`U.S. News' rankings under fire
In one statement from the Stanford chapter of FUNC, students wrote, "Most glaringly, there has been a new program introduced called the Stanford Fund. This program pays student groups to solicit donations from alumni not so much to raise money (Stanford already raises more money than almost any other school) but to increase the percentage of alumni who give.
"When students work for the Stanford Fund, they are informed that Stanford ranks a mere 26th in U.S. News ' `percentage of alumni who give' and that by soliciting donations, we will be able to return to number one."
According to Rice's Vice President for University Advancement Kathryn Costello, "Rice is in the fortunate position that while the university is always pleased to be recognized ... [Rice's ranking] is not a factor that has driven us to make decisions. The president, provosts and faculty make their decisions on what we think are the right things to do. [The rankings] don't drive our decisions, nor should they."
Fluctuations in ranking also invite criticism. For example, two years ago, Johns Hopkins University was ranked 22nd in the "best national university" category. The next year, it was 10th, and this year, Hopkins was placed 15th.
"It is ridiculous to think that the quality of any university could fluctuate so much from year to yeat when its essential structure remains the same," SA Vice President for Internal Affairs Michael Munson said.
Another complaint the coalition's members share is that U.S. News , by ranking each university, is judging what is impossible to judge.
"The ratings are silly. There is no way to finely tune the differences between the nation's outstanding universities [with a few formulas]," Rice's Vice President of Finance and Administration Dean Currie said. "These rankings have what we call the illusion of precision, not precision."
The Stanford students also wrote, "Moreover, the rankings are arbitrary, bordering on irresponsible, subjective and often misleading, but are taken as dogma by many prospective college applicants, employers and parents."
The SA has become involved in the movement, passing a resolution Monday night recommending that U.S. News and World Report reform their ranking system.
"It's important to reform a system that has never had any oversight to it," SA Vice President for External Affairs Charles Klein said.
SA members were concerned with the importance the rankings have to prospective college students.
"You consider it the truth," Munson said. "The quality of some schools can be overlooked [by students] because they might not be one of the top 10 schools."
Students are not the only participants in the reform movement. The president of Stanford University has sent a letter to James Fallows, editor of U.S. News and World Report , urging the reform of the ranking system. Klein believes that the two sides will come together soon.
"There will be a middle-ground compromise eventually," Klein said.
Possible resolutions include listing colleges alphabetically and ranking colleges categorically, instead of using an overall scheme. Meanwhile, students are left to judge for themselves the usefulness of U.S. News rankings in their decisions.
"The phenomenon of rankings has taken on a life of its own," Costello said. "It probably started as a marketing tool, and it has turned out to be a highly-read issue."
This item appeared in the News section of the November 1, 1996 issue.
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