Talk:Beacon College
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Untitled edit
I am an employee of this college, so I have a bias. However, as this is part of two different projects and the article is especially short, it could certainly be expanded. First, I want to point out a couple of inaccuracies. This statement: "other specific learning disabilities such as Autism" is not quite accurate because autism is not technically a learning disability (though some of the students are certainly on the spectrum). The list of majors should include Studio Arts. And the total number of students is about 200, not 270. Other colleges include sections for topics such as history, campus life, recognitions, and student life, and these are missing entirely from this article. I am including a few links to outside resources to help fill in these gaps: History: [1] http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-03-15/news/os-lk-beacon-college-new-building-20130315_1_beacon-college-new-office-teachers-and-staff http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-07-15/news/os-lk-beacon-college-president-qa-20110715_1_interim-president-permanent-president-beacon-college Rankings/ Recognitions: http://www.valuepenguin.com/2013/06/best-colleges-florida http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2012/liberal_arts_social_mobility.php Thank you! Grmdre (talk) 00:40, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
Promotional content edit
Editors with a conflict of interest and SPA accounts have been repeatedly asked to refrain from adding promotional self-adulation to this article. Please read WP:COI, WP:NPOV and WP:PROMO. I have reverted the article back to the last encyclopedic version, as the more recent versions were too full of advertising to be salvageable. The latest version also plagiarized content from the school's website. Suggestions for neutral and referenced changes can be posted at WP:PAIDHELP. GermanJoe (talk) 00:04, 5 December 2015 (UTC)
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Request edit on 18 May 2019 edit
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Some proposed changes edit
 | This edit request by an editor with a conflict of interest was declined. Per: WP:SELFPUB, WP:NPOV. |
Information to be added or removed: This entire current Wikipedia page for Beacon College should be scrapped and replaced with this more robust, up-to-date, (and heavily footnoted) version.
Extended content
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Beacon College Coordinates: 28°48′39″N 81°52′31″W Motto: Lumen Vitae Abundantiorem Motto in English: Illuminating the Life Abundant Type: Private, nonprofit four-year liberal arts college Established: 1989[1] Religious affiliation: None President: George J. Hagerty Ed.D Provost: Shelly Chandler Ph.D. Academic staff: 32 faculty with rank; 14 academic instructors without rank Administrative staff: 78 Students: 450 Fall 2018 Application to Enroll Stats: Acceptance 50.4 percent; Enrolled 67% (yield) Address: 105 East Main Street, Leesburg, Florida, U.S. Campus: Suburban Colors: Blue, gold Athletics: Intramural and intercollegiate club sports Nickname: Navigators Mascot: NaviGator Affiliations: National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU); Council for Independent Colleges (CIC); Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges Website: www.BeaconCollege.edu Beacon College is a private, nonprofit, coeducational liberal arts school, founded in 1989, and located in Leesburg, Florida, United States. The college is located 44.8 miles (72.09 km) northwest of Orlando. The school’s primary footprint comprises 27 buildings on an about 15-acre campus. The college also occupies four buildings and 18 acres on its Floral City, Fla. property (about 36 miles west of Leesburg) used by the anthrozoology department for environmental and conservation study. The college was founded to introduce a focused undergraduate curriculum aligned to the specialized learning and support needs of students with learning disabilities, ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning differences.[2] In 2019, Beacon College was ranked #1 by BestValueSchools.com in its inventory of the 20 Best Value Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities 2019.[3] Contents 1 History 2 Academics 2.1 Degrees and academic programs 2.2. Special programs 2.3 International programs 2.4 Rankings 2.5 Key administration 3 Global outreach 4 Admission 5 Student life 5.1 Campus media 5.2 Housing 5.3 The Beacon Voices 6 Campus renovations 6.1 New buildings on campus 7 Sports 8 Notable alumni 9 References 10 External links
