Talk:Brown University

If there's no citation for the info about Brown and the slave trade, the information should be removed.--Murray 13:49, 26 March 2007 (EDT)

I agree, it looks like gossip against Brown and doesn't help Conservapedia's goal of no gossip. ColinR^talk 13:51, 26 March 2007 (EDT)

Maybe it would just be easier to keep the information, and get rid of the "no gossip" goal. --Huey gunna getcha 16:06, 26 March 2007 (EDT)

Maybe it'd be easiest to keep conservapedia, and get rid of all the people who read it? --Mittromney 16:10, 26 March 2007 (EDT)

Sayles Hall

Sayles Hall is neither one of the oldest buildings on campus, nor was it built for religious purposes; it was (and is) a lecture hall, bult in 1881. A chapel, known as the "Little Chapel", was added in a side-room in 1945, and indeed is still there -- but it would be misleading to imply that the building's primary use was ever for the holding of religious services.

see the entry on the Hall in the Encyclopedia Brunoniana Boethius

Sayles was used for mandatory chapel services from 1906 to 1969, so the previous description as "where required religious services was once held" is accurate. See the Encyclopedia Brunoniana entry on "Chapel". I'll include a better description of the hall. ColemanFrancis 16:16, 26 March 2007 (EDT)

The sentence "where required religious services was once held" does not seem to me to be relevant to this story (if indeed the story is relevant). It paints a deceptive picture of the Queer Alliance partying where once solemn chaplains condcted somber services, whereas at the time Sayles handn't been used, nor had attendance been required, for 30 years or more at the time of the party. Boethius

If this page is going to be a list of criticisms of Brown, it might as well contain some valid ones. Scriabin 17:03, 26 March 2007 (EDT)

A coatrack article

Let's see: Conservapedia has a very short but factual stub on Harvard University; nothing at all on Yale University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, or Cornell University. How odd, then, that there should be an article on Brown, ten times as long as the article on Harvard, and that by an amazing coincidence it should appear shortly after an allegation that someone on the Brown campus vandalized Conservapedia... and that three of the article's four paragraphs just happen to be unflattering:

• a drunken party that sent some students to the hospital (a regrettable but routine event at every college; it doesn't even rise to the level of notability unless someone dies of alcohol poison, as happened at MIT);
• someone vandalizing Conservapedia (and if that gets you on Conservapedia's front page I'm sure all the other colleges will soon be having contests to see who else can achieve this);
• a story about the origins of the Brown fortune in the slave trade. (Yes, and the cod hanging in the Massachusetts State House commemorates the role of Massachusetts in providing cost-effective slave chow for Caribbean sugar plantations).

This is what has been called a "coatrack article." The usual defense is "but it's factual." Yes, but the only purpose of the article is to be a coatrack onto which to selectively hang facts that support a tendentious thesis: in this case, I suppose, something profound like "Brown sux! Conservapedia rulz!"

This all seems rather like the "gossip" that, Conservapedia charges, "pervades" Wikipedia. Dpbsmith 21:11, 26 March 2007 (EDT)

Dpbsmith, I'd agree with you on the first two items. But Brown actually has expressed a great desire to publicize its self-study of its relations with slavery and the slave trade -- that should be at least mentioned. The other material since added would place it in context. Boethius

Boethius, Dpbsmith - Thanks for turning this into a reputable article. While its, by no means, a perfect school, the hack job that was being done to it was a complete travesty.--Dave3172 09:39, 27 March 2007 (EDT)