GOOD FOR THEM – AT 9:37 A.M. ET:  As readers know, we have a rather skeptical view here of some of our institutions of sometimes higher education.  One of the worst things about the college game is the endless rating of colleges, as if we're talking about which coffee maker is best.  Some educators are taking action:

A small but determined group of college presidents is boycotting one of higher education's little-known spring rituals: the practice of lobbying each other for better "peer assessments" in pursuit of a higher spot in the coveted rankings compiled annually by U.S. News & World Report.

The reputation survey is the most important component of the preeminent collegiate rankings and the only factor that depends entirely on the opinions of college leaders, as opposed to objective metrics such as admission rate or student-faculty ratio. Every year, hundreds of college presidents seek to improve their scores by sending their counterparts at other schools glossy mailings, interactive CDs and books that celebrate their institutional feats.

In the midst of this promotional blitz, an opposition movement has emerged: A clutch of presidents, largely centered around the nation's capital, says that the lobbying campaign is unseemly and unworthy of a process that has profound impact on the trajectories of the ranked institutions.

"We have other things to do with our money," said William Durden of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa. Durden said he had received faculty-penned books, bound volumes of presidential speeches and coffee-table art tomes this spring at a rate of 10 to 15 a week. "We know it's a PR gimmick."

COMMENT:  The college admissions madness is sick enough without these phony ratings.  The ratings put additional pressure on high-school students and often distort reality.  Some of the "top" colleges are actually plagued with problems, including political correctness and professors who think their mission in life is to keep out all dissenting ideas.

I'm glad to see this act of resistance.  We need more.  Most important, we need real reform at our colleges, which have taken on a thoroughly undeserved and unbecoming saintly quality. 

May 3, 2010