Talk:William P. Leahy

History professorship
I find no documentation suggesting that Leahy is on the history faculty or that he teaches in any capacity. His name is not included in the full list of faculty in the history department: http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/history/faculty/alphabetical/. I will therefore remove his "professorship" from the paragraph. Droitet 05:43, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

--- You are correct, he doesn't teach.

Droitet - Fr. Leahy never taught at Boston College and this article doesn't state that he ever did - he was an associate professor with tenure at Marquette University: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/rvp/pubaf/chronicle/v4/O19/LEAHY.html Baldwin24
 * You are replying to a comment made 5 years ago when the article content was quite different.  Teapot  george Talk  17:06, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, Teapot. But when an individual calls into question the resume of a University president, it should be addressed. If the comment is so old and no longer relevant to the current content, then it should be removed, should it not?Baldwin24 —Preceding undated comment added 17:23, 9 February 2011 (UTC).

Controversy
Speaking from personal experience (I'm a current undergraduate) I've seen Fr. Leahy on campus quite a few times, including numerous occasions where he's attended a club luncheon. I really think criticizing him for his "lack of presence" on campus is unfounded. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tonytnnt (talk • contribs) 21:43, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

This part of a sentence "helping to make Boston College one of the nation’s leaders in Catholic intellectual thought" is unreferenced promotional puffery and should be removed.  Teapot  george Talk  21:21, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Unreferenced puffery from coi editor
The line "helping to make Boston College one of the nation’s leaders in Catholic intellectual thought." NOT supported by the reference The reference actually says this..."Measuring the top Catholic university in the world is somewhat subjective, according to Richard Yanikoski, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, a member organization of 200 Catholic university and colleges in the United States.

He said most Catholic universities outside the United States are smaller. Within the United States, Boston College probably already ranks among the top three, including Georgetown and Notre Dame, he said."

This is only an indication of size no mention of being nation's leaders in Catholic intellectual thought.  Teapot  george Talk  12:23, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Teapot - Can you concede that this article uses size and ranking interchangeably? The very next line reads "He (Richard Yanikoski, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities) said there's a friendly competition among the top Catholic universities, and not one agreed-on yardstick to say who's on top." He stated Boston College is among the top three. Would you approve of the addition - "helping to make Boston College one of the nation’s leading Catholic universities." (which is explicitly stated in this article and others you have taken umbrage.) --Baldwin24 (talk) 14:11, 10 February 2011 (UTC)


 * I would agree to "Richard Yanikoski, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, has said Boston College is one of the top three Catholic universities in the USA" which is what the reference says.  Teapot  george Talk  15:34, 10 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Teapot - Shall I list every other person/organization/publication who has said the same? Yanikoski is far from the only one, and I can once again reference US News and World Report, Forbes, Kaplan, Newsweek and all the sources on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_College#Rankings if you require that...just seems a bit of overkill considering this article states it. --Baldwin24 --(talk) 16:52, 10 February 2011 (UTC)
 * You seem to misunderstand? I am just requiring you to state ONLY what is referenced, not your interpretation of it...and I wonder whether it is relevant to the article in any case. Feel free to ask other editors their opinion, I have 11,833 articles on my watch list whilst you presumably have only one  Teapot  george Talk  17:29, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Teapot - I am trying to state what is referenced and you deleted it. You claimed "puffery" when the article clearly states that Boston College is already among the top three of Catholic universities AND explains that "there's a friendly competition among the top Catholic universities, and not one agreed-on yardstick to say who's on top." It is impossible to reference without looking at additional sources - so here you go:
 * In all of the rankings data -- although it doesn't list Catholic colleges exclusively, you have to go through the list and determine which schools are Catholic -- (US News & World Report: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/boston-college-2128 ; Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/94/best-colleges-10_Americas-Best-Colleges_Rank_2.html ; Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/2006/08/20/25-new-ivies.html ; etc.) Boston College is among the top three Catholic universities in the United States. The totality of the evidence cannot be ignored. (And...I would very much like to see other editors opinions. It seems that you have a particular interest in this page, as I do. By all means, you can get back to editing the other 11,833 pages and I will get back to my other work if and when we can find common ground on this point.) --Baldwin24 (talk) 18:32, 10 February 2011 (UTC)
 * If you look above... I was disputing that the reference said anything about it being "one of the nation’s leaders in Catholic intellectual thought". I am not disputing that it is "among the top three of Catholic universities in USA" there is a difference.  Teapot  george Talk  18:38, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Probably needs a rewrite
Looking at the article, not only does it kind of slant towards a puff piece, many claims are either misquoted from sources or are unsourced. For example:
 * "BC had the fastest-growing endowment of many high-ranking universities" sourced to The best schools article (archive version linked), despite the fact the article is far more equivocating, with "might have the fastest growing endowment of any college on this list." Other sources, Like this one--though it's a bit older--list other schools that are both richer and had faster endowment growth.
 * The claim "winning record numbers of Truman, Marshall, Fulbright, Rhodes scholarships as well as other academic awards and research grants" is ambiguous: what records? Boston College's own school bests? Records compared to other schools?
 * Claims regarding the 150 more acres are unsourced and vague since land sales have been used to fund some improvement projects (source here) and more has been caught between competing Newton and Boston College claims (i.e. the Webster Woods).
 * "The Plan set seven strategic directions for the University:" takes up a substantial amount of space (without direct links to Leahy's involvement, despite this being his biography) and is only referred to purely aspirationally. Notable projects should be included directly (if that's relevant for his biography at all). (Plenty of sources on it, like the Globe article above or this one.

As you can tell by my IP address, I fear I'm far too conflicted to be of much direct help. If anyone has some time, though, this page is in need of some work.136.167.197.167 (talk) 18:05, 26 April 2022 (UTC)