Talk:Meric Gertler

Relevance of divestment

A section about one announcement regarding fossil fuel divestment is surely WP:UNDUE in the WP:BLP of someone who has been the president of a major university for nearly a decade. However, I don't want to boldly remove it, because I am on the edge of plausibly having a COI here (I was a U of T undergrad and had strong feelings about certain administration policies). Do others believe that this section is relevant, due, and WP:NPOV? - Astrophobe (talk) 02:03, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

Wikipedians tend to be great compilers, but terrible editors. A brief juicy controversy makes people (partisan or not) totally disregard WP:BLPBALANCE or WP:PROPORTION. The divestment 'controversy' probably doesn't warrant merit more than a few sentences, and probably not a devoted section. It seems absurd to devote almost as much text to one incident than to the rest of his career. --Animalparty! (talk) 05:09, 1 April 2022 (UTC)

Thanks very much for the second opinion, Animalparty. I quickly trimmed the WP:UNDUE material but by no means do I think it's covered quite correctly or with just the right prose and source, so of course edits and revisions by others are encouraged. I'll plan to come back to this when I have more time, but with WP:BLPs I think the band-aid approach is the right one. - Astrophobe (talk) 03:35, 6 April 2022 (UTC)

Dividing controversies into subsections

As of now, points discussing Gertler's involvment in student encampments are currently couched in the 'Awards' subsection. I am going to change this this week, but wanted to see if others had thoughts onto the best possible way to do so before I make my changes. Either way, this page needs a lot of work. Angela munsch (talk) 17:48, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Agreed, and thanks for the edits Angela munsch. There were a number of controversies during Gertler's tenure as President (including the so-called 'suicide epidemic' of 2018-19, and the administration's refusal to acknowledge or meaningfully address it), which I don't have time to compile now. But I'm going to restore the article's previous "Controversies" subsection — particularly in the wake of the clearing of the student encampment in protest against the Palestinian genocide, as well as Gertler's retirement, I think it's pretty clear that WP:BLPBALANCE, WP:PROPORTION and WP:NPOV all clearly warrant this. Indeed, to keep this material buried in other sections is pretty clearly against Wikipedia principles (as well as just generally suspect). Ben.hjorth (talk) 12:42, 7 July 2025 (UTC)

Posting here a private message, and my response, from user @Kuru, who continues to make edits reversing edits of mine without checking in with the talk page first. Hoping we can resolve this and come to agreement in this forum.

Thanks for contributing to the article Meric Gertler. However, one of Wikipedia's core policies is that material must be verifiable and attributed to reliable sources. You have recently used citations which copied, or mirrored, material from Wikipedia. This leads to a circular reference and is not acceptable. Most mirrors are clearly labeled as such, but some are in violation of our license and do not provide the correct attribution. Please help by adding alternate sources to the article you edited! If you need any help or clarification, you can look at Help:Contents/Editing Wikipedia or ask at Wikipedia:New contributors' help page, or just ask me. Thank you. Sam Kuru (talk) 13:22, 13 July 2025 (UTC)

Hello,

Thank you for the note. I didn't realise you seem to work or volunteer for Wikipedia. Could you clarify which sources you're referring to? I assume it is only the reference to Gertler's Wikipedia page being flagged for both promotional content and reading like a CV? Can you suggest some other way I could reference this that would be acceptable to you? You can see for yourself that those flags are there, and they haven't yet been removed. I think it is notable that a public figure of such prominence would edit their own Wikipedia page to look like a CV and intentionally promote themselves on that page. Given your profile's stated commitment against "promotional editing," I would've thought you agreed. Open to your advice on this.

The hyperlink to the extant Wikipedia article on campus Palestine protests (https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/2025_pro-Palestinian_protests_on_university_campuses) is standard Wikipedia procedure — I'm not "referencing" anything, but simply providing a link to the main article for that topic. Please stop removing this link without proper explanation. If you still think it's in breach of some policy, please give an explanation that is relevant and sufficiently detailed that I (and others) can understand it.

I think this conversation should occur in public, on the Talk page, rather than in private. I will be posting your message, and this reply, there, so that there can be oversight and accountability for edits moving forward.

Thanks,

Ben Ben.hjorth (talk) 08:03, 23 July 2025 (UTC)

I've reversed the edits @Kuru made until some clearer explanation can be provided, and any necessary discussion can occur in the appropriate forum. Thanks all. Ben.hjorth (talk) 08:08, 23 July 2025 (UTC)

Kuru provided you with the relevant links as to why you cannot use Wikiwand or Wikipedia as sources. And you cannot insert hyperlinks into the body of the article like that, especially when the link goes to an unreliable source. Please take the time to familiarize yourself with one of our core policies, Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons. We must use high-quality sources. Users who persistently violate this policy may be blocked from editing. I reverted your edit, and please do not re-add this content. Thanks. Isaidnoway (talk) 10:03, 23 July 2025 (UTC)

There's no need to link to anything on 'wikiwand'; this is simply a mirror of Wikipedia and is never acceptable as a source. If you need to link to something on Wikipedia, just ask and someone will show you how. As to the section itself; there is absolutely nothing notable about the status of a person's Wikipedia article, especially when it relates to trivial maintenance tags outside of the subject's control. I have not read through the rest of the material here, but I would tread very carefully; the link given above by Isaidnoway to our biographies of living persons should sufficiently read you in on the policy. 11:38, 23 July 2025 (UTC)