Beacon College is America’s first accredited baccalaureate higher education institution dedicated to educating primarily students with learning disabilities, ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning differences.[4] In May 1989, DeSisto College, a college in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida that for three years had served students with learning disabilities,[5] closed after a zoning dispute with the city.[6] Former DeSisto President Marsha Glines and a group of parents of former DeSisto students led by Pat Latham, a Washington, D.C. attorney and disability rights expert, teamed up to form a new, unaffiliated school whose mission similarly focused on students with learning differences and ADHD.[7] The parent group raised about $40,000 in startup funds that secured two houses on East Main Street.[8] That included the historic pink house and former dress shop at 105 East Main Street that became the John D'Addario Administration Building, named for a former Beacon honorary trustee.[9] The D'Addario Building housed the Office of the President, Student Services and Marketing, Admissions, and the Counseling Center. Built in 1910, the two-story, four-bedroom Craftsman-style house gave way in 2013 to the newly built Beacon Hall.[10][11] The college also acquired The Stoer Building,[12] a 5,476 square foot structure that housed three classrooms, a lecture hall, dining hall, and faculty offices. The state Board of Independent Colleges and Universities granted the newly established Beacon College a six-month temporary license to operate.[13] On September 26, 1989, Glines and the college welcomed its inaugural class of 35 students — many transfers from DeSisto College.[14] Beacon initially offered one degree: a bachelor of arts in human services.[15] Nine students — all former DeSisto students — comprised the college’s first graduating class.[16] Glines served as president until 1991. Deborah A. Brodbeck succeeded Glines and served as president from July 1992[17] through January 2011.[18] Under Brodbeck, the college in August 2003 earned full regional accreditation from the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities.[19] In August 1997, the college purchases an 11,986-square-foot former storefront to serve as its Education Building.[20] It houses the Beacon College Library, Math Lab, PC Lab, and five classrooms. In 2006, the college buys the Palmetto Building, a 2,008-square-foot home that houses the business and admissions offices.[21] In March 2010, Beacon buys The Chopping Block, a 5,800-square-foot space that formerly housed a local restaurant, to provide expanded dining services for the growing student population.[22] A year later, the college acquired The Woodward Street Apartments, which provides housing for an additional 33 students.[23] In January 2011, Brodbeck retired from Beacon College. Soon after Brodbeck’s departure, the college hired Dr. John Hutchinson as interim president.[24] In 2012, the college added psychology and business management as majors.[25] Under Hutchinson, the first academic building erected by the college, Beacon Hall, an 8,000-square-foot classroom and administration building, opened in 2013 and replaced the D’Addario Building. That same year, Beacon appointed Dr. George J. Hagerty, president emeritus at Franklin Pierce University, president.[26] Under Hagerty, in August 2013 the college leased a 6,000-square-foot building as its studio arts building and home to the Kristin Michelle Mason Art Gallery, and rolls out an art major.[27] Academics Degrees and academic programs Beacon awards Associate of Arts (A.A.) and Associate of Science (A.S.) degrees as well as Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degrees. The college offers majors in nine programs: anthrozoology; business management [business management track]; business management [hospitality track]; computer information systems [web & digital media track]; computer information systems [information systems track]; human services; humanities; psychology; and studio arts.[28] Beacon is one of only two undergraduate institutions of higher learning in the United States to offer anthrozoology as a major program.[29] Students may also participate in one of the college’s 14 minor programs.[30] The student-to-teacher classroom ratio is 12:1. The college’s 10-year average for its four-year graduation rate is 70 percent.[31] Honorary degrees Beacon College has conferred 10 honorary doctorates. Recent recipients include: U.S. Rep. Daniel A. Webster (2016), former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (2017), former Florida Senate President Andrew Gardiner and his wife Camille, and Sheikha Jameela bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, global disability rights advocate, and Director General of Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services (2018), and disability rights advocate James T. Brett and sociologist, scholar, author, and activist Charles Vert Willie, Ph.D. (2019).[32] Supplemental programs Beacon offers several programs that focus on high-school-to-college transition for students with learning disabilities and a postgraduate residential program for recent Beacon graduates. • Summer for Success — Launched in 2016, the three-week residential program for rising high school juniors and seniors with learning disabilities, ADHD, and other learning differences immerses students in college academics and provides planning skills to compensate for their learning differences.