Talk:Cal Poly

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Contents 1 The official position of the two universities 2 Popular Naming 3 Keeping it simple 4 Removal of this disambiguation page 5 Deciding to disambiguate

[edit] The official position of the two universities

According to Cal Poly's identity guidelines, "Cal Poly SLO" or anything similar is improper. San Luis Obispo is not a part of the name of the university. Officially, Cal Poly by itself unambiguously refers to California Polytechnic State University, which happens to be in San Luis Obispo.

On the other hand, Cal Poly Pomona's identity guidelines explicitly state that Pomona should always be included as a part of the name of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Though it may seem redundant to refer to the university as "California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in Pomona," it parallels the only clear and acceptable way to write "California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo." -Anþony 09:08, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Popular Naming

While the official position of the universities may differ from common usage, those of us who attended these schools know the name Cal Poly SLO and Cal Poly Pomona are the names used to refer to the universities in common. Moreover, as a graduate of Cal Poly SLO, I know that the school is commonly refered to as Poly, and that it is nearly as common for a student thereof to refer to the school as SLO, or by connection SLO Town, that being students go to the SLO Town school. Hence, I got my BS degree at SLO.William R. Buckley 17:40, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Also, do remember that the naming of these schools has changed with governmental edict.William R. Buckley 17:40, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Finally, the notion of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona at Pomona is utter nonsense.William R. Buckley 17:40, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

"Cal Poly SLO", "SLO", "SLO-Town", etc. are all improper names for the university. Simply put, San Luis Obispo is not part of the university name. Although many may append SLO for detraction of confusion, the fact is you graduated from Cal Poly, not "SLO".

While the university seems to leave out the city in its public documents. The California State University site and a multitude of other places still call it the "California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo". Furthermore, I think it's been pointed out that an act of the California legislature is required to actually change the official name of the institution. So, until there is proof of that, attempting to justify such a name change is moot.

Furthermore, while it is true that Cal Poly SLO is adjacent to the city proper, so is Cal Poly Pomona (except for an odd chunk of the main campus and some re-designated farmland). California public universities are autonomously operated. Attempting to be pedantic about that really doesn't help anything as both institutions use SLO and Pomona as their mailing addresses. -- Switchfoot 17:25, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Well then, how about the name change to CalState Hayward, which is now called CalState East Bay. The student body chose the name, and I do not believe you will be able to find legislation to have been passed to specifically approve the name change. William R. Buckley (talk) 17:26, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Some of the documents that I received from CalPoly upon my admission to the university include quite clearly upon their title page the name of the university as being California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. So, regardless of official dogma, even university officials of the time referred to the university as CPSUSLO, which by the way is how the university was then known within the Chancellors Office. Of course, at the time the universities as a whole were known as the California State University and Colleges system; CSUC (pronounced as sea-suck). Now, it is just the CSU. William R. Buckley 05:04, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Further, this back and forth series of changes from popular naming to official naming will get us nowhere. The article ought include details of the differences in naming and usage, otherwise we will see further bouncing off the walls of popular vs official naming. Specifically, we editors should come to a group concensus - enough information in the article will probably forestall the ping-ponging. William R. Buckley 05:17, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

What exactly is being discussed here, and what do you think should be changed? This is a disambiguation page and simply needs to provide links to the two articles that a person may be trying to get to. Basar 05:54, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

The answer to you question of what is being discussed is to be found in the various notes placed here on the talk page for the disambiguation page. Further, a review of the history of changes for the article will show that your change, mentioning that either school is known as Cal Poly, has been a point of contention in the past. Some editors have steadfastly held the position that only the SLO school is known as Cal Poly. Other editors, myself included, argue that the difference between popular naming and official naming ought to be included in the text of the disambiguation page. The fact that both positions have over time dominated the content of the disambiguation page points up the controversy. Frankly, my prior comments are quite clear; I do not understand how you could miss my point; I've already said what should be changed, which could easily be discerned from my prior statements, and from the historical record respecting versioning of the article. William R. Buckley 18:42, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, this is a disambiguation page, and it isn't supposed have any details concerning naming conventions. Whether or not one school is properly called Cal Poly or not, does not matter as long as you accept that a person might be referring to either school, mistakenly or not. Two links and the minimum text needed for differentiating the links is all that is needed on this kind of page. If you would like to add information about the proper naming conventions and their history, that information would gladly be accepted in the respective articles. You see, from my perspective, there isn't anything to argue about for this page since it should only serve to disambiguate the two pages. Basar 19:26, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

