Talk:McGill University: Difference between revisions

Higher education GA‑class

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Higher education, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of higher education, universities, and colleges on Wikipedia. Please visit the project page to join the discussion, and see the project's article guideline for useful advice.Higher educationWikipedia:WikiProject Higher educationTemplate:WikiProject Higher educationHigher education articles GA This article has been rated as GA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

Template:CanEd

McGill University has been listed as one of the good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it. Review: Error: Invalid time..

If you attend or have attended McGill University, you can add this userbox on your userpage: {{user McGill}}, to display this on your userpage:

This user attends or attended McGill University

Archives
Page Creation - 7 December 2006

This talk page was getting rather long, I've archived it. -- Chabuk ^{[ T • C ]} 00:09, 8 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to nominate this article for Featured Article status, I think it meets the criteria. Does anyone have any feedback/suggestions to improve it before I make the nomination? -- Chabuk ^{[ T • C ]} 00:09, 8 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

• Aspects of the article need work: The McGill "français" issue is too prominent and lacks context (the enviroment of French supremicist oppression in the province of Quebec and its effect on McGill and its graduates needs attention); as well as the deterioration in quality of the university in the 1990s when Bernard J. Shapiro was principal, that was contemporaneous with libraries without books (in particular, Howard Ross Management library), and fully depreciated property, plant, and equipment; without any, or any adequate, maintenance and capital improvements. The Faculty of Management using part-time lecturers, without academic credentials, for graduate courses, the Faculty of Science using T.A.s for upper level undergraduate courses, politically motivated admission of French Canadians into the Faculty of Law in preference to others with better academic profiles; but lacking a French Canadian ethnic identity. Other Faculties and Schools have experienced similar deterioration in quality since the late 1980s.

• Those are some very serious claims, do you have any references for them? -- Chabuk ^{[ T • C ]} 00:30, 16 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

• This is well known to McGill alumni that are reasonably reflective and critical of their experience at the university. It is not really in the interests of either graduates or the administration to expose these issues since in reflects poorly on both. Media coverage of this period included Shapiro's plea to the editorial board of the Montreal Gazette for support against government hostility. The political and economic enviroment of Montreal, (in particular, Montreal's decline as a business center), explains McGill's problems. A careful reading of the McGill News, the alumni quarterly, over the relevant period, tangentially touches on these issues; but it must be kept in mind that this aforementioned publication's purpose is alumni fundraising; and, accordingly, puts McGill's best face forward. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.228.248.170 (talk • contribs)

• The point here is that according to Wikipedia:Verifiability, if you cannot provide reliable sources, there is no basis for it's inclusion. That means that unless you can provide sources to back up your claims (not to mention the fact that your assertion of "french supremicist oppression" is borderline offensive, and I'm an anglophone) then you have no basis to put the advertisment tag on the page or to include the information. Until you can provide such sources, the tag must remain off. -- Chabuk ^{[ T • C ]} 01:07, 16 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think the anon poster makes some good points (and some questionable ones as well). It's common-knowledge (amongst people in the university community anyway) that McGill (along with Concordia and Bishop's) was largely underfunded throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s, a problem that persists to this day. I wouldn't say that Montreal's "political and economic environment explains McGill's problems," whatever that means exactly, but I would say that chronic underfunding has certainly made things difficult for the university. We might want to include a paragraph or two about that in the article. As for the McGill français section, I've tried to be as neutral as possible in presenting the information -- it was an important aspect of the university's history and should remain in the article. I'm not sure what "context" you seek (or what "oppression" you speak of); perhaps you could clarify. As for the rest of the anon's claims (about deterioration of "quality," lecturers teaching without credentials, etc.), it would be helpful to see some local news coverage (or a McGill Daily/Tribune article or something) to back up those statements. Thanks. Darkcore 21:23, 18 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There should really be mention of the University's anti-Jewish quota system (see Jewish quota) in the 1920-40s. It seems like an important part of the school's history and, in my experience, it is still discussed by minorities in Montreal. See also, for example, Mordecai Richler's "The Street."

I agree. It is definitely still discussed and an important part of the school's history, especially given the large Jewish population of Montreal and the strong Jewish influence on anglophone literature from Montreal (Richler, Layton, Cohen). Here is a quickly found article from McGill's own website: http://www.mcgill.ca/maritimelaw/history/richler/

As for the statements above about underfunding during Shapiro's time, I believe there is something to those claims, but of course they need sources. However, I don't think it was necessarily all about Shapiro himself; one has to take into account the unique situation of education funding in Quebec, i.e. the very low tutition for Quebec residents and the inability of the province to continue adequate funding for universities. Also, Quebec seems to be prone to strikes, and universities are no exception (such as at U of M last year). Timocrates 18:00, 23 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

For the article to maintain its GA status, the copyrighted images need detailed fair use rationales. Look to other passed GA/FAs for examples. Let me know on my talk page if you have any questions. --Nehrams2020 06:49, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

To which images are you referring? Darkcore 18:40, 18 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]