Wikipedia:College and university article advice

History

Include noteworthy milestones such as sexual and racial integration, major campus expansions, mergers, renames, foundation of new schools, notable controversies such as student protests or reforms, and impact of major historical events like wars. It is a good idea to include old pictures of buildings which no longer exist or photos of traditions practiced centuries ago. You can find many old images on

Campus (or Facilities, Buildings or Locations)

Whether the campus is a Mediterranean oasis or a concrete slab, the article should discuss it.

Describe the overall layout and size of the campus as well as its geographical context or proximity to major cities. Expand on the previous historical discussion of the expansion of the university by describing important buildings, their design, and uses. If any buildings have been included on historic registers or have historic or cultural importance beyond the university itself, mention this with appropriate citations (if there are many historic buildings, summarize numbers and give the most important examples). This section could also summarize information about satellite campuses,

Organization and administration

Discuss the structure of the administration, current leadership, budget, relationship with a board of trustees or regents, student government, endowment information, and academic divisions of the college/university. If this college/university has a special organizational structure, such as a

This section contains information related to the

• Research – This section may be included as a subsection of academic profile, but there needs to be information regarding research expenditures, government support and significant grants (land grant or space grant status, in the U.S. for example), the scale of the physical research plant, and notable research programs.

• Reputation and rankings – Many articles summarize their

  WP:BOOSTER

  , the rankings should be presented neutrally and without undue weight – do not exclude or re-factor rankings to present them more favorably, attempt to include every ranking or all historical rankings, or emphasize rankings of sub-disciplines over rankings of the college or university as a whole. Titling the subsection "Reputation and rankings" rather than just "Rankings" may help to encourage a broader scope.

Admissions and costs

If the institution's admissions process is competitive, it may be described here. Include factors admissions considers or does not consider. For American colleges, {{Infobox U.S. college admissions}} may be used to summarize statistics. If an institution's cost model is complex, such as having separate in-state and out-of-state tuition fees or offering significant financial aid, describe that here.

Student life

This section discusses specific traditions of the college/university, like

Student body

This section summarizes the demographics of the student body, including size, qualitative character, gender, age, race, geographic origin, class, average test scores, and average performance in high school.

Other sections and material

• Noted people – This section should give a sense of the extent to which persons with well-known deeds or highly significant accomplishments are or have been associated with the school (as by attendance there or by being on staff or faculty). For most schools this might take the form of a list of people meeting Wikipedia's
  notability
  standards (each with perhaps a very brief descriptive phrase), where such a list would not be excessively long. For very old, very large, or very prestigious schools it may be more appropriate to use categories ("Alumni of", "Faculty of", etc. note that "Alumni" categories are only for former students, including graduates; current students are not considered alumni) instead, limiting the explicit list to very well-known persons (heads of state, historical figures, etc.) and adding a narrative summary of statistics on such things as Nobel Prizes, other prestigious awards, and so on.
• In popular culture or Cultural references – If there are numerous reliable sources that discuss the institution's influence on popular culture then it may be appropriate to have a brief section describing that influence and offering well-known, pertinent examples. Such a section should not be an indiscriminate list of instances where the college or university is mentioned (in movies, books, television shows, etc.) nor should the section offer examples and discussion
  selected only by Wikipedia editors
  .
• Notes/References – If you use the appropriate
  inline citations
  throughout the article (as you should), then this section is simply typing <references /> or {{Reflist}} If the same source is cited multiple times, collapse these repeated citations into a single reference by using <ref name="XYZ">citation template</ref> (where XYZ is a short name such as "CDS" for Common Data Set for example) after the first instance and <ref name="XYZ"/> for every subsequent instance.
• External links – Give a link to the official website of the college/university, preferably in the English language. If there is a reliable and independent student newspaper, link it. A link to accreditation information hosted by the accreditor may also be useful. The number of links here should be kept to an absolute minimum: do not to link other university pages (e.g., admissions, School of Law, Department of Psychology), related groups (e.g., unions, clubs), or pages already linked from earlier citations.
• Navigation templates – Some major universities have enough related articles that they create
  navigation templates
  to allow users to navigate through them. Universities may also be members of athletic conferences, research consortia, or other types of organizations which have navigation templates as well. All navigation templates should be placed at the very end of the article.

When university pages become too large or too comprehensive it may be beneficial to break off certain sections into sub-pages. When this happens, a

General splitting of articles

Separate articles explaining a college or university's history (History of Texas A&M University), campus (Campus of Michigan State University), and alumni (List of Athabasca University people – see lists advice above) must still fulfill the notability policy of receiving significant coverage in reliable sources independent of the university. Such articles are generally notable only at large institutions or institutions where one of these aspects is especially important or significant. Smaller institutions with historical significance (like Harvard University) are an example of this exception.

Sports

Separate sports articles for institutions which have large sports programs are acceptable (i.e.

If an institution's

Student life and university traditions articles are generally not notable unless they are sufficiently unusual that they have received significant coverage in reliable sources independent of the university. Some articles satisfy this criterion (

• The "secondary sources" in the criterion include reliable published works in all forms, such as (for examples) newspaper articles, books, television documentaries, and published reports by organizations – none of which should be written by any part of the union/organization/government or university itself. These sources may come from other universities or from the university press but never from the university which the group or organization is a part of.
• Press releases; advertising for the student group or organization; and other works where the group talks about itself – whether published by the university, group itself, or re-printed by other people – are not acceptable sources to establish notability.
• Works carrying merely trivial coverage are also not acceptable to establish notability. For example: newspaper articles that simply report meeting times or election results, or the publications of telephone numbers, addresses, and directions in business directories.
• Individual chapters of national and international organizations are almost always not notable enough to warrant a separate article (even if the parent organization is notable). Local chapters may be notable only in the rare circumstances that sufficient notability is established through
  reliable sources. However, chapter information may be included in list articles as long as only verifiable information is included. This especially applies to fraternities and sororities
  .
• Organizations whose activities are local in scope are usually not notable unless verifiable information from reliable independent sources can be found.
• The organization’s longevity, size of membership, or major achievements, or other factors specific to the organization may be considered. This list is not exhaustive and not conclusive.

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