Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2011 March 6
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March 6
Category:Films considered box office bombs
Category:Hidden Champion
Category:Isle of Man geographical coordinates
Category:Black peoples in art
Category:Limbu family names
Category:Disputed biographies of living persons
Category:American military personnel by war sub-category standardizxation and proper inclusion
Drainage systems of Australia
Category:Possible bogus articles
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Alumnae of women's universities and colleges
- Propose renaming either
- Category:Barnard College alumni to Category:Barnard College alumnae
- Category:Bryn Mawr College alumni to Category:Bryn Mawr College alumnae
- Category:Alumni of Indraprastha College for Women to Category:Alumnae of Indraprastha College for Women
- Category:Mary Baldwin College alumni to Category:Mary Baldwin College alumnae
- Category:Mills College alumni to Category:Mills College alumnae
- Category:Mount Holyoke College alumni to Category:Mount Holyoke College alumnae
- Category:Alumni of New Hall, Cambridge to Category:Alumnae of New Hall, Cambridge
- Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge to Category:Alumnae of Newnham College, Cambridge
- Category:Radcliffe College alumni to Category:Radcliffe College alumnae
- Category:Scripps College alumni to Category:Scripps College alumnae
Category:Smith College alumni to Category:Smith College alumnaeThis one withdrawn - see below- Category:Wellesley College alumni to Category:Wellesley College alumnae
- Or
- Category:Alumnae of Bethune College, Kolkata to Category:Alumni of Bethune College, Kolkata
- Category:Alumnae of Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata to Category:Alumni of Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata
- Category:Alumnae of Loreto College, Kolkata to Category:Alumni of Loreto College, Kolkata
- Category:Alumnae of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge to Category:Alumni of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge
- Category:Wesleyan College alumnae to Category:Wesleyan College alumni
- Category:Alumnae of women's universities and colleges to Category:Alumni of women's universities and colleges
- (Note that Hollins University, St Hilda's College, Oxford, Trinity Washington University, Vassar College and Wheaton College (Massachusetts) all admit men to at least some courses so "alumnae" would be inaccurate. Note also that different country categories use different approaches for Alumni of Foo and For alumni.)
- There's never been any consistency on whether to use "alumni" or "alumnae" for the former students of all-female universities and colleges. In Latin "alumni" is the plural for either all male or mixed-gender groups, "alumnae" is the plural for all female groups. However English generally doesn't have such a distinction and incorporated words tend to take English rules.
- There's also no consistency by country with these categories; both lists contain institutions in India, the United Kingdom and the United States.
- Since there are more alumni than alumnae categories, and we can't say for sure that all alumns of a women's university/college are still female, my preference is for Or - Rename to alumni. Timrollpickering (talk) 01:04, 6 March 2011 (UTC)
- Update - I withdraw the specific nomination for Category:Smith College alumni as it's been pointed out this is another one where men are admitted for some programmes. Timrollpickering (talk) 21:28, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Rename to "alumni". In a way, using "alumnae" for some categories creates an additional burden on users (who are adding the category to an article) to know which schools are all-female and which are not. I don't think creating or maintaining the distinction is worth the hassle. (Whichever is chosen, we should use category redirects on the alternative forms, which should help.) Good Ol’factory (talk) 23:48, 6 March 2011 (UTC)
- Rename to "alumni". As an alumnus of Wellesley College, of course I have a personal stake in this: using "alumnae" for graduates of a historically women's college that also has graduated male students renders me and others like me invisible. Since it is impossible to determine which putative women's colleges have students and alums who are men (presumably trans men in most cases, like my own), and which don't, the simplest solution is to use the gender-neutral "alumni". SparsityProblem (talk) 01:12, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
- Rename to "alumni". Schools change their decisions on whether they're single gender. Let's use a word that doesn't.--Mike Selinker (talk) 19:51, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
- Keep the existing tag of "alumnae" on Calcutta's women's colleges.The Kolkata based colleges, Bethune College, Lady Brabourne College, Loreto College have always been all-women's colleges, and there is not the slightest possibility of their being gender neutral institutions any time soon. Thus, existing nomenclature is appropriate. Patoldanga'r Tenida (talk) 09:02, 8 March 2011 (UTC)