This sounds all fine to me. The more important aspect of our discussion is to establish a core of position regarding the content of the page. Following explicit guidelines is apparently satisfied by the edit you made. It is important for you to know that this page has experienced a variety of discussion on the topic of naming. Now that established policies are exposed on the talk page, perhaps the level of page alteration will be minimised - no POV wars, or the like. Thanks for your participation. William R. Buckley 21:45, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Keeping it simple

I removed the big chunk of historical info added in this version [1] to keep the disambiguation page in the traditional style [2]. I think the common or separate histories of the universities should be worked into the two articles instead of creating a mini third article here.Tyro 07:22, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removal of this disambiguation page

There should not be a disambiguation page for the two schools. According to Wikipedia, when two institutions share a similar or the same name, the disambiguation should be done in the articles themselves, not in a disambig page. "When only two articles share the same name, no disambiguation page is created. Disambiguation is done solely with top links (or hatnotes)." --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Naming_conventions_%28schools%29#United_States. In addition, there really is no need for disambig. "Cal Poly" refers to a university in San Luis Obispo, CA, and "Cal Poly Pomona" refers to a university in Pomona, CA. Any thoughts? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.96.184.105 (talk • contribs) 06:16, July 31, 2007

Your argument is good; however, that page is only a proposed guideline, and whoever was writing it didn't know how to make correct wikilinks. Also, the proposed guideline does not mention what should then be done with a page like this. -- Basar (talk · contribs) 22:57, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

In regard to this page, I think it should be removed. "Cal Poly" searches should go to the Cal Poly article, and Cal Poly Pomona seraches should go to CPP's article. Atop each page in both articles is a statement allowing redirection to the other university if the user mistakenly arrived at the site. What do you think?

I disagree. Both universities once had the same name. Evidentely, all the Cal Poly SLO or Cal Poly San Luis Obispo searches should go to the California Polytechnic State University article and all the Cal Poly Pomona searches go to the [[California State Polytechnic University, Pomona article. This is the use for all disambiguation pages!!! Besides I am from Southern California and most people in the Los Angeles area, Orange County, San Bernardino, Riverside, and even San Diego area think that Cal Poly is the university in Pomona, California. I don't know, I hope this doesn't lead to a heated debate over one little disambiguation =).-201.153.173.111 (talk) 01:59, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

I still believe the disambig page should be removed. Cal Poly is offically in San Luis Obispo. Cal Poly Pomona officially rebukes the "Cal Poly" name without Pomona - in their own guidelines. They are separate universities. Having a disambig page because people may confuse Cal Poly Pomona with Cal Poly isn't logical - it would be like adding Caltech to the page because some people mix the names up.

From - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Disambiguation - on deciding whether or not to disambiguate

I’m in agreement on keeping the disambiguation page as both universities had the same name; it seems as the right function for the use of a disambiguation page.--DavidD4scnrt (talk) 06:52, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Both universities do not have the same name. One is Cal Poly, and one is Cal Poly Pomona. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.202.196.168 (talk) 18:24, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Deciding to disambiguate

Ask yourself: When readers enter a given term in the Wikipedia search box and pushes 'Go', what article would they most likely be expecting to view as a result? For example, when someone looks up Joker, would they expect to find information on comedians? On a card? On Batman's nemesis? On the hit song or album by The Steve Miller Band? When there is risk of confusion, there should be a way to take the reader from an ambiguous page and title/term to any of the reasonable possibilities for that term". To me it doesn't get any clearer than what I just quoted, but it'd be better if Administrators vote to resolve this matter. -201.153.173.111 (talk) 03:40, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

I agree that it may be possible for confusion, but I think a disambig page is overkill. Take a look at what Penn and Penn State did: instead of a disambig page, they just have a small blurb on the top of each page directing to the other school if that is what the user is looking for. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.202.196.168 (talk) 04:33, 27 April 2008 (UTC)