Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Durham College of San Antonio (2nd nomination)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. The evidence presented appears to indicate that there may be multiple institutions with the name "Durham" and it is not clear that we have sufficient sources to establish the notability of the specific institution named in the article. If need be, a new article can be created using a name in common usage among multiple reliable sources. ~Amatulić (talk) 18:33, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Durham College of San Antonio
AfDs for this article: 
 * – ( View AfD View log  •  Stats )

No sources cited here. Sources I found were on corporationwiki.com and on some sites about closed schools; my Google Fu has failed. --  Dennis The Tiger  (Rawr and stuff) 15:39, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Schools-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 17:40, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Texas-related deletion discussions.  • Gene93k (talk) 17:40, 23 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Comment. I suspect that the Google hits for a Texas "Durham College" are referring to Durham's Business College, for which Google turns up numerous listings and references to alumni at various branches around Texas and one interesting advertisement from a 1942 newspaper that describes the school as "Texas' Largest Chain of Schools" with branches in "Austin - Houston - San Antonio - Ft. Worth - Harlingen".  Unfortunately I haven't been able to turn up anything to verify anything about the school other than its existence and the fact that it had identities of a lot of graduates--not even its opening date or closing date.  As was noted at the first AfD, much of the original version of this article seems to have been cribbed from Santa Fe University of Art and Design and those details seem likely to be a hoax: I also find no verification for any relationship to St. Mary's University, Texas as is claimed in a later part of the original article.  This may be the odd case where we have a subject that's real and clearly notable, but we are unable to write an article (even a stub) that passes  WP:V.--Arxiloxos (talk) 18:47, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.


 * Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Ron Ritzman (talk) 00:12, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

 
 * Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion so a clearer consensus may be reached.


 * Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, BusterD (talk) 23:26, 7 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Delete. Seeing this second nomination makes me realise that I was too quick to close the first one. I think Arxiloxos said it very well - it is hard to tell what "Durham College" exactly most of the sources are talking about, and I don't think we should be basing an encyclopaedia article on such flimsy evidence. — Mr. Stradivarius  (have a chat) 06:25, 10 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Delete - existence is not notability. Bearian (talk) 22:39, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Comment I agree with Arxiloxos that the corporate name of the school is "Durham Business College".  Also, all of the "Durham Business College"s in Texas seem to be part of one organization.  This school has left a long trail, an 1859 origin date would be markedly notable, and there is no doubt that the school dates back to 1942.  There is an appeal's court case from 1973, evidence that the Texas Education Association  Agency was legally involved in 1991, and a current record that the business still legally exists although not in good standing.  The 1973 court case tells about the school's business practice at that time, ref.  Here is a newspaper article about the school from a 1963 ref.  Unscintillating (talk) 02:19, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Keep
 * Patterson's American Education (1979), "Durham Business College. Austin, El Paso. Houston. San Antonio".
 * Thirteen passing mentions from three different newspapers with dates between 1939 and 1942 ref. These mentions are evidence that the school existed at least as far back as 1939, with an alternate name of "Durham's Business College".
 * Post-secondary education planning in Texas: techniques for policy ..., Regarding Durham Business College Austin, the school opened in 1936 and "The college's approximately 300 students are primarily from Austin and its immediate vicinity."
 * Book searches and one of the legal documents show that other branches were at Waco, Ft. Worth, Harlingen, and Phoenix over the years.
 * Keypunch taught in 1967.
 * This ref shows that there was legally a Durham College of San Antonio in 1985.
 * Here, Durham College of San Antonio loses their certificate to operate a school on 17 January 1992.
 * This ref shows a current corporate name of "Durham College of San Antonio Inc".
 * Notable school, in part due to its longevity of more than 50 years. Lots of info, and as per WP:NRVE there is evidence that there will be more in the libraries in about eight cities in Texas and Phoenix.  It has never been our policy to delete articles because they were not perfected.  Unscintillating (talk) 05:15, 13 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Comment I'm puzzled why the 1973 legal matter has the name "Durham Business College of San Antonio" and the 1985 legal matter has the name of "Durham College of San Antonio".  I suppose the corporation could have changed their name, possibly the word "business" was out of vogue, and/or they had a broader curriculum.  One of the books mentions that their 1974 catalog  for the Austin school had ten courses of study.  Unscintillating (talk) 05:15, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for doing all that research - that obviously took a long time. I agree with you that the Durham Business College looks notable, and I did notice this when I was searching for sources the previous time. Your research also shows that the Durham College of San Antonio definitely existed, at least as far back as 1984, according to the Texas courts. There doesn't look to be enough material there to make anything but the shortest of stubs about the latter, though. Do we have any evidence that Durham Business College and the Durham College of San Antonio are connected? For example, a street address being the same or something like that? I would be more willing to recommend the article be kept if we could connect the two concretely. — Mr. Stradivarius  (have a chat) 13:42, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, the research efforts are appreciated. The references confirm there was one (or more than one?) institution of higher education, and if we had some verifiable information about it, it would deserve an article. However, we don't appear to have any clear, firm information; as noted above and in the first AfD, the 1859 date is part of an apparently bogus history probably copied from Santa Fe University of Art and Design.  WP:FRANKENSTEIN is also instructive here.  Consistent with WP:V, could we do much more than say something like, Durham's Business College was a school of higher education located in a number of cities, mostly in Texas? --Arxiloxos (talk) 17:36, 13 June 2012 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.