I am a research scientist (molecular microbiology) with three 30-something children and five college/university degrees (BA, BS, MA, MS, and PhD in English/Journalism, Teaching, Biochemistry, Microbiology, & Immunology). I had an early career at TIME Magazine, then also technical writing for medical instrumentation, programming in Fortran using punch cards, and sending email in Unix. Most of my molecular research has been done at three universities, USDA, and NIH. In 2011, I retired after a productive career and several dozen peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. I continue to be a member of ELSEVIER’s Veterinary Microbiology Editorial Board.
Fifty years ago, the first college I attended was Mackinac College, where I enjoyed cross-country ski racing. In 1970, when I graduated from Mackinac College, I was managing editor of The Mackinac Quadrennial, an uncopyrighted photo yearbook of the college. I have not published elsewhere on this topic. Because the college ran out of money and closed that year, I’ve had no professional or financial relationship with the college.
My initial Wikipedia experience was in 2006. At that time – in addition to other activities – I started researching, writing, and learning how to organize and contribute scientific information to Wikipedia. I consider Wikipedia the most important encyclopedic resource for humankind. So, whenever I find errors or missing citations in Wikipedia articles, I attempt to correct them.
In 2013, I was disappointed to see the quality of the Mackinac College Wikipedia article (the other colleges/universities I graduated from have GREAT wiki pages). At that time the article had:
- 10 unreferenced sentences about the college,
- 32 unreferenced sentences about pre-college history and Moral Re-Armament building construction,
- 9 unreferenced sentences about post-college time.
I decided to improve the MC wiki, organizing a course of action by contacting Jreferee, purchasing books on Amazon, obtaining books published by the college, and contacting people from the college who were still alive. The first step in the plan was to divide the Mackinac College wiki into three separate wiki articles: ‘Before’, ‘During’, and ‘After’ the Mackinac College period. Overnight on 31 January 2014 TheRedPenOfDoom carried this out, creating three stubs and reducing the Mackinac College page to one sentence. Then, during February 2014, I uploaded the ‘Before’ and ‘After’ articles that I had written: Mission Point (Mackinac Island) and Mackinac College (Humbard). Meanwhile TheRedPenOfDoom rebuilt the Mackinac College page largely using the online text of Daniel Sack’s book “Moral Re-Armament: The Reinventions of an American Religious Movement, 2009.” I added the current infobox to this article on 03:17 26 February 2014.
Since 2013 I have been (slowly) writing a history of Mackinac College for its Wikipedia page. My draft includes material that contributes to WikiProject Michigan, as well as photos and 58 references. Last year it was reviewed and improved by the surviving Mackinac College community. On March 7, 2018, I uploaded the draft to the Mackinac College Talk page (number 6 in the Table of Contents) as I had been told by one Wikipedia editor that this was the correct approach. Later, I was advised by another editor to use my draft to make small changes to the existing wiki. But this triggered responses from Wikipedia's John from Idegon and Theroadislong that suggested this was the wrong approach.
In the current Mackinac College wiki, the references and content are in many cases wrong or misleading (see number 5 in the Mackinac College Talk Table of Contents). So I hope to find editors who will know how to use my draft (number 6 in the Table of Contents) to improve the Mackinac College Wikipedia article.Karin D. E. Everett (talk) 18:44, 25 April 2018 (UTC)
