Talk:William Arthur Ganfield

Featured articleWilliam Arthur Ganfield is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.
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Article milestones
DateProcessResult
April 22, 2025Good article nomineeListed
July 13, 2025Featured article candidatePromoted
Did You Know
A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on May 19, 2025.
The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that William Arthur Ganfield often wore a red tie when Carroll College was running a deficit and a black tie when it was running a surplus?
Current status: Featured article

GA review

Passed. IAWW (talk) 19:37, 22 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

This review is transcluded from Talk:William Arthur Ganfield/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: PCN02WPS (talk · contribs) 19:54, 17 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reviewer: It is a wonderful world (talk · contribs) 11:40, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]


Time to review another Centre College president! You must be getting rather close to finishing a good topic on these. IAWW (talk) 11:40, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

As always, I was very impressed by your depth of research on this article. I really enjoyed reading it and found very few issues. Comments are below. IAWW (talk) 12:24, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@PCN02WPS I am very happy with your changes and believe all my points have been resolved. I'm just waiting on the Weston source pages and then I'll pass. IAWW (talk) 19:08, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@It is a wonderful world thank you for the kind words and for such a thorough review! As it happens, I am 3 away from a GT at present, with one in progress, though I've been working on that on-and-off for a while. I emailed you scans of the requested Weston pages - let me know if you need any other source material and I'll be happy to send it over! PCN02WPS (talk | contribs) 17:11, 22 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That's great to hear! You have made a monumental effort on these articles, a GT is a rather meager reward, but it would be satisfying nonetheless :)
I just had one issue with one of the claims the Weston source supports. Details below. Thank you for taking the time to send the pages over, I loved your annotations! IAWW (talk) 18:48, 22 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@It is a wonderful world added Centre historian William Weston wrote that this was partially... to begin the clause which should hopefully fix the outstanding issue. PCN02WPS (talk | contribs) 19:28, 22 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Happy with this. Passing. IAWW (talk) 19:36, 22 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Prose (Criteria 1a, 1b, 4) Magenta clockclock

Lead

the 1919 team was retroactively recognized as national champions and the 1921 team won a major upset victory over Harvard: Add a comma before "and" (WP:CINS) IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Nice work on the article linked from "major upset victory over Harvard". IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

as a requirement of all students: "for" seems more correct than "of" here IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Athletics enjoyed increased attention and success: Suggest changing to "sport". "Athletics" refers only to Sport of athletics at least in the UK, so I misinterpreted it initially. IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

As faculty numbers grew, fixed salaries were implemented and pensions were introduced during the Great Depression: I initially read this as fixed salaries being implemented and pensions being introduced both "as faculty numbers grew". There should be a comma before "and pensions" to make it clear that the "As faculty members grew" modifier applies to the fixed salaries, and the "during the Great Depression" modifier refers to the pensions being introduced. IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  • Fixed with some slight changes - I rearranged the sentence a bit to try to avoid putting a ton of commas (a bad habit of mine) and hopefully to clear up the wording as well. PCN02WPS (talk | contribs) 16:27, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Early life and education

"Afterwards" -> "Afterward" for American English consistency IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Green Bay and Waukesha, 1900–1915

Suggest linking "Cedar Rapids" and "Winnebago" IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

became interim pastor: I think "the interim pastor" is more correct here IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Presidency in Danville, 1915–1921

I suggest linking "Central University of Kentucky" and making it clear that it is the same thing as Centre College IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Could you email me Weston p. 63–66? There is a number of things I want to check. IAWW (talk) 11:40, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Many of Ganfield's major decisions worked to reverse this in an effort to get the school's enrollment and endowment back up, though he did conduct a fundraiser which was planned for completion in 1919, in time for the college's centennial, prior to such a reversal: This was quite hard to follow for me. I suggest splitting it up into two sentences. IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Another major change took place when the school reverted to the "Centre College" name on December 17, 1918: Why was this done? IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  • The Board of Trustees minutes just has a motion to change the name, so I'll have to check to see whether the Weston book has any rationale. I suspect it was just a desire to return to the original name for purposes of tradition or something like that. PCN02WPS (talk | contribs) 16:56, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Don't worry about adding this if it will take too long. It would be a nice addition but is far from necessary. IAWW (talk) 17:43, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Athletics, particularly football, were emphasized: I suggest changing "Athletics" to "sport", so it is understandable to non-US English speakers as well. IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

generally viewed as one of the largest upsets in college football history: I think this WP:EXCEPTIONAL claim should have multiple sources. IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This athletic success came at the price of declining academic standards: Is this causal connection stated as a fact really evidenced by the source? IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Return to Carroll, 1921–1939

