Talk:North Central University

Comparison of the Soulforce visit coverage to other Wikipedia articles
I have taken the time to look at a number of other Wikipedia articles on SoulForce, the Equality Ride, various colleges visited by the Equality Ride and a college that has been in the news a lot lately for a major event that took place there. I have found that there is a SoulForce (organization) article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soulforce_%28organization%29 and an Equality Ride article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equality_Ride. The SoulForce article lists some of the encounters members of the Equality Ride had during their visits at those campuses. Certainly a link to this article from the North Central article would seem appropriate that could include the statement provided in the special section of the North Central article.

I have looked at many of the articles about colleges and universities visited by the Equality Ride and found very few with the level of coverage included in the NCU article. There is a Soulforce website (http://www.soulforce.org/) with detailed coverage of every visit made on the rides. This information could be incorporated into the Wikipedia Equality Ride article or the individual descriptions could be linked from the Equality Ride article and this article could be linked from a reference in the college's article.

Finally, I looked at the website for Virginia Tech and found that there was not a single reference to a recent event that is going to have ramifications on their campus for years to come. You have to actually search for Virginia Tech shooting to find the article associated with that event.

For all of these reasons, I believe the most appropriate (and consistent with other Wikipedia articles) response to this controversy is to provide a small reference to this event as part of the history of the college with a link to the SoulForce wikipedia article that someone could expand to include all of the information contained on the SoulForce website with regard to visits to specific colleges. What do you think?

-JULY 21, 2007

Edit War over anti-gay controversy
To help the edit war about the controversy about anti-gay practices, I added a section near the end to house it. It is not the most relevant issue in this article, but probably needs to stay. Maybe putting it in a less prominent place will allow for the compromise obviously needed. Hopefully it does not add to the problem.

-JUNE 25, 2007

Removal of Equality Ride information
Edits were made to this page on 5-24-06 to keep this entry focused on general subject matter about North Central University. The addition of a "Significant Events at North Central University" portion was created to keep this page up to date. NPOV applies in this instance.

Response and restoration / NPOV dispute
Sometimes schools receive publicity they don't want. This is the case with the stir in response to the Equality Ride visit, but it needs to be talked about in this article. North Central is not very well known, and gained greater attention (though negative) due to the events deleted by the NCU Webmaster.

Neutrality can include information pertaining to the topic of North Central University outside statistics. The removal of an entire section explaining the presence of the Equality Ride at the University severely undercuts the integrity of a fair and balanced system. North Central University should not use Wikipedia as a positive publicity venue. Used that way, it is no longer a neutral or all-encompassing forum.

Furthermore, such a significant event in the life of the institution is worth detailing. Given the amount of attention given to the North Central because of the Equality Ride, some information-seekers will visit this article for information about the Equality Ride visit.

A link to a NCU press-release does no justice to the paragraphs of information deleted. (I added a link to the Soulforce press release to balance it out.) The point is to provide information and links. Four major television news affiliates aired stories on this event, as well as the Star Tribune which covered it from several different angles before, during, and after the event.

Thus, I find it necessary to restore it and to add a "neutrality" disclaimer at the top. Since the presence of this part of the article is in dispute, then it should be talked about in the forum, not unilaterally removed. That -might- be considered Wikipedia vandalism.

Note: the only press release quoted in the article has now been removed from the NCU website.

Response to "Response and Restoration" Post - 5-30-06
I have made the edits to the article that I think fit within Wikipedia guidelines.

I completely agree with having a neutrality flag at the top of the article.

Observations regarding the above post.

1) "Four major television news affiliates aired stories on this event."

Five local broadcast affiliates ran video pieces on the Equality Ride visit to North Central on April 17 and 18.

2) "North Central...gained greater attention (though negative)"

This is a subjective statement. North Central received an outpouring of positive support from alumni and friends during this time. Media portrayal of this event was balanced, in the opinion of the Media Relations office. In at least three published articles/editorials/broadcasts by the external media, North Central's actions and policies during the event were praised and/or the other party was criticized.

3) "Such a significant event in the life of the institution is worth detailing."

Again, this is a subjective statement. North Central University just celebrated its 75th anniversary this year. Although relatively unknown, the University has had several newsworthy events and people tied to the University during those 75 years, either favorable and unfavorable in a public relations sense.

Some of these past events received national media attention, much more so in comparison to the event in April. And these past events have done much more to shape the history and reputation of the school than the event in April.

