Talk:Westat/Archive 1

Copyrights? POV?
This page appears to have largely been lifted (from its inception) from http://www.westat.com, which raises copyrig ht issues. Most likely, Westat will be thrilled, but copying their marketingspeak makes the page somewhat NPOV, to say the least. Bhudson 00:56, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Nominating for POV check
Nothing seems to have happened since 1 February 2007 regarding the neutrality of this article, so I am nominating it for a POV check. The last edits come from Westat IP addresses. King of birds (talk) 01:13, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Westat's Comments
We would like to help in anyway to make sure the entry is in accordance with Wiki's guidelines. Any changes made from Westat's IPs before were made with good intentions. Please let us know how we can address the issues identified. We are keen on making sure an unbiased entry is made available to the public.

Bjawahar (talk) 13:17, 3 September 2008 (UTC)


 * It would be nice if you would list the phone numbers we should block to not have to be harassed by you. The last time I got a call from you, the person a) bulldozed across me after I said I didn't want to participate, b) argued with me that you didn't need to maintain a do do-not-call because they were doing a service for the government (what a waste of taxpayer money- making long distance calls to people who don't want to talk to you), and c) continued the survey after I told them repeatedly that I refused to participate (so I hung up).  I've also contacted you via email and while you said you put me on your do-not-call list, you still call.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.200.122.38 (talk) 16:00, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Just delete this whole page
This page just comes across as one big brochure from Westat. As such, it should be deleted. In my opinion, it's value is zero, and nothing will be lost by deleting it.

RSzoc (talk) 21:42, 16 February 2009 (UTC)


 * If you really think it should be deleted you should send it to articles for deletion and say why. I personally see a lot of vanity stuff but at the core the company seems to be notable. I think I will do some cleanup though. --Triwbe (talk) 17:09, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Why not contribute an improvement rather than just criticism? If you are well informed enough to find fault in the article please offer something constructive.

Raising the POV issue again
This page seems to not to have undergone any significant changes since the original POV issues were raised. I would tend to agree that the subject is notable but this article is essentially a corporate press release. Franklin Moore (talk) 19:22, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

The article provides a description of a company. It is better than no description. I found it helpful as an applicant, and now, as an employee, I find it to be accurate. While some may find it needs editing, to delete it would be a loss.

POV fixed?
I believe my latest edits will solve the POV problems of the page (though it has been years), would you mind taking a look and letting me know? (Disclaimer: I have no affiliations with this company.) Mehmetaergun (talk) 16:02, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Edit Request
I'd like to submit this additional content for your consideration on behalf of Westat. We have looked at the pages of other research organizations that work in our industry and have included similar content. Thank you for your guidance and consideration. Klkennedy (talk) 20:56, 26 February 2015 (UTC)


 * As an edit and not a rewrite request, I think the "history" section below would be a nice addition (minus the unnecessary section I striked out in this edit). The "organization" section you have included is IMHO unnecessary, reads very much like promotional material, and surely violates UNDUE on multiple counts, such as "depth of detail, quantity of text, prominence of placement," and impartial tone. However, I think it does have some info that can be introduced to the article. I used strikeouts to emphasize significant portions (i.e. not striked out) that I think should be included in the main article. Mehmetaergun (talk) 21:21, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

===History=== Westat began as a partnership in 1961 with cofounders Edward C. Bryant, Ph.D., a tenured full professor of statistics at the University of Wyoming, and two former students, James Daley and Donald King. In 1963, the company was incorporated. Dr. Bryant served as Westat’s first President until 1978, when Joseph Hunt took over as President and CEO for the next 32 years. In May 2011, James E. Smith, Ph.D., became President and CEO of the company.

The company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013.

References: [1] Smith leads Rockville’s Westat with a head for numbers and people

[2] Westat: 50 Years Young

===Organization===

Westat has a staff of approximately 2,000 employees and is headquartered at the offices in Rockville, Maryland. Currently, the Westat staff is predominately female. In addition to the headquarters, the company has offices in Atlanta, Georgia; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Houston, Texas and in six international locations. Data collection staff are in survey processing facilities, at Telephone Research Center facilities, and throughout nationwide field operations.

Westat staff provide expertise in the following areas:

• Education

• Health

• Information Systems

• Social Policy

• Transportation

• Data collection and management

• Statistical research and survey methods

• Clinical Trials

• Evaluation

• Communications and social marketing

James E. Smith, Ph.D., is President and CEO of Westat.