- Is it appropriate to expect users who apply the category to know this? Good Ol’factory (talk) 20:51, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
- Yes.Patoldanga'r Tenida (talk) 04:32, 13 March 2011 (UTC)
- And why would you say that? In my view, that's a relatively high bar, especially for an encyclopedia that "anyone can edit". Good Ol’factory (talk) 01:08, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
- Look, I understand that this is perhaps the only social space in the world where irrespective of social context, "anyone can edit". Also I appreciate its being a "high bar" as you put it. If you were to check the number of articles on the alumni/ae of these colleges, it would appear that for all their impressive history and the quality of their alumni, there are actually fewer editors (compared to the number of editors on women’s colleges in the West) that contribute to the articles on Calcutta's all-women's colleges and the people associated with them. It would appear that the ladies themselves are not remotely concerned on whether the nomenclature is appropriate Latin or bad English. My point on wanting to maintain the existing tag was different. Calcutta’s all-women colleges have as I mentioned, always been women’s colleges, and there is the remotest possibility of their being gender neutral institutions. In fact seen in context, their sole reason for existence is their being women’s colleges. Also ideas on gender neutrality (in the sense that using “alumnae” and not “alumni” is somehow discriminatory towards Calcutta’s ladies) have to be seen in context. I can assure you that like anywhere else, Calcutta’s ladies enjoy every opportunity to be ahead of the game and enjoy the spotlight (!). Unless there is a sudden upsurge of information on the alumni/ae on Calcutta’s women’s colleges, and editors who make meaningful contributions, it would be proper to let things remain as they are. Patoldanga'r Tenida (talk) 05:45, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
- My argument has nothing to do with discrimination based on gender. I'm focusing more on ease of editing the encyclopedia and predictability and consistency within category trees. It just seems to me that if either term may properly be used, we may as well use "alumni", because using the other term will require editors who are wanting to add the category to realise that particular schools are all-female. Good Ol’factory (talk) 20:59, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
- Look, I understand that this is perhaps the only social space in the world where irrespective of social context, "anyone can edit". Also I appreciate its being a "high bar" as you put it. If you were to check the number of articles on the alumni/ae of these colleges, it would appear that for all their impressive history and the quality of their alumni, there are actually fewer editors (compared to the number of editors on women’s colleges in the West) that contribute to the articles on Calcutta's all-women's colleges and the people associated with them. It would appear that the ladies themselves are not remotely concerned on whether the nomenclature is appropriate Latin or bad English. My point on wanting to maintain the existing tag was different. Calcutta’s all-women colleges have as I mentioned, always been women’s colleges, and there is the remotest possibility of their being gender neutral institutions. In fact seen in context, their sole reason for existence is their being women’s colleges. Also ideas on gender neutrality (in the sense that using “alumnae” and not “alumni” is somehow discriminatory towards Calcutta’s ladies) have to be seen in context. I can assure you that like anywhere else, Calcutta’s ladies enjoy every opportunity to be ahead of the game and enjoy the spotlight (!). Unless there is a sudden upsurge of information on the alumni/ae on Calcutta’s women’s colleges, and editors who make meaningful contributions, it would be proper to let things remain as they are. Patoldanga'r Tenida (talk) 05:45, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
- And why would you say that? In my view, that's a relatively high bar, especially for an encyclopedia that "anyone can edit". Good Ol’factory (talk) 01:08, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
- Yes.Patoldanga'r Tenida (talk) 04:32, 13 March 2011 (UTC)
- Is it appropriate to expect users who apply the category to know this? Good Ol’factory (talk) 20:51, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
- Rename to "alumnae of ..." as per first suggestion when it is an all-female intake. Alumna/Alumnae =accurate for females. Alumnus/Alumni = inaccurate. The definition is clear in both Websters & Chambers dictionary. An encyclopaedia should reflect terms accurately and not fall for the temptation of being illiterate for the sake of simplicity. If we have problems using borrowed Latin terms then we should use an English term where one exists. E.g. Graduate is equally good and does not need declining. Ephebi (talk) 16:24, 11 March 2011 (UTC)