Ganfield had accepted the presidency earlier that year but his new contract dictated that he would not leave Centre until after the Harvard game: There should be a comma before "but", as it joins two independent clauses. IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Throughout his term, daily chapel attendance was upheld as a requirement for all students and church attendance remained a requirement for faculty members: Same as above, but with the conjunction "and". IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

What is a "primary" and a "Class 1 U.S. Senate seat"? IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

after earning just 27.8% of the vote: Cut "just" as it is editorializes. IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I think "general election" should be linked to the specific one he won. IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Is "Presbyterian Synod of Wisconsin" notable enough for a redlink? IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

What is a "platform committee"? IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

His interest in sports included a prediction that: I think change to just "He predicted that..." for conciseness. IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Is the Carroll basketball team notable enough for a redlink? IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest linking "league titles" to the league they won. IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Pensions, a fixed salary scale, and tenure for faculty members were major issues during Ganfield's administration: Was there a growing pressure to implement these policies? I think the reason why they were "major issues" should be explicitly mentioned. IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

during years where the school was in debt: Do you mean running at a loss? IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  • I don't know the first thing about economics, so I don't know the difference, but here's the direct quote: The red tie that Ganfield wore around campus during the years when the College was "in the red" with a deficit, could finally be changed again to black—the signal of better times. PCN02WPS (talk | contribs) 17:59, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Ah yes, there is a big difference between running at a deficit and being in debt. Running at a deficit means you are losing money by running the business (e.g. you are losing £100 per month). Being in debt means you owe money in total (e.g. the endowment is -$2000). IAWW (talk) 18:04, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Oh, yikes - fixed that. Thanks for the clarification! PCN02WPS (talk | contribs) 18:14, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

they must earn a master's degree: Must "have earned"? Or could they obtain a master's while already having got the job. IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Carroll was passed over: What does this mean? IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Personal life and death

Suggest linking "Presbyterian Hospital" IAWW (talk) 11:42, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Sources Magenta clockclock

Health/formatting (Criterion 2a) checkY

Beautiful formatting and no dead links. It would be great if the internet refs could be archived to prevent link rot in the future. IAWW (talk) 12:23, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  • Running IABot for this (I usually overuse IABot so I'm a little surprised I never got around to it for this one). It only rescued 2, but I guess that's better than 0. PCN02WPS (talk | contribs) 18:13, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    It's so annoying that IABot does that, I have no idea why it skips some references that have perfectly good archives. It doesn't depend on the ref type or website, it just seems to skip over some (many) randomly. IAWW (talk) 19:06, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Reliability (Criterion 2b) checkY

Self-published sources are used sparingly for details about themselves. Other sources are old newspapers and reliable books. The self-published Weston source is very academic in tone, and it is not used extensively.

Spot check (Criteria 2b, 2c, 2d) Magenta clockclock

Spot check based on this version.

[1a, 2a]: checkY

[2b]: checkY

[8]: ☒N Doesn't support "In late 1911, Ganfield became interim pastor of the Congregational Church in Menomonie, Wisconsin, following the resignation of that church's pastor". Supports the rest. IAWW (talk) 12:23, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  • Added a new source to cover that, though I removed "following the resignation..." since it's not mentioned directly in the source and is kind of redundant as-is. PCN02WPS (talk | contribs) 18:13, 21 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

[9]: checkY

[15a]: No evidence is given in the source for a causal relationship here. The source does opine that the church decisions "clearly mattered" though, so I would suggest stating it as an attributed opinion rather than a fact. IAWW (talk) 18:40, 22 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

[16]: checkY

[4b]: checkY

[31]: checkY

[33]: checkY

[43]: checkY

[54]: checkY

Copyvio (Criterion 2d) checkY

Earwig finds nothing, I found nothing of concern on the spot check.

Scope (Criteria 3a, 3b) checkY

Clearly quite comprehensive

Stable (Criterion 5) checkY

Media checkY

Tags (Criterion 6a) checkY

Captions (Criterion 6b) checkY

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Juxlos talk 00:57, 12 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Improved to Good Article status by PCN02WPS (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 86 past nominations.

PCN02WPS (talk | contribs) 20:14, 22 April 2025 (UTC).[reply]

General: Article is new enough and long enough
Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
  • Cited: Yes - Offline/paywalled citation accepted in good faith
  • Interesting: Yes
QPQ: Done.
Overall: Newly-promoted GA. Article looks good, nice work. AGF on the hook source. I'm not sure about Wikitionary links either. ALT0 approved, and if the promoter knows if wikitionary-type hooks are allowed, then ALT2 could be promoted at the promoter's discretion as well. BeanieFan11 (talk) 01:02, 26 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]


allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:William_Arthur_Ganfield