Graham Kalton, Ph.D., is Westat’s Chairman of the Board and a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) ,

a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an elected Member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) , and a National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

David Morganstein, Westat Vice President and Director, took office as the 110th president of the American Statistical Association (ASA) on January 1, 2015.

Mr. Morganstein has been interviewed in Fortune on the growing popularity of statistics as an undergraduate major and by the Washington Post about the dramatic increase of women into the field of statistics.

Westat Vice President Sharon Lohr, Ph.D., was named the 2014 Deming Lecturer, which she presented at a special session at the 2014 Joint Statistical Meetings in Boston.

References: [3] The 2013 Honomichl Top 50 Report [4] Westat.com [5] The 2013 Honomichl Top 50 Report [6] Smith leads Rockville’s Westat with a head for numbers and people

[7] Fellows of the ASA

[8] AAAS Fellows [9] ISI Membership [10] NAS Associates [11] Westat's David Morganstein Elected 110th ASA President [12] The fastest-growing STEM major in the U.S. [13] Women flocking to statistics, the newly hot, high-tech field of data science [14] Sharon L. Lohr is Named 2014 Deming Lecturer

I agree with 's assessment. Therefore, ✅ for the history section and for the rest. ~Amatulić (talk) 19:42, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Edit request (2)
Thank you for for your comments and guidance. I have looked again at the articles for similar research organizations for examples, and I am resubmitting the content for the Westat Organization section with revisions that make it more encyclopedic and factual in style. Thank you for your consideration and further guidance. Klkennedy (talk) 15:39, 9 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Most of the information you proposed is UNDUE like your previous proposal, which would move the article towards promotional content as it used to be. Other information is already in the main article in one way or another. The only new more or less non-promotional information in your proposal is about the partnership with universities, which should be cited using either unbiased 3rd party sources or university announcements themselves, not the Westat website itself. I would definitely vote against this proposal. Though I assume good faith, I am also beginning to worry that you may be trying to add more text just to bury the Employment Discrimination section down. I'm simply hoping that is not the case. Mehmetaergun (talk) 16:32, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

===Organization===

Westat’s areas of research include education, health, transportation, social policy, and information systems. Each area has subspecialties, for example, education reform, clinical trials, travel behavior, and military and veterans life. Data collection and management staff, statisticians and survey methodologists, evaluators, and communications and social marketing personnel support research efforts. The majority of its 2,000 staff are located at its Rockville, MD, headquarters, with other staff in five national offices and six international offices. Telephone data collection staff work from home offices and the company’s Telephone Research Centers.

Westat has partnerships with the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), the Southern Christian Leadership Foundation, Inc., the Tuskegee Macon County Community Foundation, Inc., and Boston Strategics.

Graham Kalton, Ph.D., is Westat’s Chairman of the Board and a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA).

David Morganstein, Westat Vice President and Director, took office as the 110th president of the American Statistical Association (ASA) on January 1, 2015.

Several of Westat’s research staff are on the faculty of the Joint Program in Survey Methodology (JPSM), University of Maryland, College Park.

References: [15] Westat.com: Our Work [16] Westat.com: Expertise [17] Westat.com: About Us [18] The 2013 Honomichl Top 50 Report [19] Major Academic Institutions and Foundations Establish Partnerships with Westat [20] Westat Enters Preferred Provider Partnership with Boston Strategics [21] ASA Fellows [22] Westat's David Morganstein Elected 110th ASA President [23] Joint Program in Survey Methodology Faculty

Proposed Changes 9/19
I would like to offer a few updates to this Wikipedia article on Westat’s behalf. I would appreciate your review and suggestions. Some of the information and references for the existing content are out of date. I am a librarian at Westat and have read the COI guidelines. I have used these COI guidelines to prepare the revisions, which include facts, references, and links to other relevant Wikipedia pages. I hope you will agree that the revisions offer an improvement over the current article. Thank you for your consideration and guidance.

Westat is a 100 percent employee-owned professional services corporation located in Rockville, Maryland, USA. Westat provides research services to agencies of the U.S. Government, as well as businesses, foundations, and state and local governments.

