Faculty committee urges Brand, trustees to examine low rankings

Four faculty members sent a letter to President Myles Brand and the board of trustees Friday urging them to take action to improve IU's "excellence and reputation" in light of low rankings by U.S. News and World Report and the Florida Center.\nIn the letter, the faculty members suggest establishing an outside committee to look into ways IU can improve.\n"We need some independent evaluation of the directions we are taking," said Peter Bondanella, one of the drafters of the letter and a professor of West European Studies. "A blue-ribbon committee composed of outside citizens, scholars and government officials might well be able to ascertain where we need to change direction."\nThe letter was sent by the Steering Committee of the Alliance of Distinguished and Titled Rank Professors, a group who monitors the level of excellence and quality at IU, said Bondanella. The committee is made of Bondanella, professor of fine arts Bruce Cole, professor of psychology David Pisoni, and psychology professor Richard Shiffrin.\n"Asking critical questions is not a very popular thing to do," Bondanella said. "The administration's record during the past year shows that it is very much afraid of constructive criticism."\nCiting the examples of the controversy over Griffy Lake and the firing of former head basketball coach Bob Knight, Bondanella said the Alliance sent the letter in part to make sure that students, faculty and staff receive all information on current events.\n"Students, faculty, staff and the citizens of the state have an obligation to hold the administration to a very high standard," he said.\nBill Stephan, vice president for Information Technology Services and spokesperson for Brand at press time, said Brand had not yet received a copy of the letter.\n"We hope that the faculty that have signed the letter are trying to be constructive with regard to their concerns," Stephan said. "We hope that Brand will receive a copy of that letter at some point in the near future."\nAccording to this year's U.S. News and World Report rankings, IU placed in the second tier of schools when evaluated in areas such as SAT and ACT scores, freshman retention numbers and alumni giving rate.\nThe Florida Center report, conducted by the Center for Studies of the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Florida, ranked IU below all Big Ten Universities except Michigan State in its report on the Top American Research Universities. The report identifies nine categories and awards one point to a university each time it ranks in the top 25. Categories include: total research expenditures, federal research expenditures, endowment assets, total annual giving, faculty members in national academies and entering freshmen SAT scores.\n"The Florida Center underlines our weaknesses in the first category (IU's status as a research university,)" Bondanella said. "The U.S. News and World Report underlines our problems in undergraduate education."\nStephan said Brand believes the U.S. News rankings are problematic in their methodology.\n"We rely more heavily on what we believe are serious reviews of University performance," Stephan said. "Such as a book that's out called The Rise of American Research Universities by Hugh Graham and Nancy Diamond. Their method is much more objective and more thorough."\nThese rankings distinguish between public and private universities and IU ranks very highly across several categories in this report, Stephan said.\nCole said criticisms of the various rankings does not forward the mission of the University.\n"Instead of attacking the Florida report or trying to spin its statistics," he said, "wouldn't it be wiser to carefully study its findings and use them to try to rebuild what we have lost academically?"\nBondanella said Brand has been incorrect in making a statement in an "ESPN: Outside the Lines" interview that IU was fourth in the nation in arts, humanities and social sciences.\n"People who have low rankings are always on the defensive," Bondanella said. "This case is no exception. I wish we were fourth in the entire United States in just about everything, but I am afraid that such a statement is sadly mistaken"