Everybody wants to be No. 1

Although I have researched the college choice process for 20 years, it still might be risky for someone responsible for student enrollment to say anything about debates over rankings and perceived quality. I might be thought defensive or disingenuous but I would like to try to put several issues in perspective.\nIs IU's quality declining?\nIf we use the historical measures of quality, peer ratings or faculty publication rates, there is no evidence that IU is on the decline. If we focus on undergraduate rankings by U.S. News and World Report, our rankings have been stable since this publication first appeared. If anything, IU's rankings have improved slightly in recent years. If we are compared to universities that have medical schools or strengths in engineering, we do not fare as well. And we never will. \nSAT scores of entering students have been stable for at least the past 10 years. The number of first-year students admitted with high school ranks below the 50th percentile has modestly increased, but here is the straight scoop on this. IU does not use a set formula for admitting students. We look at high school rank, the number of academic courses taken in high school, SAT scores, the quality of the high school and whether a student's grades have been on an upward or downward trend. Two years ago we did a study of four cohorts of students admitted to the University who were below the 50th percentile in class rank. We compared them with typical students admitted in the top third of their class. This small group of students below the 50th percentile proved to be more successful in three of four cohorts and just as successful in the fourth instance. Why? These students come from very competitive private and public high schools; often students with a 3.3 grade point average in those schools find themselves in the bottom half of their class. These students have high numbers of academic courses and they have above average to outstanding SAT scores. Thus far, we have focused on the fact that these students are enhancing the overall performance of students in our classrooms. If we would instead focus on any negative impact those students might have on our rankings, who would benefit? U.S. News and World Report? Our faculty? Our students?\nRatings in context\nUntil the last decade, most rankings have focused on graduate programs. Efforts to rank the quality of entire undergraduate degree programs are relatively new.\nFor most of the history of rankings, peer ratings and counts of faculty publications were the primary basis. In recent decades, there has been a shift toward including factors such as the dollar value of research grants and contracts garnered by faculty, the quality of library holdings and the quality and number of enrolled graduate students. With this emphasis on research grants and contracts, a relevant question emerges: "Where is the money?"\nFor the most part, grant and contract money is found in medicine, the hard sciences, engineering, technology related fields and agriculture. That emphasis places a disadvantage on a traditional arts and sciences campus. Still, contract and grant funding received by IU overall has increased dramatically in recent years, and the Bloomington campus has been a significant contributor to this growth. For fiscal year 2000, the number of awards to the campus increased 6 percent over the prior year and award dollars increased by nearly 26 percent to more than $86 million. \nMost serious scholars of higher education question the validity of undergraduate rankings. What does it mean for the performance of large and diverse institutions to be boiled down to a single ratings number? After reviewing thousands of college impact studies, Pascarella and Terenzini (1991) concluded the amount of energy and effort students invest in their education is much more important than the selectivity of an institution or the prestige factor of the university.\nFinal thoughts\nIf we really want to assess the quality of institutions, we should support efforts now underway to look at the quality of student engagement in their educational experience. Associate Dean of the Faculties George Kuh is directing such an effort with a grant funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The National Survey of Student Engagement asks students to rate the extent of their involvement in their course work and campus life. The goal is to develop a national database on all institutions that would provide more direct measures of students' educational experience and institutional quality. \nIf the Bloomington campus were to focus solely on increasing IU's stature in the rankings, what would we do?\n• Cut student enrollment substantially. If we only enrolled 3,500 students a year, we would be very selective. Most public institutions that are ranked more highly than IU admit a substantially smaller entering first-year class. Of course, nearly half of the undergraduates currently enrolled would not be here. IDS readers would have to recall their own high school credentials and ask, "Would I be here?" \n• Focus resources on disciplines that attract large grants and contracts, excluding some of the strongest fields of study at IU, many of the programs that make IU unique among research universities. Would these steps sustain the kind of university that Herman B Wells helped to build here in Bloomington? Would I like to see this happen? The answer to both questions is, "Of course not."\nMy wife and I have opera tickets; one of our twin sons double-majored in English and music. The other was an Individualized Major Program (IMP) student for most of his career at IU. He took courses in geography, Swahili, African studies and outdoor recreation. I work regularly on an informal basis with a faculty member in the Central Asian Studies Program. My appointment is in the School of Education. Even though it\'s among the top ranked schools in the United States, it is also a field that does not garner large amounts of grants and contracts.\nPersonally, I have been delighted to have the opportunity to spend the last 15 years of my career at this great University.