==History==

Westat Inc. began as a partnership in 1961 with cofounders Edward C. Bryant, Ph.D., a tenured full professor of statistics at the University of Wyoming, and two former students, James Daley and Donald King. The company was incorporated in 1963, with Dr. Bryant serving as Westat’s first President. Within a few years Westat moved from Colorado to Washington, DC. Morris H. Hansen joined the company in 1968 after retiring from the Census Bureau and was followed by his colleague Joseph Waksberg in 1973. In 1970 Westat was acquired by the American Can Company. This ended in 1977 with Westat becoming an ESOP, and Joseph Hunt took over as President and CEO for the next 32 years. In May 2011, James E. Smith, Ph.D., became President and CEO of the company.

In September 2014,Westat entered into a conciliation agreement with the OFCCP to resolve issues, including record keeping and statistical shortfalls in hiring for certain jobs, identified during a routine audit of the company’s affirmative action programs for 2008-2009. There was no OFCCP finding of intentional discrimination on Westat’s part. The agreement required payment of a monetary settlement which has been completed, hiring goals which were met, and a two-year reporting period, which ended in September 2016, with which the company is in full compliance. Westat has also taken substantial steps to correct the reporting practices that led to the complaint and remains fully committed to equal opportunity employment and its affirmative action programs.

==Research activities==

Westat is a professional services company, which supports research in the fields of health, education, social policy, and transportation. Health studies areas include work in public health, behavioral and mental health   , as well as clinical trials , veteran’s health, epidemiology , and health communications. The Education area consists of technical assistance and program evaluation studies. Social policy research areas focus on children and families, criminal and juvenile justice , and marginalized populations. The Transportation Center concentrates on technology, safety, and travel behavior.

The Statistical unit has over 65 statisticians, including 10 Senior Fellows. Statistical research and methods area supports survey design, address-based sampling, small-area estimation, data analytics, and statistical disclosure control. Several Westat statisticians participate in the Joint Program in Survey Methodology (JPSM), a collaboration between the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan, and Westat. JPSM offers on-site and online graduate training in survey methodology, survey statistics, and data science.

Westat supports two software packages, WesVar and Blaise. The former is a variance estimation software while the latter is a survey processing system.

==Employee ownership==

The firm is 100% employee-owned and has been since 1977, when Westat began the transition from ownership by the American Can Company to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). All employees earn a share of ownership under the ESOP through annual stock contributions. The value of employee holdings have grown since the introduction of the ESOP.

==Employment Discrimination==

Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs discovered, during a scheduled audit of the company systems in 2014, that Westat systematically discriminated against 638 women applicants, 2,153 African American applicants, 825 Asian American applicants, and 35 Hispanic job applicants for research analyst, programmer analyst, telephone data collector, survey process, and field data collector positions, between Oct. 1, 2008, and Sept. 30, 2009.

According to the OFCCP, under the terms of the settlement, Westat agreed to pay $1,500,000 in back wages and interest to all affected applicants, make 113 job offers to the original class members as positions become available, preserve and maintain all employment records, correct record-keeping violations, conduct internal audits, and perform outreach and positive recruitment activities.

WestatLibrarian (talk) 19:50, 19 September 2017 (UTC)


 * ❌ Hi . I am declining your reuest on purely procedural grounds simply because it's not clear exactly what changes you are requesting. Please read Wikipedia:Edit requests for some general information on how to request a particular change.
 * In general, copying and pasting large parts of the article (including images) onto the talk page is not a very good idea because (1) it might be considered a copyright violation per Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia, (2) the syntax used in the article may mess up the formatting of the talk page, and (3) it can be pretty hard for anyone reviewing the request to figure out what changes are actually be suggested. It's usually much better to break up your requests and phrase them in manner that is easier to understand; for example, "change X to Y based upon this source" or "replace image A with image B", etc. You can of course propose multiple changes in a single request, but try to keep it to a reasonable number (perhaps by article section). Also, placing each request on a seperate line and adding  or   at the beginning of each line will format your request as bulleted or numbered list which will make things even clearer. You can practice using this syntax in your user sanbox if you want before actually posting your request here.  -
 * Finally, try and remember that all Wikipedians are volunteers; so, the easier you make it for others to understand what is being proposed, the easier it will be for others to help you. -- Marchjuly (talk) 04:57, 21 September 2017 (UTC)

Proposed changes 9/21
Thank you for your guidance. I will review my text and reconfigure my request. I’d like to start by requesting a few additions for the infobox in order to provide a more complete summary about Westat. They include:


