Letters, 9/5: College rankings are rank
Every fall, some magazines try to rank universities and colleges. Every fall, people who know their own universities and colleges hold their noses, because there’s an unpleasant smell in the air when these issues appear.
What’s the stink about? Timid professors? Presidents who don’t like being compared? Alumni doubting their own worth? That’s what magazine editors want you to think.
In fact, choosing a college wisely involves a different kind of science from the one these journalists practice. And it involves an art that escapes them altogether.
The science that matters is based on outcomes. The pseudo-science that rank-happy journalists practice wallows in inputs.
The college rankings editor of U.S. News & World Report (LJS, “UNL improves in top college rankings,” Aug. 23) gets his results from a mysterious calculation involving how much money a university spends, what freshman test scores look like and more of the same. Those are input measures. He doesn’t know and doesn’t care about outcomes: that Nebraska Wesleyan graduates win national awards in incredible numbers, that they claim a lot of places at UNMC, pay off college debts more reliably, and in so many ways do well and make us proud. That’s why ours is one of Nebraska’s nationally recognized (and ranked) institutions.
The art that matters in choosing a college is about finding a place that resonates with your own soul, a place where you’ll be happy while finding suitable challenges and the right kind of nurture. A great artist — whether Pablo Picasso or Willa Cather, Linda Ronstadt or Bill Kloefkorn — doesn’t paint (or write or sing) by numbers. High school seniors don’t make great college choices mostly by the numbers, either.
When you read those “rank” reports this fall, think hard about what they really represent. And when you look at an actual college, get face to face with it. Your own ranking will be the only one that really counts.
Fred Ohles, president, Nebraska Wesleyan University
Not informed voters
The article, “Fahey: Obama can win in Omaha’s 2nd District,” (LJS, Aug. 29) unintentionally outlines several issues associated with courting an apathetic or unqualified electorate. Mike Fahey’s statement that “an all-out grass-roots effort to get people registered already is under way” indicates that the targeted people are either too inept or uninformed to register themselves to vote.
In this country, registering to vote is not a task that any cognizant person will have trouble completing on their own. Fahey then says the real challenge is getting these new voters to the polls. He describes with apparent enthusiasm a plan that “involves no less than seven touches” to entice these new registrants to vote.
From my perspective, if a person requires seven contacts from a political organization just to get them to the polls, they probably are not an informed or impassioned voter.
Fahey should be embarrassed, rather than excited to be involved in this wreck. Any individual that requires this much outside help to register and exercise their right to vote should probably leave the electoral process to more informed and personally motivated people. Any politician with a shred of integrity that gathers support from this “army of new voters” that has been shepherded their way, should feel no pride in receiving it.
Christopher Farabee, Hickman
Liberalism is big problem
The decade of 2000 has been tough. Let’s examine why.
The Clinton recession took place in 2000 and 2001. Then we had Sept. 11. Then the Iraq war. Then we had Katrina. Then mortgage problems. Also, the oil prices and the continuing inner-city school dropout problem. To top it off, President Bush never saw a spending bill he didn’t love, which made him look like a drunken liberal.
The mortgage problem was caused by Bill Clinton in 1995 wanting every person to own a home whether he had a job or could afford the home. This was going to insure that poor people would vote Democratic for life.
High oil prices were caused by the Greenies and the Democrats agreeing not to drill for oil. When you get as much money from the environmental movement as the Democrats have, you have to vote against drilling.
The 60 percent dropout rate in many of our large city schools is another deal between the Democrats and the Teachers Union. This last problem will probably destroy America before the others.
The bottom line is that liberalism remains America’s biggest problem, not terrorism.
Wes Hager, Lincoln
What’s the stink about? Timid professors? Presidents who don’t like being compared? Alumni doubting their own worth? That’s what magazine editors want you to think.
In fact, choosing a college wisely involves a different kind of science from the one these journalists practice. And it involves an art that escapes them altogether.
The science that matters is based on outcomes. The pseudo-science that rank-happy journalists practice wallows in inputs.
The college rankings editor of U.S. News & World Report (LJS, “UNL improves in top college rankings,” Aug. 23) gets his results from a mysterious calculation involving how much money a university spends, what freshman test scores look like and more of the same. Those are input measures. He doesn’t know and doesn’t care about outcomes: that Nebraska Wesleyan graduates win national awards in incredible numbers, that they claim a lot of places at UNMC, pay off college debts more reliably, and in so many ways do well and make us proud. That’s why ours is one of Nebraska’s nationally recognized (and ranked) institutions.
The art that matters in choosing a college is about finding a place that resonates with your own soul, a place where you’ll be happy while finding suitable challenges and the right kind of nurture. A great artist — whether Pablo Picasso or Willa Cather, Linda Ronstadt or Bill Kloefkorn — doesn’t paint (or write or sing) by numbers. High school seniors don’t make great college choices mostly by the numbers, either.
When you read those “rank” reports this fall, think hard about what they really represent. And when you look at an actual college, get face to face with it. Your own ranking will be the only one that really counts.
Fred Ohles, president, Nebraska Wesleyan University
Not informed voters
The article, “Fahey: Obama can win in Omaha’s 2nd District,” (LJS, Aug. 29) unintentionally outlines several issues associated with courting an apathetic or unqualified electorate. Mike Fahey’s statement that “an all-out grass-roots effort to get people registered already is under way” indicates that the targeted people are either too inept or uninformed to register themselves to vote.
In this country, registering to vote is not a task that any cognizant person will have trouble completing on their own. Fahey then says the real challenge is getting these new voters to the polls. He describes with apparent enthusiasm a plan that “involves no less than seven touches” to entice these new registrants to vote.
From my perspective, if a person requires seven contacts from a political organization just to get them to the polls, they probably are not an informed or impassioned voter.
Fahey should be embarrassed, rather than excited to be involved in this wreck. Any individual that requires this much outside help to register and exercise their right to vote should probably leave the electoral process to more informed and personally motivated people. Any politician with a shred of integrity that gathers support from this “army of new voters” that has been shepherded their way, should feel no pride in receiving it.
Christopher Farabee, Hickman
Liberalism is big problem
The decade of 2000 has been tough. Let’s examine why.
The Clinton recession took place in 2000 and 2001. Then we had Sept. 11. Then the Iraq war. Then we had Katrina. Then mortgage problems. Also, the oil prices and the continuing inner-city school dropout problem. To top it off, President Bush never saw a spending bill he didn’t love, which made him look like a drunken liberal.
The mortgage problem was caused by Bill Clinton in 1995 wanting every person to own a home whether he had a job or could afford the home. This was going to insure that poor people would vote Democratic for life.
High oil prices were caused by the Greenies and the Democrats agreeing not to drill for oil. When you get as much money from the environmental movement as the Democrats have, you have to vote against drilling.
The 60 percent dropout rate in many of our large city schools is another deal between the Democrats and the Teachers Union. This last problem will probably destroy America before the others.
The bottom line is that liberalism remains America’s biggest problem, not terrorism.
Wes Hager, Lincoln
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