4) "...the Star Tribune which covered it from several different angles before, during, and after the event"

The Star Tribune ran four stories dealing with the Equality Ride. In those stories, coverage of North Central ranged from simply mentioning our name, to pictures of our campus and interviews with our administrators and students, to an interview that focused on the story of one alumnus.

5) "Given the amount of attention given to the North Central because of the Equality Ride, some information-seekers will visit this article for information about the Equality Ride visit."

Other colleges and universities were visited during this Ride. In the interest of fairness and unbiased perspective, will you be adding Equality Ride sections to those schools' articles as well? If not, why not?

"North Central University should not use Wikipedia as a positive publicity venue."

This statement and subsequent argument is erronious. I challenge the author of the disputed content to their claim of neutrality by asking, are you in any way connected to the website, "nlnews" or its author(s)? If yes, then the inclusion of this web site in this article and your intentions are most certainly biased. Are you in any way connected to the Equality Ride or Soulforce? If yes, do you really consider yourself NPOV? Could the posting of so many links to other organizations, not affiliated with the University at all, be considered using Wikipedia as a positive publicity venue?

The Equality Ride occurred, but so did many other events over the school year that impacted thousands of people. It is appropriate to post such content.

Again, I have made the edits to the article that I think fit within Wikipedia guidelines.

And I completely agree with having a neutrality flag at the top of the article.

Susan Detlefsen NCU Media Relations

Just Add the Relevant Information, then!
The main reason NCU Media Relations seems to give for not including the entire original section about the Equality Ride visit is this: ". . . the University has had several newsworthy events and people tied to the University during those 75 years . . ."

Include that information too. Don't take away from the quality of the information already provided, just because you feel there are more important details not covered.

Is there information about important people within the Assemblies of God who attended North Central? If not, add it. I can think of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, for one. Thomas Trask?

As for the relevance of this part of the article as opposed to something important that happened thirty years ago, of course this is more worthy of mention now. Relevance has a bit to do with timeliness.

Everything was added with a neutral style of writing, neither condemning nor praising the University.

Disclosure
I don't intend to make this entry an all encompassing history of North Central University. Frankly, I don't have the time. I do intend to add information to this entry that is factual. More information and history can be found at the NCU web site.

My point still stands as justification for my editing. NCU has 75 years of history that has shaped and molded the people and policies connected to it. In my opinion, dismissing the relevance of an event because it might have happened five, ten or twenty years ago dismisses the significance of history. Relevance is often independent of timeliness.

I've revealed my identity, position and biases in the interest of disclosing the origin of the content I add and why I add it. Would you be willing to do the same? It is encouraged in Wikipedia's policies.

Susan Detlefsen NCU Media Relations

Proposal: Addition of Section about Notable Students
I am proposing a section devoted to important or relevant students who have attended or graduated North Central University. Some of these include: the Assembly of God General Superintendent, & Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. I am guessing there are plenty more noteworthy people to include, also. Thoughts?

Edit on June 12, 2006
A deletion was made to the page where it indicated that nlnews.org is the URL of the NCU student newspaper. According to this web site, "Nlnews.org is a privately owned website and is not affiliated with North Central University. The purpose of the website is to unofficially represent the university's student newspaper, The Northern Light."

Additions were also made to the Equality Ride portion of the page.

Susan Detlefsen NCU Media Relations

I see that Tammy Faye has died. In the main article on MSN, North Central is listed as her college. I think you should at least mention her on this page.

Bob Williams

Response to June 12 Edit
Your addition is clearly in the good spirit of Wikipedia. It also helps balance the information a bit, I think. I temporarily removed one part though: the uncited quote by Jake Reitan. “This is what we came to do,” said Jacob Reitan. Got a link for it? It should stay if we can find that quote.

Aug 3 2007 edits
I attempted to clean up the article. i removed a lot of links to buildings as it rare to see them in other school pages and could be consider spam. I reduced the presidents to just a list again more like other school pages. I edit the 2006 Ride section. Smith03 22:55, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

In answer to Bob Williams, I added info about Jim and Tammy Faye, who both attended NCU but did not graduate. I also added a reference. I am a fellow NCU alumni (class of 1996) --Jim Line (talk) 01:38, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

How is Robert Andrescik a "non notable????" He oversaw the magazine division at Strang Communications and served as senior editor of New Man magazine, and was awarded several times for his work by the Evangelical Press Association and the Florida Magazine Association and In 2002, he was named Emerging Leader of the Year by the National Coalition of Men's Ministries.

Reggie Dabbs is rank the #1 school assembly speaker by the NEA and speaks to 10,000 people on a daily basis around the world??

I READDED these. --Jim Line (talk) 01:52, 15 June 2008 (UTC)