 * Industry: Professional Services
 * Number of Locations: 13
 * Services: Research in the fields of health, education, social policy, and transportation sourceand source
 * Number of employees: Over 1,900 source

Thank you again for your response and your time. WestatLibrarian (talk) 18:43, 21 September 2017 (UTC)


 * Please try to make unique headings with your edit requests.
 * You are welcome to make small changes like this to the article yourself. Corrections to numbers, names, spelling, adding citations to reliable sources, are all things you may do. Any substantive changes should be proposed here on the talk page, however.
 * ✅. I have added the full company infobox with all the available fields, most of which are empty. I have filled in the fields you requested above. You may fill in more if you like. ~Anachronist (talk) 03:06, 4 October 2017 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your advice and for adding the full infobox for me to look at. I appreciate your guidance! IRCres (talk) 19:34, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

Proposed Changes
Thank you for the previous guidance. Based on your suggestions, I would like to propose the following changes and additions to the Research Activities section to update outdated content. Please note that I previously posted under WestatLibrarian, and that I have updated my username, as I was informed my previous username did not meet the guidelines.

Change the company description and list of research activities to better reflect Westat’s current fields of research:

Westat is a professional services company, source which supports research in the fields of health, education, social policy, and transportation this source and source. Health studies areas include work in public health this sourceand this source, behavioral and mental health sourceand sourceand source, as well as clinical trials this source, veteran’s health, epidemiology source and health communications. The Education area consists of technical assistance this source and program evaluation studies source. Social policy research areas focus on children and families source, criminal and juvenile justice source, and marginalized populations source. The Transportation Center concentrates on technology, safety this source, and travel behavior and this source.

Add information on Westat’s statistical unit in a second paragraph:

The Statistical unit has over 65 statisticians this source including 10 Senior Fellows source. Statistical research and methods area supports survey design, address-based sampling, small-area estimation, data analytics, and statistical disclosure control source. Several Westat statisticians participate in the Joint Program in Survey Methodology (JPSM), a collaboration between the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan, and Westat. JPSM offers on-site and online graduate training in survey methodology, survey statistics, and data science.

Make the information on Westat’s software packages a third paragraph, starting with “Westat supports”

Edit request references were not properly formatted. Please see WP:CHEAT for more information on formatting.  Spintendo  ᔦᔭ   13:35, 16 December 2017 (UTC)

Proposed Changes: History Section
I would like to propose the following changes and additions to the history section:

Provide more facts about Westat's history, including a link to Morris H. Hansen's Wikipedia article and an additional, up-to-date, reference. The edited second sentence would expand to three sentences, and they would read: “The company was incorporated in 1963, with Dr. Bryant serving as Westat’s first President. Within a few years Westat moved from Colorado to Washington, DC. Morris H. Hansen joined the company in 1968 after retiring from the Census Bureau and was followed by his colleague Joseph Waksberg in 1973." source

Change the next sentence so that it reads: “In 1970 Westat was acquired by the American Can Company. This ended in 1977 with Westat becoming an ESOP source, and Joseph Hunt took over as President and CEO for the next 32 years."

Update reference 2 in the reference list, as it is a broken link. The new link can be found here.

Update the third sentence of the second paragraph to the past tense. Make “requires” “required”, “have already been” “were”, and “ending” “which ended.” So this sentence would read: "The agreement required payment of a monetary settlement which has been completed, hiring goals which were met, and a two-year reporting period, which ended in September 2016, with which the company is in full compliance."

IRCres (talk) 19:47, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

✅  Spintendo  ᔦᔭ   13:35, 16 December 2017 (UTC)

Proposed Changes: Employee Ownership Section
I would like to propose the following changes to the Employee Ownership Section. These are small changes, so please let me know if this is the type of change I can make myself.

Add information to the first sentence so that it reads “The firm is 100% employee-owned and has been since 1977, when Westat began the transition from ownership by the American Can Company to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). this source

Rewrite the rest of the paragraph to read “All employees earn a share of ownership under the ESOP through annual stock contributions. The value of employee holdings has grown since the introduction of the ESOP."

IRCres (talk) 19:31, 5 October 2017 (UTC)


 * These changes are ✔️.  Spintendo  ᔦᔭ   13:35, 16 December 2017 (UTC)