On 6/14/07, David Goodman dgoodmanny@gmail.com wrote:
We could just as easily extend this a little and say that the University of Maryland is a relatively minor figure among American Universities, or Maryland among American States.
You could say just about anything, but not all of it would be true. Indeed, the evidence is right there in the article: much is said about UMCP, and little is said about these presidents.
Saying all university presidents are notable is just the first step towards a sane policy, and one which has i think been taken--saying all research university full professors are notable has also been consistently maintained at AfD. There are some things about which consensus does form in a sensible direction.
Well, if everyone in a certain position is notable, then we could go forth and say that all positions are notable. At any rate, there are some 1400 tenure and tenure-track faculty at UMD. Harvard has more. That makes hundreds of thousands "notable", just counting present faculty; the dead of course hugely outnumber them. The survival of the project relies upon the lack of interest most people have in entering these directories (for that is what they will largely be).