History of Hillsdale College wiki page
Tony Gonzalez
Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: News
Now nearly four years old, the Hillsdale College entry at Wikipedia has a led a relatively calm life for an encyclopedic entry open to revision by anyone with an Internet connection.
Tracked automatically, each revision, from the site's birth at 272 words in June 2004, can be found in a few clicks.
Instances of Internet vandalism - like the injection of words like "neoconservative" and "Christian fundamentalist" in place of "conservative, non-denominational" - dot the entry's history.
Yet most manipulations are removed within a minute and vandalism victims on campus take their place in the page's history without worry. Even college administrators said they don't fear misrepresentation at the site.
"It's actually been a pretty calm article," said Bobak Ha'Eri, a 28-year-old attorney turned Wikipedia administrator.
Ha'Eri, who has edited Hillsdale's page along with hundreds of other university entries, compared the frequency of posts about Hillsdale and his alma mater, the University of Southern California. Whereas USC saw more than 50 edits this month, the previous 50 edits for Hillsdale date back to September 2007.
But for those with ties to the college, the page's history holds a host of humorous and hot-button revisions.
Dean of Men Aaron Petersen was the target of positive, then negative, descriptions launched from a campus computer, according to an IP address logged on the site.
Petersen said he was aware of an April 2007 edit which described him as, "mentor to students, father to 6 wonderful children, talented athlete at the collegiate level, strives to be a big S Saint."
One month later, that description became more detailed and hyperbolic: "Dean of Men, Roman Catholic, father to 7 wonderful children, talented at shutting down fraternity parties, strives to be the next saint mentioned in Hillsdale's core liberal arts classes by the time he retires."
In a response e-mail to The Collegian, Petersen wrote: "Clearly the person who wrote the second part is not up to speed on the process of how saints become canonized, because it would be impossible for me to be a saint by the time I retire…So obviously, that person needs to look up canonization at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonization."
Petersen is no longer listed in the entry.
Reputation in the revisions
Although Wikipedia critics lament the freewheeling editing of the site, many acts of vandalism - in which editors add false information, jokes, insults or gushing praise - are removed within seconds by watchful page editors and increasingly common computer programs that search for aggressive editing and profanity.
Administrators said this week they're not concerned about the college's image as represented on the site.
"I have never once had a prospective student cite Wikipedia as a source of information or disinformation," said Jeff Lantis, director of admissions.
Admissions counselors Lauren Clark '07 and Joe Petrides '06 likewise cited no examples of Wikipedia being mentioned in interviews.
President Larry Arnn, who has been called "Larry P. Diddy Arnn," as well as "neoconservative" in the entry, said he doesn't fear the college's reputation has been marred.
Doug Jeffrey, vice president of external affairs, said his department doesn't monitor the page.
"It never occurred to me to do anything about it," he said.
Juxtaposed with descriptions of faculty firings, the college's supposed love for Ron Paul and alleged intolerance on campus are more mundane changes.
For example, Wikipedia editors, in all their diversity and anonymity, struggled to choose a single way in which to refer to Professor of History Burt Folsom. The article toggled from "Dr. Folsom" to "Dr. Burton Folsom," to "Dr. Burton W. Folsom, Jr.," and back to "Burt Folsom."
"Whoever I am, I'm glad I'm in there," Folsom said. "I'm just glad they didn't call me Elmer."
Wiki stats
Wikipedia is has consistently been one of the ten most-visited sites on the Internet since February 2007, according to Alexa Internet, Inc. About 9 percent of the world's Internet users visit the site each day, which includes more than 2 million articles.
To see Hillsdale College on Wikipedia yourself, please click here.
Tracked automatically, each revision, from the site's birth at 272 words in June 2004, can be found in a few clicks.
Instances of Internet vandalism - like the injection of words like "neoconservative" and "Christian fundamentalist" in place of "conservative, non-denominational" - dot the entry's history.
Yet most manipulations are removed within a minute and vandalism victims on campus take their place in the page's history without worry. Even college administrators said they don't fear misrepresentation at the site.
"It's actually been a pretty calm article," said Bobak Ha'Eri, a 28-year-old attorney turned Wikipedia administrator.
Ha'Eri, who has edited Hillsdale's page along with hundreds of other university entries, compared the frequency of posts about Hillsdale and his alma mater, the University of Southern California. Whereas USC saw more than 50 edits this month, the previous 50 edits for Hillsdale date back to September 2007.
But for those with ties to the college, the page's history holds a host of humorous and hot-button revisions.
Dean of Men Aaron Petersen was the target of positive, then negative, descriptions launched from a campus computer, according to an IP address logged on the site.
Petersen said he was aware of an April 2007 edit which described him as, "mentor to students, father to 6 wonderful children, talented athlete at the collegiate level, strives to be a big S Saint."
One month later, that description became more detailed and hyperbolic: "Dean of Men, Roman Catholic, father to 7 wonderful children, talented at shutting down fraternity parties, strives to be the next saint mentioned in Hillsdale's core liberal arts classes by the time he retires."
In a response e-mail to The Collegian, Petersen wrote: "Clearly the person who wrote the second part is not up to speed on the process of how saints become canonized, because it would be impossible for me to be a saint by the time I retire…So obviously, that person needs to look up canonization at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonization."
Petersen is no longer listed in the entry.
Reputation in the revisions
Although Wikipedia critics lament the freewheeling editing of the site, many acts of vandalism - in which editors add false information, jokes, insults or gushing praise - are removed within seconds by watchful page editors and increasingly common computer programs that search for aggressive editing and profanity.
Administrators said this week they're not concerned about the college's image as represented on the site.
"I have never once had a prospective student cite Wikipedia as a source of information or disinformation," said Jeff Lantis, director of admissions.
Admissions counselors Lauren Clark '07 and Joe Petrides '06 likewise cited no examples of Wikipedia being mentioned in interviews.
President Larry Arnn, who has been called "Larry P. Diddy Arnn," as well as "neoconservative" in the entry, said he doesn't fear the college's reputation has been marred.
Doug Jeffrey, vice president of external affairs, said his department doesn't monitor the page.
"It never occurred to me to do anything about it," he said.
Juxtaposed with descriptions of faculty firings, the college's supposed love for Ron Paul and alleged intolerance on campus are more mundane changes.
For example, Wikipedia editors, in all their diversity and anonymity, struggled to choose a single way in which to refer to Professor of History Burt Folsom. The article toggled from "Dr. Folsom" to "Dr. Burton Folsom," to "Dr. Burton W. Folsom, Jr.," and back to "Burt Folsom."
"Whoever I am, I'm glad I'm in there," Folsom said. "I'm just glad they didn't call me Elmer."
Wiki stats
Wikipedia is has consistently been one of the ten most-visited sites on the Internet since February 2007, according to Alexa Internet, Inc. About 9 percent of the world's Internet users visit the site each day, which includes more than 2 million articles.
To see Hillsdale College on Wikipedia yourself, please click here.
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