- As long as we are talking about accuracy and literacy: "alumni" do not need to be graduates; the term can refer to any person who attended the school, graduates and non-graduates. Good Ol’factory (talk) 01:10, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
- Good point assuming that we would want to include women who have not graduated, in which case "Alumnae of ..." (if we want Latin) or "Former students of..." (for English) would fit the bill. But is that assumption correct, e.g. that it would be meaningful to categorise under-graduates and drop-outs? Ephebi (talk) 12:49, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
- It's the assumption of the whole alumni category tree. But also in past times there were a lot of people who didn't formally graduate from university and/or get a degree - see Wikipedia talk:College and university article guidelines#Alumni for details on this. This a particular issue for the older Cambridge colleges as there was a long struggle to get the university to admit women to its full degrees and the result was that for decades women were going through a complete course of study at colleges like Newnham but were unable to graduate. In 1921 they were allowed "degrees titular" of limited standing but it wasn't until the late 1940s that they could properly graduate. And "alumni" may originate in Latin but it's been used in English for so long that it is now an English word. Timrollpickering (talk) 13:13, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
- Good point assuming that we would want to include women who have not graduated, in which case "Alumnae of ..." (if we want Latin) or "Former students of..." (for English) would fit the bill. But is that assumption correct, e.g. that it would be meaningful to categorise under-graduates and drop-outs? Ephebi (talk) 12:49, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
- This doesn't seem to address the point that some self-styled women's colleges have male alums: for example, trans men who were admitted while presenting as female. It's nearly impossible to know whether a so-called women's college has alums who later came out as male -- a good argument for using the term "alumni", which refers to a mixed-gender group. SparsityProblem (talk) 19:36, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
- As long as we are talking about accuracy and literacy: "alumni" do not need to be graduates; the term can refer to any person who attended the school, graduates and non-graduates. Good Ol’factory (talk) 01:10, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
- Rename to "alumni". In current English, the residual latinate gender markings are rapidly eroding; I know the very vast majority of American college graduates couldn't properly decline a Latin noun beyond the nominative case; no English speaker actually uses "alumnarum" or "alumnorum" in English and the percentage that know these forms is miniscule. "Alumni" is rapidly becoming the gender and count neutral term for "former student(s) of ...". There's a large industry producing "School X Alumni" bumper stickers; googling "alumni bumper sticker" returns 2 million hits, whereas "alumnus bumper sticker" returns 100 thousand. If the latinate declension were still standard English, then "alumni" bumper stickers wouldn't have much of a market. Studerby (talk) 20:27, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
- change all to alumni. The general trend is towards gender-neutral terms. We use actors to designate males and females. In actual use actresses is a much more common term than alumnae. I would say the "still female" issue is irrlevant. First because sex-change is a very rare occurance, but more importantly because arguably the category is applying the term to people at graduation, not later.John Pack Lambert (talk) 00:54, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- Why does the supposed size of a group of people (trans people are 1% of the population by many estimates, btw) play into whether it's OK to pretend they don't exist? The "still female" part is a red herring, I agree, because trans men are always men (even when they're seen by the rest of the world as women). SparsityProblem (talk) 17:12, 21 March 2011 (UTC)
- Smith College clearly should not be one of the schools uinder discussion here. In the article on Smith College it states "Smith offers men and women graduate work leading to the degrees of master of arts in teaching (elementary, middle or high school), master of fine arts, master of education of the deaf, master of science in biological sciences, master of science in exercise and sport studies and master and Ph.D. in social work. In special one-year programs, international students may qualify for a certificate of graduate studies or a diploma in American studies. Each year approximately 100 men and women pursue advanced graduate work at Smith." Thus is is clear that there are male students admitted to Smith on a regular basis.John Pack Lambert (talk) 01:06, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
- I've retracted that specific part of the nomination. Timrollpickering (talk) 21:28, 19 March 2011 (UTC)