Chronicle--Liberal-Arts College Group Plans to Help Develop Alternative to Commercial Rankings

http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=jhQskCyvFvhKc8brycvDqpp4rrVkNt4n

"Frances Lucas, president of Millsaps College, in Mississippi, said she previously had paid little attention to the rankings debate because her own institution was rated highly in U.S. News. But after learning more about the magazine's methodology and discussing the issue with colleagues at this week's meeting, she concluded that the rankings were based too heavily on measurements determined by institutional wealth....

 "The worst tragedy is that leaders like me have been persuaded, oftentimes by external constituencies, predominantly trustees, to manage toward winning in the rankings," Ms. Lucas said. "I don't know of a college president that has managed to win who doesn't regret it in this way: that we have taken valuable dollars and focused way too much on attracting academically meritorious students instead of the poor ones, and that's just wrong."

Ms. Lucas said she planned to stop completing the magazine's reputational survey, which asks academic leaders to rate hundreds of colleges, and that she would talk to Millsaps trustees about the possibility of removing all mentions of U.S. News rankings in the college's promotional materials."