[33] • First Career Community —The two-year postgraduate residential program, funded by a multi-year grant from the David R. Clare and Margaret C. Clare Foundation, combines mentoring, life skills education, and work experience for recent Beacon College graduates who need additional instruction in life and social skills to live independent lives.[34] • Navigator PREP — Navigator PREP is a transition program for incoming Beacon College students designed to help bridge the gap between high school and college during the student’s senior year. Conducted virtually, Navigator PREP aims to help develop in students skills in common areas that affect the transition to college. The program documents performance and uses the data to help make post-secondary recommendations as students matriculate to Beacon College. International programs Beacon students prepare for the workforce through mandatory internships and learn to navigate an increasingly globalized world through study abroad. • Annual Travel Abroad program — Launched in 2004, this summer directed-excursion with groups up to 40 offers several weeks of travel and emphasizes out-of-classroom learning focusing on cultural, historical, environmental, or scientific topics. Destinations have included Ecuador, The Galapagos Islands, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Paris, France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii, Scotland, Ireland, and Japan.[35] • Beacon in Tuscany — Launched in 2017 — and believed to be the first semester-long global education program for students with learning differences — Beacon students study literature, art, and business through classes in his Prato, Italy.[36] [37] Rankings • In 2016, College Magazine rated Beacon College #2 in their 2016 survey “Top 10 Best Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities.”[38] • In 2017, BestValueSchools.com ranked Beacon College #1 among the “20 Best Value Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities 2017-2018,” concluding “when it comes to the best colleges for students with learning disabilities, none holds a candle to Beacon College.”[39] • In 2017, BestColleges.com ranked Beacon #8 out of 147 schools as among the best four-year colleges in Florida.[40] • Best Choice Schools ranked Beacon College #4 on its list of “The 20 Most Affordable Colleges with High Four-year Graduation Rates.”[41] • In 2019, BestValueSchools.com named Beacon College #1 on its list of “20 Best Value Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities 2019.”[42] • In 2019, GreatValueColleges.com named Beacon College #3 in its ranking of “America’s Top 50 Colleges For Students With Disabilities: Disabled Students Thrive in These Colleges!”[43] Key administration[44] • Chairperson of the Board of Trustees: Daniel Averbeck, Ph.D. (President and owner of Applied Assessments, Inc.) • President: George J. Hagerty, Ed.D • Provost: Shelly Chandler, Ph.D. • Chief Financial Officer: J. Otis Vance, MBA, CPA • Vice President of Institutional Development and Communications: Stephen F. Muller MS • Vice President of Admissions and Enrollment Management: Dale Herold • Director of Human Resources & Risk Management: Thomas R. Brown • Dean of Student Affairs: Kerry Greenstein Ed.D
Advancing Hagerty’s global perspective on learning disabilities, the college in 2015 pioneered The COMPASS program, which imported high school students with learning disabilities from Saudi Arabia for a five-week residential college preparatory experience.[45] In 2017, Beacon College signed a memorandum of understanding with the Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services, a nonprofit group that advocates for citizens with disabilities in the United Arab Emirates. Beacon agreed to train K-12 teachers who educate students with learning disabilities and provide undergraduate-level training and an abbreviated on-site version of COMPASS program.[46] In April 2019, Beacon College, together with more than 100 disability advocates and university educators, was a signatory to a pact to charter The Global University Disability & Inclusion Network, an organization created to help improve the academic journey of collegians with disabilities.[47] Admission Currently, Beacon’s student body hails from six countries (Bermuda. Bolivia, Botswana, England, India, and Kenya) and 41 U.S. states and territories.[48] Beacon College offers rolling admissions for both the fall and spring semesters, so applicants can apply any time of the year.[49] Student life Campus media Radio Beacon (student-run internet podcasting station[50] Housing Beacon offers dormitory-style housing and apartments where students can chose from one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.[51] The Beacon College Village Apartments is the college’s largest complex and serves as the college’s primary residence hall. It offers one, two, and three-bedroom units and houses up to 130 students.