Talk:Famous Residents

residents versus alumni

I think we should pull famous alumni out of this list and put them in a separate page or section. Not to demean the almni, but I wouldn't consider someone who went to school here to be a resident in the traditional sense of the word. They are noteworthy, but noteworthy for other reasons. -Chrobb 12:54, 14 May 2006 (EDT)

Hmmm, this is what Wikipedia does and I can agree with it to some degree, but I think wikipedia does it because they are thinking in terms of global scope. While I realize that many students who attend IU never get involved with the non-campus community, they did not have a complete aversion to Bloomington. For instance, with Jared Fogel, who is under the alumni category on Wikipedia's IU page is more remembered for what he did at Subway than what he majored in. Jeri Taylor also is more remembered for using references to Bloomington in her scripts than any affiliation with IU. Of course, she was born here too. But she is mentioned on Wikipedia's IU alumni page and not under Famous residents. I'm all for having a noteable alumni/faculty/staff page, but I think the famous residents page should include all and mostly include those that are actually well known outside of Bloomington and outside of just one subject. I think if we're going to have a notable alumni page that showcases people who made notable accomplishments (not necessarily famous or a household name) then we should have a notable residents page. People like David Lee Roth are considered famous and most everyone knows who they are, but people like Malcolm Dalglish are accomplished, but not really well known (Of course, what do I know, maybe he is. Actually, I think I've seen him around town). I realize that its not easy to quantify famousness though and there is a large grey line there. Maybe you could say that famous people have fans, people write books about them, etc. -- Mark 13:44, 14 May 2006 (EDT)

It sounds like you're speaking to two different things here: 1) keeping the alumni as part of the residents page, and 2) a general argument for a famous residents page. The second one, I agree with of course. As for the first, I think I'd be happy enough with a separate section for the alumni on the Famous Residents page. To be honest, when I think of famous residents, my immediate thought is people who were born here, or have spent a significant portion of their life here. A "significant portion" is subjective, of course, and you can argue that four years of college is significant enough, but I think motive also plays into it. Going to college is part of an educational track. I think it comes down more to whether we think that people decide to go to school in Bloomington Indiana, or whether they decide to go to Indiana University, which happens to be in Bloomington, Indiana. I think it's a safe assumption that the vast majority of students put the choice of school over the choice of community. It's true that many students choose to engage the community directly, but I think their initial motivation here is to be at the school, not to be in the community. Whether that changes over time, dictates whether they stick around. I wouldn't really consider myself a resident of Bloomington until 1999 when I decided to take a full-time job, get married and settle down after University life. But that's me. -Chrobb 15:06, 14 May 2006 (EDT)

I think there should be a split of Notable alumni (those who would have a legitimate transcript at the registrar's office) and notable residents (those who don't). My only thought on this is that when a university sends out some promotional thing saying "here are all of the great people who have gone here, and you should too", it shouldn't include David Lee Roth. And I think the wikipedia page for IU went through the same discussion, and they decided on an alumni list, and a resident list. You could probably go nuts with it and also have notable faculty and staff (is Bobby Knight a resident?) --Jkonrath 18:35, 18 July 2006 (EDT)

David Wolf

I don't know how much you want to split hairs on this, but David Wolf got his undergrad at Purdue, a medical degree from IUPUI, and then an honorary degree from IU (which may or may not have been presented in Bloomington, it may have been in Indy.) So he really wasn't a Bloomington resident. He is an alumnus of the university as a greater whole, but I don't think that really counts... --Jkonrath 18:30, 18 July 2006 (EDT)