Talk:Villanova University

puff and campus descriptions

Hi @GuardianH, thanks for your help with this article, it is getting much better. Let me ask you a question about detailed topographical campus descriptions and puffery. I like the way you deleted the completely unsourced Villanova campus descriptions. Which criteria do you apply? A lot of higher ed articles have this kind of puff. When does a building become siginificant, when does a campus green merit inclusion in Wikipedia? These are some of my questions. -- Melchior2006 (talk) 06:25, 20 July 2023 (UTC)

@Melchior2006 Primarily WP:VERFIABILITY, especially WP:NOSOURCES (Do not leave unsourced or poorly sourced material in an article if it might damage the reputation of living people or existing groups, and do not move it to the talk page). I believe academic boosterism and puffery damages a university's reputation, as it sets an unrealistic standard for the subject in question, not to mention also that readers on Wikipedia are much more perceptive than we take them to be, and can themselves distinguish puffery in an article which reflects very poorly of the institution or alumni.

I'll try to find a source to verify the information through a quick search, but most of the time a lot of information is unverifiable or a hopeless WP:SYNTH — this is usually the case in sports sections or in the greek sections that you've seen. It also happens that sections like those have the most puffery. Regarding inclusion, it's really a matter of looking at the outside, reliable secondary sources — nothing too different from what WP:NOTABILITY says. Of course, most of the time the available sources stem from the university/institution itself, or from local sources that have an explicit connection to the subject in which case it doesn't qualify inclusion. GuardianH (talk) 19:20, 20 July 2023 (UTC)

Should we add Cardinal Robert F. Prevost as a alumnus to the page ?

He seems notable enough for me. 2601:204:CF81:EC80:FDC3:1112:D18:4B5D (talk) 14:35, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

This was a prescient addition 73.169.201.48 (talk) 17:23, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Acreage Correction

In the quick facts section, the campus is listed as being a large suburban with 408 acres. Below, in the campus section it is listed as 254 acres.

Villanova's website lists 260 acres for the campus size.

The university did just acquire the Cabrini University Campus, which is listed as 112 acres on its own Wikipedia page. Even if you take Villanova's advertised 260 acres and add the 112 acres from Cabrini it only reaches 372 acres. Does anyone know where the 408 acreage value came from? JasonAbiuso (talk) 20:37, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion:

• Official Potrait of Pope Leo XIV.jpg

You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 05:51, 10 May 2025 (UTC)

John Hennessey

Shouldn't John Hennessey (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Hennessy) be in the list of notable alumni? 99.31.214.222 (talk) 00:25, 26 June 2025 (UTC)

We don't want to make that section too long as it's meant to be a representative sample of some notable alumni. But I agree that he probably makes the cut and should be added. Feel free to do so! ElKevbo (talk) 01:17, 26 June 2025 (UTC)

21st August 2025 active shooter incident.

Twice my addition about the active shooter incident at the university has been deleted despite giving the AP link. Somebody doesn’t want bad stuff to be said about the university. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/08/21/us/villanova-university-shooting

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/nation/villanova-university-says-report-of-an-active-shooter-on-campus-was-a-cruel-hoax

https://apnews.com/video/villanova-university-reports-an-active-shooter-on-campus-tells-students-to-barricade-doors-22c1e6885188415e995a6007c1b4caa2

Now, all we know is what the University said, not the officials. 168.86.201.252 (talk) 23:43, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

The reason it was deleted is because it is a case of WP:RECENT. Sure, this incident is drawing coverage right now in the immediate short-term, but in the long-term it most likely will not. The reality is, bomb threats and shooting threats happen very frequently and to many educational institutions. Wikipedia is not going to cover every single one of them. Red0ctober22 (talk) 23:50, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

So, what you’re saying is that school shootings are so common in the USA that there’s no point in reporting any more? That is a very sad state of affairs. 168.86.201.252 (talk) 00:10, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

No, what we're saying is that this is a developing news story which is not something we're well equipped to write about in an encyclopedia. And unless we're pretty sure that it's going to be of lasting importance and impact then we're not interested in writing about it. Just because something makes the news doesn't mean that it's important in the big picture. ElKevbo (talk) 00:20, 22 August 2025 (UTC)

You got reverted because all you did was plop an unsourced statement, which was removed, then just put a URL into the lede, which was also removed. First off, that's not even remotely in line with the WP:MOS. Secondly, it's because it's better to wait until more thorough reporting is released in the coming hours/days on the event. It's certainly worth including, but it's not a competition to see how fast we can get info on the page. Please take a moment to review WP:NOTNEWS. nf utvol (talk) 00:21, 22 August 2025 (UTC)