[52] Woodward Street Apartments offers 12 two-bedroom units.[53] Beacon Commons offers one and two-bedroom units and a courtyard for social activities.[54] Resnick Alpern Plung Residence (RAP) Hall offers traditional-style dorms for first-time, full-time, freshman students and features single rooms in five-room clusters.[55] The Beacon Voices The Beacon Voices are a student ensemble of vocalists and entertainers who perform at the college’s public events and student gatherings. Campus renovations The college leased and renovated a circa-1913 train depot to serve as its fitness center — one of many examples of the school’s reliance on adaptive reuse.[56] Beacon College Navigators Café, located on the ground floor of the Leesburg Public Library in downtown Leesburg, Fla., was renovated in August 2016 and now serves Starbucks coffee and Sodexo food products.[57] The facility is open to students, staffers, and the public. In 2017, the college received a $189,375 grant from The Edward C. Fogg, III and Lizbeth A. Fogg Charitable Trust that helped fund renovation its 12,000-square-foot storefront academic mall.[58] Rechristened Edward C. Fogg, III and Lizbeth A. Fogg Hall, the complex houses nearly 90 percent of the college’s classroom and laboratory space and more than half of its faculty offices. It also is home to the Beacon Library and Mathematics Lab, which buttress core academics with assistive technology and staff support.[59] Constructed in 2017 and 2019, respectively, Mitch’s Place[60] and Ryan’s Place are pocket parks that honor the memory of former Beacon students. Virginia and Robert Durand Garden, a 12,000-square-foot park replete with drake elms, Brodie cedars, Washington palms, Natchez crape myrtles, and other flora, opened in August 2018.[61] New buildings on campus Resnick, Alpern, Plung Hall, better known as RAP Hall, is the college’s first traditional-style residence hall. It opened in spring 2018.[62] Sports Beacon College does not compete in intercollegiate varsity sports. Students do compete in intramural recreational sports and in intercollegiate club leagues in basketball, flag football, and tennis.[63] The Beacon College Powerlifters club also competes in sanctioned competitions. In 2019, Beacon powerlifters earned gold and silver medals at the USA Powerlifting Jacksonville Open Championships.[64] The Beacon Athletic field is home to such recreational sports as Quidditch, kickball, field hockey, soccer, volleyball, disc golf, dodgeball, ultimate Frisbee, and wiffleball. Notable alumni Business • Scott Wilbur — founder Next Level Transition Consulting[65] Psychology and human services • Rosalyn Johnson, Ed.D — the first Beacon College graduate to earn a Ph.D. and coordinator for outpatient therapeutic services at Community Health of South Florida, Inc.[66] • Davian Isom — social worker and immigration officer with the Department of Homeland Security/U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [67] Technology • Jamar Butler — cyber threat analyst with United States Central Command, Joint Cyberspace Communications Center.[68] • Arun Kapoor — IT asset manager with Defense Logistics Agency[69] • Howard Mass — partner/site administrator RealGM.com[70] External links Beacon College website: https://www.BeaconCollege.edu
References supporting change: See inserted. References
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Darrylowens312 (talk) 22:55, 21 May 2019 (UTC)
Reply 22-MAY-2019 edit
Additional references requested
- 64% of the references provided originate from the subject school and the Orlando Sentinel. This is understandable given the COI editor's connections to both of those organizations. However, Wikipedia would prefer references from reliable WP:SECONDARY sources which are unconnected to the subject school.[1][a]
- To that end, kindly provide references from sources which are unconnected to the subject college. To assist in locating these sources, I have placed some search suggestions at the top of this thread. Simply click on any one of the search engines listed to effect a search of the subject in those engines. When these additional sources have been located, please feel free to submit those references in a new edit request at your earliest convenience.
Regards, Spintendo 07:02, 22 May 2019 (UTC)
Notes
- ^ The Orlando Sentinel, as a local paper covering its local, neighborhood school (Beacon), would not be considered independent of the subject. This is because the Orlando Sentinel's role as an objective journalistic endeavor may occasionally come into conflict with their role as provider of news catering to those in the local area. It goes without saying that there is generally a sizeable onus upon publications nationwide to pay specific attention to local area businesses and organizations which many of their subscribers may be employed by or derive income and/or livelihoods through. The result of this onus is oftentimes generous coverage of said organizations within their publications, reporting which may or may not be neutral in tone.
