Talk:The Albany Academy

Herman Melville "alumnus" controversy
Merriam-Webster (m-w.com) offers the following definition for "alumnus:"

Main Entry: alum·nus Pronunciation: &-'l&m-n&s Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural alum·ni /-"nI/ Etymology: Latin, foster son, pupil, from alere to nourish -- more at OLD 1 : one who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university 2 : one who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate The vast majority of that definition deals with a subject matter not implying graduation but rather former attendance (75% of the definition).  Melville clearly satisfies *both* definitions and by clarifying him as a "non-graduate" is inconsistent with other school articles.  Using that line of reasoning, it would be appropriate to further delve into the activities of each alumnus (e.g. "(captain of soccer team)" or "(student council president)")  Reverting the page would be more accurate, and would conform to the ways to which he is referred on other sites (see the Wikipedia Article Albany, NY) and by the school itself. Those who believe that "alumnus" automatically means "graduate" are ignorant, and it is not the job of Wikipedia to dumb down its articles by restating what words mean. It is called a dictionary- something Wikipedia is not. Nbruschi 04:37, 4 March 2006 (UTC)


 * What is this "vast majority" nonsense? And breaking the definition down into a percentage??? It's an alternate definition. I don't understand why you would rather be more ambiguous than less. IIRC, Melville was at the school for a year or less, and did not graduate from the school. And yes, of course, I agree that the other individuals' information should be delved into more deeply, but I am personally focusing on disambiguating the bit about Melville, because that is the information I currently know. Of course it is better to be less ambiguous than more ambiguous, so why remove the fact that he did not graduate. People will only be confused about what is meant by "alumnus". &mdash; 0918 BRIAN &bull; 2006-03-4 05:11


 * I agree with Nbruschi. Adding that extra information is not consistent with the format of other articles.  This article once had a huge "jargon" section, but it was justly removed because, though it offered a ton more information about the inner workings of the school, it was not worthy to be on the page.  If people are interested in Melville, have them go to his page where it is clear that he did not graduate.  Nbruschi does bring up the point, that by amending Melville it opens the door to offer other unneeded information on each person like "captain of the soccer team" "or "student body president."  An alumnus is a former member, and it is clear that is what Melville was.
 * It doesn't open up a door to anything like that, because the section is called "Alumni". At most, it opens up the possibility of clarifying the years that each person went to the school, and whether they graduated from the school. This would be an important clarification, and help remove the ambiguity of the section. &mdash; 0918 BRIAN &bull; 2006-03-5 16:29
 * Five days have gone by. So I take it people are fine with adding the clarification to Melville's line? &mdash; 0918 BRIAN &bull; 2006-03-10 16:08
 * It's fairly well known in the community that Melville did not graduate from the Academy, so I think it should be specified that he is not an alum. The Albany, NY article has been changed to reflect Joseph Henry along with Supreme Court Justice Rufus Wheeler Peckham.

Old Academy
Why is there not a single picture of the historic Downtown campus? It was an important part of the Academy's history. I'm pretty sure it's a registered historic place, too. Is the new building registered? Anyway, if I had a car, I'd go take some pictures, but I don't. In fact, looking over to the article again, I see that there is actually very little mention of the old Academy building.
 * I've added some historical information about the Old Academy and new Academy buildings. Although you can find historic postcards of the Old Academy online, a modern photograph would be better. I'm in Scotland for the autumn, but will attend to it when I can. Aiken1986 11:29, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Well the old downtown location, and I believe the academy had moved quite abit, was not a "campus" like the current location. I believe the "campus" you are referring to (and I hope over a year later you are back from Scotland and reading this!) is currently (though not for long I hear) the offices for the Albany City School District, it is inside Academy Park (Lafayette Park) along the Elk Street section. One of the older locations for the Academy was on Eagle Street and is currently part of the grounds of the Empire State Plaza, therefore not much there.Camelbinky (talk) 03:35, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Fork off article on old building
Four years later, I am considering creating a separate article on the old building, to be called Joseph Henry Memorial (its current name). Is there anybody out there? Does anyone care? If not, forever hold your wikipeace? Daniel Case (talk) 13:29, 31 May 2013 (UTC)
 * There being no objections, this will be done. Daniel Case (talk) 04:42, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

big problem
This article--13 paragraphs long--links to 3 sources. 2 of those 3 relate to the historic listing of the old building. The other is the academy's website. With the exception of the sentence about the historic listing of the old building, no information in the article has a reliable source. Whoever has been working on this article should really go through and provide sources or else remove information. Amandil21 (talk) 15:14, 11 August 2021 (UTC)