Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Baltimore City College

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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted 03:35, 30 December 2007.

Baltimore City College[edit]

I'm nominating this article for featured article because the page meets all FAC criteria, is well-written, well referenced, and has great images. One of the most comprehensive high school pages Bcc07 (talk) 19:21, 29 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Support A great piece of writing on a minority-serving institution that has achieved excellence. My only recommendation is to reference the school's predominantly African American student population in the lede. Best, Ameriquedialectics 23:44, 1 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support Per Amerique. Twenty Years 13:46, 2 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Weak oppose Overall a very good article that I could likely support after some clarifications & modifications.Madcoverboy 06:05, 4 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • "the school was never granted the power to grant its graduates degrees." - In addition to being worded in a confusing manner, this seems to contradict the previous assertion. At the very least no argument is presented as to why this is the case.
    • I think I have provided clarity --Bcc07 (talk) 19:03, 5 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Some words interspersed without the text are randomly wikified - (theater, student government, bi-weekly, newspaper, commencement) - and seems like a borderline case of overlinking (see WP:CONTEXT).
    • reduced number of links--Bcc07 (talk) 19:03, 5 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • The table on enrollment peaks at almost 4,000 students, but has since dropped to almost a third of that. Given the opening of the school to blacks and women, as well as the baby boom echo, this seems counterintuitive. I didn't come across any explanation for this in either the history or enrollment sections. The table also needs a citation.
  • "The usual range of clubs and activities are offered" - this is a bit presumptuous and POV. Many schools, even within the US, don't have all or even any of these programs.
    • Sentence has been restructured removed POV portion--Bcc07 (talk) 19:03, 5 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • It's Academic is wikified twice.
  • The section on the band mentions the orchestra, concert, and marching band but only describes the marching band. The choir section seems to be a full of WP:CRUFT as well.
    • I believe there is mention of other components of the band in the paragraph--Bcc07 (talk) 19:03, 5 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • "In 1889, the first football game was played between City College and the Baltimore Manual Training School" - The first football game ever? Massage the wording.
  • I think the City-Poly rivalry and football sections should be collapsed together. The lacrosse section, while notable, seems anemic. Surely some of the other sports warrant mention as well?
    • The City-Poly rivalry and football page have separate pages i could not think of an appropriate way to put them together any suggestions?
  • The Green Bag controversy seems non-notable.
  • The Collegian section needs a rewrite or heavy copyedit given the clunky prose.
  • "One of the 2007 inductees was Robert Hormats, a Vice-President at Goldman-Sachs." - not notable
  • "The endowment assets remain at more than $1,000,000.00" - overly specific style, replace with $1 million
  • Section on notable alumni - painful overuse of hyphens for separate clauses
  • I think the list of notable facutly members could largely be subsumed by either the History or Academics sections.
    • How would u suggest this be done?--Bcc07 (talk) 19:03, 5 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support. Well-written, well-sourced. One thing: the public domain images should be moved to Wikimedia Commons, and more details should be given on the image page than simply: "I took this picture." Even though they are public domain, it would help to know the date the picture was taken, who took it, precisely where it was, etc. Cirt (talk) 11:30, 7 December 2007 (UTC).[reply]
  • I reviewed the last FAC for this, and there's no mention of its previous nomination (which is required, I think).
  • "five year track"—hyphenate compound adjectives usually.
  • I do vomit at "City College's", which appears a number of times. Reword using "of" or otherwise, like "On 30 June 2003, City College's current building ..." --> "On 30 June 2003, the current building ...".
  • Repetitions such as "In addition to the 23 IB courses offered,[25] the school offers ..."—so easy to fix: remove "offered".
  • Redundancies still there, ripe for the plucking, such as "Students wishing to enroll in City College must apply to the school in the 8th grade." Spot the three redundant words. Straight after: "Eligibility for enrollment is based on a composite score that is determined by the Baltimore City Public School System."

I opposed last time, so I feel like a heel doing so again, since it has improved. See what you can do to clean up the redundancies, the odd repetitions, and the other issues. An unfamiliar editor would be best. I won't stand in the way of promotion, I guess. Tony (talk) 14:05, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Please do not hold back any criticism you may have. The FAC you commented on previously was for the History of Baltimore City College, so this is your first time reviewing this article. In light of that, any additional comments you have are welcome, and I will enlist the help of league of copyeditors in order to find an editor unfamiliar with the prose. Thanks, 128.252.254.17 (talk) 16:36, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The previous comment is mine. Golem88991 (talk) 16:36, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Oops, sorry, mea culpa. Please proceed with sprucing it up. Find a collaborator who's fresh to it? Tony (talk) 15:22, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

*Comments. There are some WP:MOS issues that need to be fixed and a bit of copyediting.

    • You should have non-breaking spaces between numbers and their units/qualifiers (such as 1200 schools). Use either & nbsp; or {{nowrap}}
    • See WP:DASH for the appropriate dashes to use.
      • It seems to me that all the instances of en and em dashes are appropriate. I also checked for cases in which adding dashes was necessary, but could find none. Golem88991 (talk) 18:40, 29 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Please reread the article for excessive commas; I noticed several in the history section
    • Does "theater" need to be wikilinked?
    • After you mention Eugene Parker and Pierre Davis, the second time you can refer to them only by their surnames; since that second reference is in the following sentence, this won't cause any confusion.
    • The last paragraph of the history section is a little confusing.
    • I don't think you need subheadings in the campus section since the subsections are only one paragraph each.
    • I added a citation need tag for last part of the first paragraph in the Bancroft and Carrollton-Wright Literary Socities section
      • Added citation Golem88991 (talk) 19:39, 29 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
        • I apologize. I misread the comment and added a citation for something different. I have now added a citation for the end of the first paragraph and removed the citation needed template. Golem88991 (talk) 02:22, 30 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • I would reevaluate the use of "however" throughout the article. In most cases, I think this word could be removed without losing any meaning.
      • I have removed several uses of "however". Golem88991 (talk) 20:05, 29 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Make sure that all month-day combinations are wikilinked
    • I think you should remove the text of the school's fight song. There are probably copyright issues with including it, and it is not necessary for the article.
    • Can you trim the list of external links?

Karanacs (talk) 20:50, 20 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

  • Comments
    • missing a space in fourth sentence in the Athletics section
    • Wikiproject schools says all alumni should be referenced so shouldn't all faculty be also?
    • no citation in the first paragraph of the alumni section
    • look over Wikipedia:External links, thirteen external links seems excessive
    • I second the question why did enrollment drop off and where is the citation?

Eóin (talk) 22:00, 24 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]


  • Comments take two. I don't think you can use the image Collegian.jpg under fair use. The article does not discuss the particular issue that is being displayed, which appears to be required under fair use. Similarly, the image Green Bag.jpg is not fair use, because it depicts the 2006 The Green Bag and the article does not specifically mention that issue (although you could substitute this with a 2007 cover image). Karanacs (talk) 04:07, 30 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.
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