References
- ^ "Wikipedia:Verifiability". Wikipedia. 8 May 2019.
Self-published sources may be used as sources of information about themselves, usually in articles about themselves or their activities, without the self-published source requirement that they be published experts in the field, so long as the article is not based primarily on such sources.
Spintendo, thank you for your feedback.
Unfortunately, your proposed remedy places an unachievable burden on Beacon College.
Beacon College is a tiny niche school founded 30 years ago by a group of parents for students with learning disabilities. Situated in a small city in Lake County, and with fewer than 200 students just a mere six years ago, the school, by and large, has not been on the radar of the breed of non-parochial publications that would lack the “homer” bias that you imply the sources cited in this edit request would have.
Thus, the suggested sources you provided to search through for Beacon College content is largely moot. We searched those databases and found less than a handful of articles that we could swap with the Orlando Sentinel articles [they would simply repeat the same factual data that we footnoted with the Orlando Sentinel articles]. But we are certainly happy to do this. Still, without the articles in The Orlando Sentinel, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning newspaper that until recently positioned itself among its competition as a Southeastern regional newspaper based in Orlando, the history of the college will be mostly bones without flesh.
The fact of the matter is few national publications/outlets have covered the history and important events of Beacon College in the granular fashion required to provide the robust chronicling that this Wikipedia article entry edit request does.
The articles written by outfits outside our geographical orbit that were not cited in this edit speak generally and in a macro fashion about the college's concept and mission if that.
The only coverage that a small, niche college like Beacon naturally would expect came courtesy of the local community newspaper (The Daily Commercial) and the regional metropolitan daily, the twice-Pulitzer-Prize-winning, The Orlando Sentinel (for the record, Beacon College is more than an hour away from the Orlando Sentinel office, and thus, in the strictest sense, doesn’t seem to qualify as its "neighborhood school").
Moreover, as you know, journalists are not at our beck and call (no matter how often we may reach out). Therefore, it is only reasonable that most of the granular history and facts — particularly the mundane bits — would find a home not in an outside editorial outlets but rather the college's own publications and website.
Indeed, that is the case with another college who operates in the LD space, Curry College (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry_College), whose Wikipedia page posts a relatively long article with five footnotes (three of which are sourced from the school's website). Likewise, Elon University's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_University) posting contains 44 footnotes, most of which are Elon-sourced. And there there's Rollins College (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollins_College), another Orlando-area school, whose Wikipedia page stands sans editor's notes, yet features in the lion's share of its 104 footnotes Orlando-based or Rollins-college-generated sources (i.e. The Orlando Sentinel, The Sandspur [Rollins College student newspaper], the Rollins' website, The Winter Park Chronicles (Rollins College is based in Winter Park), Rollins Magazine, local TV and radio outlets, etc.). We're can't understand what appears to be defacto inconsistency.
Certainly, we understand and honor the need for protocols and have labored to satisfy yours (including beefing up secondary sources and disclosing my conflict of interest, etc.). And certainly, our intent is not to instigate a virtual screaming match.
Nevertheless, your panacea for Beacon College is all but a Sisyphean task — one that we're undertaking because not only have our stakeholders suggested it was time, but because we are cognizant that increasingly everyone (from students to lending organizations) turn first to Wikipedia for a quick read on colleges.
We realize that placement in Wikipedia is a privilege not a right. However, it seems rather an unnecessarily exclusionary practice for an information portal meant to democratize and broadcast information to compel an organization to produce as alternative substantiation sources that simply don’t exist — especially when unadulterated facts reported under journalistic ethics already has been presented in this edit request.
We look to a second look and reconsideration of this matter.
