User:ElKevbo/sandbox

Draft RfC about the inclusion of "prestige" in the ledes of articles about colleges and universities

Central question

How should the ledes of articles about colleges and universities describe the general reputation, prestige, or relative ranking(s) of the institution?

Proposed options

The following options have been synthesized from the extensive discussion currently ongoing at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Higher education; you are free, of course, to propose edits to these options, create additional options, or participate in discussion without consideration of these options.

P1. There should be no mention of the general reputation, prestige, or relative ranking(s) of the institution in the lede of any article. This material is too frequently POV, there are numerous rankings and other sources that are solely promotional and have no scholarly or journalistic value, and editors frequently engage in unacceptable synthesis to write these statements.

P2. This material can be included in the lede of an article provided that it is explicitly supported by very high quality sources that are cited and carefully written to align with those sources to avoid synthesis and bias that goes beyond the sources. Higher education is a topic that is studied by scholars and written about by journalists who focus specifically on this topic so there are very high quality, reliable sources that make these claims and they can be responsibly included in the lede of relevant articles.

P3. This material can be included in the lede of an article provided that it is responsibly summarized and discussed and sourced in the body of the article in accordance with the NPOV policy's guidance on discussing reputations. Ledes for these articles should not be treated differently than those for other subjects with reputations (e.g. movies), and should summarize material included in the body.

Relevant policies and discussions

Policies and guidelines

• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lead section is the primary, site-wide guideline about how the lead section ("lede") of articles should be written
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch#Puffery is a section of the Manual of Style that specifically address "words [that] are often used without attribution to promote the subject of an article, while neither imparting nor plainly summarizing verifiable information."
• Wikipedia:Neutral point of view#Describing aesthetic opinions and reputations is a policy notes, among other things, that it is sometimes permissible to note an article subject's reputation when that reputation is widespread and informative to readers.

Essays

• Wikipedia:College and university article guideline is an essay providing guidance for college and university articles
  • The Wikipedia:College and university article guideline#Article structure section provides one paragraph of specific guidance about the lead section
• Wikipedia:Avoid academic boosterism is an essay about the broad topic of "academic boosterism"

Prior discussions

• Brief August 2013 discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Higher education
• 2010 RfC about this topic in the context of Harvard University
• Current discussion opened in April 2020 at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Higher education

Discussion

• ~P1. P2 > P3. EEng 01:30, 15 May 2020 (UTC)

Planned venues for notification

When this RfC is opened, I (ElKevbo) will place brief, neutrally worded notifications in the places listed below. Feel free to suggest others or ask questions about this list!

• Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Higher education
• Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Schools
• Wikipedia Talk:Manual of Style/Lead section
• Wikipedia Talk:Manual of Style/Words to watch
• Wikipedia Talk:Neutral point of view