FSU Wikipedia entry

Colleges & Universities Florida State University
1

<p>Lots of information and pix of FSU I have not seen elsewhere. Wikipedia is amazing - there’s even an entry from an 1889 book that was scanned.</p>

<p>[Florida</a> State University - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_State]Florida”>Florida State University - Wikipedia)</p>

2

<p>For some reason, I’ve visited the FSU Wiki page a lot more than the other schools I’m applying to. FSU is just a cool school. =]</p>

3

<p>Though I doubt they’re the only contributors, there’s a group of people who frequent the academics board on Warchant.com who collaborated to put that Wikipedia entry together. It’s definitely far more impressive than most university Wiki entries.</p>

4

<p>It is a nice compilation. Some of the same material is presented to students and parents at orientation!</p>

5

<p>I have seen some of the old images on campus, in museums and at FSU’s freshman Convocation. Nice.</p>

6

<p>Wikipedia has one of the best histories of FSU I’ve ever seen. Great links to historic photos and documents.</p>

7

<p>I don’t understand how UF is recognized as the oldest Florida university when the Westcott building currently is on the oldest site of higher education in Florida.</p>

8

<p>FSU is clearly the oldest. That’s hype by UF.</p>

9

<p>You’re right, UF does claim to be the oldest University. Here’s proof:
<a href=“http://www.che.ufl.edu/department/uf.html[/url]”>http://www.che.ufl.edu/department/uf.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.admissions.ufl.edu/prospectiveinternational.html[/url]”>http://www.admissions.ufl.edu/prospectiveinternational.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>However, the hype is not only coming from UF.</p>

<p>Here, the Orlando Sentinel says it is the oldest:
<a href=“http://www.orlandosentinel.com/topic/education/colleges-universities/university-of-florida-OREDU0000153.topic[/url]”>http://www.orlandosentinel.com/topic/education/colleges-universities/university-of-florida-OREDU0000153.topic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Here, IBM claims that UF is the oldest:
<a href=“IBM Products”>IBM Products;

<p>Even CASE, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, says the same:
<a href=“http://www.case.org/guide/pages2007/2007_un_of_florida.html[/url]”>http://www.case.org/guide/pages2007/2007_un_of_florida.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>-</p>

<p>So, if FSU is clearly the oldest, then why does everybody else not agree?</p>

10

<p>I doubt they have done any research into the issue. They just accepted what UF put on its website and published it.</p>

<p>UF initially used 1905 as its foundational date and FSU used 1851.</p>

<p>Here’s one article on the subject: <a href=“http://www.sptimes.com/News/072900/news_pf/State/FSU_s_age_change__his.shtml[/url]”>http://www.sptimes.com/News/072900/news_pf/State/FSU_s_age_change__his.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>The UF history professor is apparently unaware of the 1889 book, a scanned image of which is linked to the FSU Wikipedia article, wherein the predecessor of FSU (the West Florida Seminary) was originally called the “University of Florida”. His reasoning actually supports FSU as the older school. See page # 46: <a href=“http://www.cfmemory.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/cfm&CISOPTR=46918[/url]”>http://www.cfmemory.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/cfm&CISOPTR=46918&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Secondly, from my reading of the Wikipedia article it appears the East Florida Seminary ceased to exist during the Civil War.</p>

11

<p>Here’s another article on the subject from the Miami Herald, published in 1992. Unfortunately, you have to pay to see the article but you get the gist from the synopsis about how “UF Tinkered with Time”:
[Miami</a> Herald: Search Results](<a href=“Pardon Our Interruption”>Pardon Our Interruption)</p>

<p>You can also see from another article in Wikipedia lots of details of FSU’s early history, which extend back much farther than 1853:
[History</a> of Florida State University - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Florida_State_University]History”>History of Florida State University - Wikipedia)</p>

12

<p>The information you have is very interesting.</p>

<p>The problem with Wikipedia is, no professor in his right mind will take it seriously.</p>

<p>I’ve experienced first hand some extremely ridiculous information on Wikipedia about my high school- which rival school students wrote was built on the location of my city’s first adult entertainment store. They even went so far as to write the first african-american woman to hold an international adult pornography license was killed during a filming accident there. The truth is that my school was built on the location of native american burial ground and its just ridiculous the things people write on wikipedia. Just not trustworthy.</p>

13

<p>Correct. That’s why I gave you the sources. Those articles are heavily referenced.</p>

14

<p>mhmm. After going through the one about the history of florida education I was convinced.</p>

<p>I wonder why the status of UF being the oldest in FL hasn’t been changed- at least enough for them to stop advertising as if they are on their website.</p>

<p>Then again i’m starting to think this whole age thing is trivial =/</p>

15

<p>It is a rivalry, but its not exactly trivial. </p>

<p>Age speaks of credibility and those who don’t look up references tend to believe such claims and things like magazine rankings. Such is a conscious effort at marketing.</p>

<p>What you do now is start matching up all the disparate bits of information and see how the complex story fits together. No one or university can orchestrate information for different sources over decades and even centuries. The UF history story falls apart and FSU’s comes together over the years. This reconciliation of historic events through sources like the official archives of the State of Florida, a very old book from a library in Orlando, scanned documents from the special collections section of FSU’s library and so on speaks of truth because it is believable. It is believable because everyone knows from personal experience the facts are real. This is credibility.</p>

<p>Have fun. As a graduate of FSU I’ve known about such claims and the real story for a long time.</p>

<p>If you want to really go “wow” check out these photos. One is from the Florida State College in 1902 and the other from more recent times at UF.</p>

<p>1902 FSC football team: [File:Florida</a> State rc01140.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Florida_State_rc01140.jpg]File:Florida”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Florida_State_rc01140.jpg)
Recent UF sports logo: [File:UF</a> logo (1992-1997).png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UF_logo_(1992-1997).png]File:UF”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UF_logo_(1992-1997).png)</p>

<p>See anything familiar in each?</p>

16

<p>I’ve heard that FSU’s football team “migrated” to UF a long time ago, (I think thats what Ive heard)</p>

17

<p>It was involuntary and unpopular. It was a very controversial decision by the Legislature in 1905 that stank of misogyny and racism. A lawyer named Buckman from Jacksonville was responsible.</p>

<p>The history of FSU page does a pretty good job of discussing it.</p>

18

<p>From the Wikipedia site, here is another really interesting reference of a book from 1903 that was scanned and made available on the web:
[Florida</a> Heritage Collection](<a href=“http://fulltext.fcla.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=fhp;cc=fhp;sid=d841011860860226ef5adb401ad147cd;rgn=full%20text;idno=FS00000038;a=48;view=jpg;node=FS00000038%3A76;seq=135]Florida”>http://fulltext.fcla.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=fhp;cc=fhp;sid=d841011860860226ef5adb401ad147cd;rgn=full%20text;idno=FS00000038;a=48;view=jpg;node=FS00000038%3A76;seq=135)</p>

<p>This is further corroboration that FSU is indeed the oldest university in Florida. Note that the first part reads “The oldest State College in Florida. Established 1851. Operated continuously since November, 1856”.</p>

19

<p>I heard during the tours that it had to do with the seminary becoming an all-female school, so the male athletes had to leave.</p>

<p>and it wasn’t until after world war 2 that FSU had male athletes again…</p>

<p>which would explain why UF is so good at football…</p>