Des Moines Register, IA
08-17-07
Grinnell rises, ISU falls in magazine's rankings
By LISA ROSSI
REGISTER AMES BUREAU
Iowa State University fell four spots among national universities ranked in a
new U.S. News & World Report survey being made public today.
Grinnell College climbed three places among national liberal arts colleges in the
2008 rankings.
The rankings list the University of Iowa 64th among national universities,
unchanged from the year before.
The U of I climbed one spot in the new rankings - from 25th to 24th - among
national universities that are public, rather than private, schools.
The rankings put ISU at 85th among national universities and Grinnell at 11th
among national liberal arts colleges.
The new rankings come amid growing controversy over U.S. News' ranking
methodology.
Luther College and Coe College are among the colleges in Iowa that will decline
to participate in a portion of the survey in future years. Cornell College and
Grinnell College are still weighing whether to fully participate in future surveys.
"From this point forward, I've given clear marching orders to the public relations
office and admissions office - U.S. News is dead to us," said James Phifer,
president of Coe College in Cedar Rapids. "We're not going to cite them. I don't
care if they cite us as No. 1 in the country."
Coe College fell 11 spots in this year's ranking among liberal arts colleges,
placing the school at 106th.
The portion of the U.S. News survey under the most scrutiny from colleges is the
part that asks schools to rate each other. That makes up 25 percent of the score.
The survey uses 15 indicators to measure academic excellence at schools,
which include student retention, faculty resources and admissions selectivity, to
name a few.
Brian Kelly, editor of the magazine, told reporters Thursday that the peer survey
is sent out to 4,000 top college officials nationwide, and is compiled into an index
number. This part of the survey, which he said garnered a response rate of more
than 50 percent, is designed to get at the "intangibles" of a school that can't be
measured with numbers.
"Here are the smartest people in the industry," he said. "They are looking at
competitors all the time. How do they view them?"
Jim Sumner, senior counselor to Grinnell College, said earlier this summer that
even though he's uncomfortable with aspects of the survey, Grinnell fares well
because of it.
"On one hand, I don't like it," he said. "On the other hand ... we do benefit from it.
The other thing I would say cynically, many of the schools who are planning not
to participate are the schools who don't show up so well."
Grinnell College remains the highest-ranked liberal arts school in Iowa, according
to the new rankings. Its most recent ranking leaves the school tied with
Claremont McKenna College in California, Vassar College in New York and
Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
Officials at Grinnell said they are still weighing whether or not to fully participate
in future survey for the rankings, and expect to decide sometime this year.
The U of I's improvement in the rankings is not trivial, said U of I President Sally
Mason.
"Movement in that top level - it's pretty tough at times," she said. "You're
competing with really some very, very outstanding universities."
ISU spokesman John McCarroll downplayed his school's drop in the rankings.
"Certainly we'd prefer every year to say we're moving up," McCarroll said. "I don't
think this is particularly serious that we've gone down a couple of notches."
While some college officials dismiss the value of the U.S. News ranking process,
there is evidence some schools value the rankings.
Last year, ISU President Gregory Geoffroy confirmed that he had give the dean
of the ISU College of Veterinary Medicine the task of raising the veterinary
school's U.S. News ranking. The veterinary medicine college has been ranked
17th nationally, but Geoffroy wants it in the top five within 10 years.
Graduate school programs were not included in the rankings made public this
week.
McCarroll, the ISU spokesman, said he is unaware of any university-wide goal to
increase ISU's rankings, but he said individual deans might have goals to
improve their rankings by U.S. News or other entities.
The U.S. News rankings of colleges and universities, being made public today,
will be included in the magazine's issue that reaches newsstands on Monday.
The rankings also will be included in the 2008 edition of "America's Best
Colleges," a document that ranks universities across the United States.
Reporter Lisa Rossi can be reached at (515) 232-2383 or lrossi@dmreg.com