Talk:Catholic University of Leuven

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[edit] Proposal to split into three articles

Right now, we have two pages Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Université catholique de Louvain writing about a common history, the split, common 'notable alumni', etc... Perhaps it is a good idea to split the entire subject into three pages:

1. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, about the post-1968 university in Leuven
2. Université catholique de Louvain, about the post-1968 university in Louvain-la-Neuve
3. The Catholic University of Leuven until 1968 (does somebody know a better title?), containing the history of the university (including a section about 1968) and the pre-1968 famous alumni. This would also avoid having two treatments of the 1968 events, one from a Flemish POV and one from a French POV.

Then, as is common on wikipedia, these articles can have first lines such as:

This page is about the modern Dutch language university in Leuven, Belgium. For its French language counter part in Louvain-la-Neuve, see Université catholique de Louvain, for their common history, see The Catholic University of Leuven until 1968

--Lenthe 09:50, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

Why not just use the English name for the common article (no "until 1968"), and either the French and Dutch names for the successor universities, or the English name for all three, with something disambiguating for the successor universities. As this is an old university, most of what is interesting to write about it (them) is probably part of the common history of both contemporary institutions. Cf. University of Paris (which is far too short, but where the "simple" title is that of the historic university (the difference being, of course, that its successor institutions have longer names which retain their difference even in translated form).

I have no personal affiliation with either university of Leuven, but may be biased in that I think the history of a university is what is of most interest to an encyclopedia article. The longer, mostly American, university articles on Wikipedia are usually dominated by recruitment-brochurecruft of less interest to outsiders. --Uppland 10:25, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

I agree with Uppland--Teal6 14:42, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merge proposal

I strongly oppose the merge as suggested a few days ago (without even an edit summary!). Per the above reasoning, this article is about the unified University. Linking it to the French one (or to the Flemish one) would exclude half of its descendants, and duplicating the info would be overkill. What's wrong with the current situation? Fram 12:58, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

I equally stringly oppose the second merge proposal, and you can hardly merge the same article into two other ones (since you can only redirect it to one of them). Anyway, if you want either merge, please explain here why. Fram 21:12, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Interwiki Examples

Hi everyone. When I stumbled upon this merge proposal, I checked out what was the situation on the french Wikipedia.

Even though some articles are still stubs in other languages, I think Lenthe's suggestion should be adapted in this fashion:

• Catholic University of Leuven: Becomes disambiguation page
  • Interwiki: fr:Université catholique de Louvain

• Catholic University of Leuven (Leuven): Page with the common history, alumni, etc.
  • Current: Catholic University of Leuven
  • Interwiki: fr:Université catholique de Louvain (Louvain)

• Catholic University of Leuven (Louvain-la-Neuve): Modern French University
  • Current: Université catholique de Louvain
  • Interwiki: fr:Université catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve)

• Catholic University of Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven): Modern Dutch University
  • Current: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  • Interwiki: fr:Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

I believe the Dutch Wikipedia currently has only two pages:

• nl:Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
• nl:Université catholique de Louvain

Following this example, I believe the four pages suggestion should provide the best interwiki template to preserve neutrality.

So this is my take on the question. Hope it helps : )
Stéphane Thibault 01:32, 8 November 2006 (UTC) ^Talk

I agree. Because of that, I think the main article should be Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; Université catholique de Louvain should mention the common history in a stub section, with a {{main|Katholieke Universiteit Leuven}} label.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 17:49, 11 December 2006 (UTC)