Darrylowens312 (talk) 17:32, 23 May 2019 (UTC)
- Thank you for your reply, and while I appreciate your concerns, the fact that there is a dearth of independent sources reporting on the subject is an important sign that must be recognized. For whatever reason, the Orlando Sentinal has decided that it would devote a substantial portion of its reporting to Beacon. Only the Sentinal's editors can say for sure why that was, but my guess is that it was because the publication is biased towards regional news stories. This is not to knock the Sentinal and its reputation. The Sentinal, as you know from having worked there for many years, is a very reputable publication. But no one is immune from the risks of developing a conflict of interest. The Orlando Sentinal may be an hour away, but in the minds of the editors the school is geographically close enough that they feel an obligation to cover it. This is the definition of having a regional bias. As far as the other school's articles you've mentioned, let's put those into perspective:
| College | Year opened |
|---|---|
| Curry College[a] | 1879 |
| Elon University[b] | 1889 |
| Rollins College[c] | 1885 |
| Beacon College | 1989 |
- As we can see from the chart above, the length of time that these individual colleges have had to generate independent sources is considerably different from that of Beacon. In the end, no one is suggesting that the article be devoid of these Sentinal sources, only that it should not be using so many of them to base the article upon. Reviewers need to be aware of this regional bias when deciding which sources are to be approved for use in articles, because that bias can have a great effect on the tone and composition of the article. Regards, Spintendo 05:41, 30 May 2019 (UTC)
Notes
- ^ The sourcing for this college leaves a lot to be desired, as indicated by the refimprove maintenance template.
- ^ This article is too reliant on its own sources.
- ^ This article is too reliant on its own sources. This is a longstanding problem with college articles in Wikipedia. (See also WP:UNIGUIDE for more information.)
Good morning, Spintendo:
Again, I appreciate your gracious response.
You ponder the reason why the Orlando Sentinel would "devote a substantial portion of its reporting to Beacon."
First of all, any major metropolitan newspaper worth its salt boasts a higher education reporter, and sometimes more than one (a large metropolitan area like Boston, with the embarrassment of riches it enjoys in institutions of higher learning might task several reporters to cover the higher education beat).
Consequently, a higher education reporter writes articles about the higher education institutions within the newspaper's geographic coverage area.
In the case of the Orlando Sentinel, these institutions would include Rollins College, the University of Central Florida, Seminole State College, Valencia College, Stetson University, (sometimes Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman), Lake-Sumter College, and, when warranted, Beacon College.
As such, this charge of "regional bias" doesn't compute. Obviously, a newspaper that covers higher education would cover news of the institutions of higher education in its regional coverage area. That would not be classified as bias. That would be classified as the newspaper doing its job.
Moreover, Beacon College received coverage by the Orlando Sentinel because of the school's novelty — Beacon College is one of only two colleges in the United States dedicated to educating students with learning disabilities, ADHD, and other learning differences. These are students who before 1989 when the school was founded had few options in pursuing postsecondary education.
Novelty is news. Therefore, of course, any newspaper — including The Orlando Sentinel — would cover novel news in its geographic area. That is the function of a standard newspaper operation — not evidence of regional bias.
Moreover, the chart that you included MAKES the argument I advanced.
Your chart rightly shows that the institutions noted have existed far longer than Beacon College. Yet, despite their maturity, their Wikipedia articles still rely on a preponderance of regional news coverage and self-generated sources.
Your argument suggests that given their longer operating lives that these schools should have been able to produce far more "non-regional/independent" and "non-biased" sources than their Wikipedia articles contain.
And yet they don't.
Yet, their articles pass muster.
So, returning to my main point, regarding the "dearth of independent sources," there was no way 30 years ago when the school was founded nor anyway today to compel news outlets outside the region to write articles about a small niche school outside their coverage areas. Nor is there any way Beacon College can jump into Dr. Who's Tardis and return to the past and compel or cajole news outlets, book authors, think tanks and others to pen articles about the Beacon College-related happenings that the Orlando Sentinel rightly chronicled.
The historical coverage of Beacon College to this point is what it is. There are no other sources to be found in the countless databases we search. You can't turn up what doesn't exist.
