Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of colleges and universities named after people


 * 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 No consensus - there doesn't really appear to be consensus here, so the article is kept But Please take action to cleanup and improve the list. -- Anonymous Dissident  Talk 21:29, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

List of colleges and universities named after people

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This list offers no unique information nor is it useful as a navigational aid. The information it contains is already in the articles about each of the universities and it offers no unique grouping or development-assisting feature that would make it useful per WP:LIST. Being named after someone is not a defining characteristic and the massiveness of the list reflects this. Far too much effort has been put into this list-for-the-sake-of-lists already, let's not put anymore into it. Wickethewok 15:25, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Delete Pointless list. Being named after a person is not a useful characteristic and is of no use to anyone. Tx17777 15:31, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep, Some might find it interesting. M.V.E.i. 16:22, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete. The objective of this list would be much better accomplished by a category. —C.Fred (talk) 16:26, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I would have agreed but similar categories have been axed in the past. Carlossuarez46 02:45, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Weak Delete - The article appears to be listcruft. Breaking the link rules, this article is filled with internal links and hardly anything else. TheInfinityZero 16:42, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep - The potential exists for making this into a worthwhile article by adding information about the reason why the institution selected its namesake, as well as the naming history of institutions that changed their names to entice big donors or curry favor with politicians or royalty. Also, the list could be subdivided by the nature of the relationship with the namesake. I would enjoy expanding the article, but I confess to limited wikitable-skills and fear of creating a tremendous mess if I attempt ambitious changes to the table. I did add to the introductory paragraph.--orlady 17:40, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * At User:Orlady/Stuff I'm working on/Universities named for people I have to started to show how the article could be expanded and reorganized. BTW, one thing I have discovered is that many of the linked college/university articles do not have information about the institutions' namesakes. I have had to dig for that.--orlady 04:11, 29 August 2007 (UTC) I have extensively revised the article. I added locations for most institutions, added information about the naming of many institutions, and subdivided the article by the person's relationship to the institution. It's still a work in progress, but I moved the material into article space because the vast majority of the reorganization is done. Additional work is needed on researching schools in the "not yet classified" category, describing the naming of institutions, adding sources, and fixing links for the numerous Indian universities that are still listed with external URLs.--orlady 17:03, 3 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Detailed information on the reasoning behind the naming of any institution, whether named after a peson or not, belongs in the article for said institution and not in a generic article of this nature. There are many reasons for the naming of such places and trying to expand this article to include them and then subdividing even further would end end up with a huge, unwieldy mess. The article is big enough already without any further expansion - there are no doubt literally thousands of colleges and universities in the world named after people, and it's far too vague a subject to be documented in such a way. Tx17777 17:47, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletions.   —bwowen talk•contribs 19:27, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete. Another pointless, nearly impossible-to-maintain list. Realkyhick 20:12, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete. I wouldn't call it exactly pointless listcruft, but it doesn't do anything that a category couldn't. Dbromage  [Talk]  00:09, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep The "nearly impossible to maintain" argument doesn't fly -- it's not as if colleges and universities are being set up every other week. This could be better organized, but behind each of these educational institutions was a founder with a vision.  Mandsford 00:22, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment. That may be so, but not all educational institutions named after people are named after their founder. The only such university in Australia is Bond University. In most countries you generally have to be dead to have a new university or college named after you. I daresay Jesus College, Oxford wasn't named after its founder! Dbromage  [Talk]  01:16, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Maybe indirectly it was.... Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Purdue, the University of Maryland... many of all the great universities in America are named after people65.207.127.12 23:52, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep this article isn't what it could be, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. Eponymy is to my mind inherently noteworthy in some way and a list is certainly better than a category (as similar categories have been deleted in the past Category:Eponymous cities for example). Carlossuarez46 02:45, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Weak Keep While it needs some trimming, I think this is a valid navigational tool as having a university named after you is a pretty big deal? Corpx 06:12, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep A good navigational tool., which is sufficient justification for a list with such well-defined criterion. Good start. I'd like to see a column about location, which would further add to the usefulness. DGG (talk) 07:06, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete. That two universities are named after different people does not make them similar in any fashion, or in such a manner that it becomes natural to gather them together in the same article. For a "list of ..." article to serve a meaningful function there needs to be a common, and reasonably tight, theme which makes it natural to discuss the entries together. This would in general mean that being on the list has some impact on the university. Being in a particular location has an impact on a university, so List of universities in Denmark is fine. Being part of a major association or league has an impact on the university, so lists of Ivy League members are certainly justified (although that list is reasonably placed in the Ivy League article.) However, that the universities happen to be named after completely different people who's only relation is sharing the species of Homo Sapiens is a very loose association. Universities are not largely affected by being named after someone, and they are not in any way bound together by such a fact. Sjakkalle (Check!)  09:39, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep At least it's reasonably well defined. Seems useful and defined, and a good navigational aid. The concept fits one of the ideas of a featured list. Ealdgyth | Talk 13:04, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep but improve so it's not just a list. But if it's not improved there will be an inevitable second AFD. Thin Arthur 05:42, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep and improve. -- Roleplayer 00:08, 3 September 2007 (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.