned charter by the legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, without a charter an institution is not authorized to grant degrees, regardless of classes being in session, BC could not legally authorize the granting of a degree prior to March 1863 The Boston apothecary guild recognized the need for a college of pharmacy in 1823 organized the college officers in 1830 and a charter was granted by the Commonwealth in 1852, these are historic facts.

But if one wants to engage is some postmodern relativistic view of history, disregard the significant dates of the granting of charters, and seek institutional origins outside of the acceptable academic standards of historical accuracy, one could argue that MCPHS traces its lineage back to the medieval apothecaries of Europe.

Interestingly the Wikipedia article on Boston College is full of erroneous historic facts and unverifiable claims, poorly written, graphically disorganized and in need of improvement yet I did not see an assail on that article as I saw on this one.

It is clear what is going on here so this contributor will make no further editing or future writing on this or any other subject. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.172.78.42 (talk) 18:28, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Boston College is located in Newton Massachusetts and not in the city of Boston Massachusetts
Boston College has not been located in the city of Boston since the early 1900’s, The city of Newton is not the city of Boston; Newton has its own mayor, city council. Municipal government, police and fire departments and EMT services, its own public works, own taxes, and voting initiatives etc.

Boston College is located in Chestnut Hill near Newton Centre. Newton boarders the cities of Brookline, Dedham, West Roxbury, Jamaica Plane, Watertown and the Brighton section of Boston. I suppose if one is one is going to negate the dates of founding charters to argue for BC as the oldest college in the city one would also have to negate town lines and geographic boarders and city governments, municipalities and legal residencies as to negate the fact that the BC campus is not located anywhere within the city of Boston.

MCPHS is the oldest institution of higher education in the city of Boston. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.172.78.42 (talk) 21:18, 8 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Actually, the BC campus is technically in both Boston and Newton, since the Boston-Newton border runs through the campus. The majority of the land is now in Boston since they bought the land from the Boston archdiocese. But isn't this splitting hairs? Why not just say that the school was the "first institution of higher education in Boston to be granted a charter by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." ? 216.236.252.234 21:43, 8 January 2006 (UTC)


 * If you really want to split hairs, Harvard, the oldest college in the US, is partly in the City of Boston, too. Bostoner (talk) 01:55, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

Programs and Majors
I removed the Programs and Majors subsection because some of it was no longer accurate, but it also made the article look like a catalog, and cluttered the academics section. CDrecche 21:06, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

I have updated the programs and majors and affiliated clinics. DJRazma (talk) 07:39, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

Copyright violations.
Most of the article is claimed to be a CopyVio, the link I supplied on the template is only for one part. It is claimed text from a catalog was also plagiarized. Since the article's been edited many times, there may be salvagable pieces in the history.

See also the 1st section on this talk page. -- Jeandré, 2006-04-20t19:44z

Name of the school
The school is officially going from "MCPHS University" to just MCPHS or Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. See this section, for example https://www.mcphs.edu/about-mcphs