Given the reliance that many people across the globe now have with using Wikipedia articles as their go-to source for information about a subject, we recognize the importance, value, and desperate need for Beacon College to have a comprehensive — and accurate — Wikipedia article available for individuals researching the college. What currently exists is woefully out-of-date and woefully inadequate.
What recourse does the college have?
Darrylowens312 (talk) 14:32, 31 May 2019 (UTC)
Reposting this reply [looking for response and recourse] edit
Good morning, Spintendo:
Again, I appreciate your gracious response.
You ponder the reason why the Orlando Sentinel would "devote a substantial portion of its reporting to Beacon."
First of all, any major metropolitan newspaper worth its salt boasts a higher education reporter, and sometimes more than one (a large metropolitan area like Boston, with the embarrassment of riches it enjoys in institutions of higher learning might task several reporters to cover the higher education beat).
Consequently, a higher education reporter writes articles about the higher education institutions within the newspaper's geographic coverage area.
In the case of the Orlando Sentinel, these institutions would include Rollins College, the University of Central Florida, Seminole State College, Valencia College, Stetson University, (sometimes Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman), Lake-Sumter College, and, when warranted, Beacon College.
As such, this charge of "regional bias" doesn't compute. Obviously, a newspaper that covers higher education would cover news of the institutions of higher education in its regional coverage area. That would not be classified as bias. That would be classified as the newspaper doing its job.
Moreover, Beacon College received coverage by the Orlando Sentinel because of the school's novelty — Beacon College is one of only two colleges in the United States dedicated to educating students with learning disabilities, ADHD, and other learning differences. These are students who before 1989 when the school was founded had few options in pursuing postsecondary education.
Novelty is news. Therefore, of course, any newspaper — including The Orlando Sentinel — would cover novel news in its geographic area. That is the function of a standard newspaper operation — not evidence of regional bias.
Moreover, the chart that you included MAKES the argument I advanced.
Your chart rightly shows that the institutions noted have existed far longer than Beacon College. Yet, despite their maturity, their Wikipedia articles still rely on a preponderance of regional news coverage and self-generated sources.
Your argument suggests that given their longer operating lives that these schools should have been able to produce far more "non-regional/independent" and "non-biased" sources than their Wikipedia articles contain.
And yet they don't.
Yet, their articles pass muster.
So, returning to my main point, regarding the "dearth of independent sources," there was no way 30 years ago when the school was founded nor anyway today to compel news outlets outside the region to write articles about a small niche school outside their coverage areas. Nor is there any way Beacon College can jump into Dr. Who's Tardis and return to the past and compel or cajole news outlets, book authors, think tanks and others to pen articles about the Beacon College-related happenings that the Orlando Sentinel rightly chronicled.
The historical coverage of Beacon College to this point is what it is. There are no other sources to be found in the countless databases we search. You can't turn up what doesn't exist.
Given the reliance that many people across the globe now have with using Wikipedia articles as their go-to source for information about a subject, we recognize the importance, value, and desperate need for Beacon College to have a comprehensive — and accurate — Wikipedia article available for individuals researching the college. What currently exists is woefully out-of-date and woefully inadequate.
What recourse does the college have?
Darrylowens312 (talk) 18:13, 18 June 2019 (UTC)
- My reply may be found on my talk page for the next 30 days — after that, in the talk page archives. Please note that this page is not on my watchlist, so replies to me may go unanswered unless I'm notified on my talk page. Regards, Spintendo 23:44, 7 November 2019 (UTC)
added a section for "campus" edit
Agree with a previous poster who commented that this page needs some more information on it. I updated some of the statistics in the quick facts chart and added a section with some information on the campus, similar to what I see on other college articles.
I added some citations to U.S. News, but ran into the same issues as previous editors with finding non-primary sources. I kept my edits brief for today to avoid skewing the ratio of primary sources, but I'm not sure I quite see the issue- combing through wikipedia articles for larger universities, the majority seem to be overwhelmingly self-referential when comparing the number of primary and secondary sources as well.
This is my first Wikipedia edit, so hopefully I did everything correctly! Ari0ari0ari (talk) 21:54, 20 January 2024 (UTC)