For more than a decade, U.S. News & World Report has published an annual issue ranking the nation's universities by academic standing. Though popular with readers, the list is viewed skeptically by college administrators--even when their schools score well. In recent months, Stanford, whose overall rank slipped from fourth to sixth in 1996, has mounted a double-barreled attack on the magazine's ratings game.
In late September, University President Gerhard Casper wrote a letter to U.S. News editor James Fallows blasting the "specious formulas and spurious precision" of the rankings. He urged U.S. News to "walk away from these misleading" lists and "admit that quality may not be truly quantifiable." A few weeks later, a coalition of Stanford students organized a national effort to convince the magazine to drop or alter the rankings. Nick Thompson, vice president of the ASSU, denounced them as "arbitrary" and "destructive." High school students rely too heavily on the findings and universities make policy decisions aimed at boosting their positions in the standings, Thompson claims. Led by Stanford, 16 student governments have passed resolutions urging their schools not to submit data for future rankings. Meanwhile, editors at U.S. News defend the methodology but have agreed to meet with Thompson and other members of the student coalition.
