Rank and file

For many students in Bloomington, including myself, IU is the No. 1 college in America. It has the best professors. It has the fairest admission standards. It has the greatest diversity. It has some of the best academic programs in the nation. To us, it is all of these things because it is our university, and we have become attached to it. The U.S. News and World Report, however, disagrees with our perceptions. Its annual college rankings place universities in order of best to worst in certain areas related to academia, and it seems the Report has given IU the cold shoulder.\nBut this year, presidents of 19 liberal arts colleges have signed a pact that promises they will not use the Report’s findings in promotions. Their argument is that the rankings cannot fully capture the intricacies of the college experience.\nIn this they are correct – a number certainly tells us nothing about what we will take from our college education and the difficulties and successes that will come from it. Those students who believe they are better off because an outside evaluator labeled one university as better than another are extremely misinformed.\nHowever, a pact to abandon use of the rankings, especially by higher-ranked schools, seems equally misinformed. If ranked highly enough, such colleges will be able to use higher numbers to their advantage in attracting some of the nation’s top students and droves of the nation’s mediocre ones. When they apply and are admitted, that is when these students’ real college journey begins. \nWhat students get out of college is a direct result of what they put into it. This isn’t a profound statement, or at least it shouldn’t be – though as circumstance has it, for some students it will be. The education a student receives from what the U.S. News and World Report might call one of the best liberal arts colleges in the nation depends entirely on the student and his or her effort. Taking advantage of the programs offered by academic institutions provides great opportunity for growth and intellectual development. If one is dedicated to it.\nAnd so those colleges fighting back against what they see as a flawed system might be betraying a fundamental need. These presidents’ responsibility to the well-being of their institutions leads them to condemn what they see as a flawed system – a decision with which many no doubt agree. But they also have a responsibility to infuse their schools with excellent students in order to bring in tuition dollars and build a revenue base to support academic facilities and research on their campuses. If they need to use the Report’s rankings as a means of attracting those students, then so be it. \nFor the benefit of those students that desire to gain the most from their college experience, universities must continue to play the rankings game. In order to support students’ pursuit of knowledge, universities need the best equipment and opportunities available in a technologically and socially changing world. If some students are fooled by a silly ranking, then they will at the very least support the hard-working students and, at the very best, become one themselves.