The University of Pennsylvania has plenty of officials — its archivist, its admissions director, its entire public-relations staff — who might be inclined to tinker with the institution's entry in Wikipedia. But so far, they've all managed to resist the temptation. And that's just as it should be, according to Dan Smith.
Mr. Smith, a software engineer who lives near Boston, has made an unlikely crusade out of purging colleges' Wikipedia articles of "irritating braggadocio" inserted by proud alumni and protective employees. He's edited plenty of hyperbolic college articles, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian, and sparred with more than his share of academic boosters:
As for Penn, he was particularly vexed, he said, when someone tried to label the school as one of the Ivy League's "Big Four" universities on the site, along with Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Alas, there is no Ivy League Big Four, and Smith quickly expunged the edit, chalking it up as an example of failed Ivy League status climbing.
Mr. Smith is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but he seems to have taught himself plenty about Penn: Campus officials say his contributions to the university's Wikipedia page are all accurate. —Brock Read
