Steve McAllister has been a good dean for the Kansas University School of Law. It is unfortunate that, for one reason or another, he has decided to step down as dean to take a teaching position at the school.

It is difficult to understand, however, why the dean would say that the school’s shocking drop in the U.S. News & World Report rankings really doesn’t hurt the school’s reputation in any significant way.

Like it or not, and whether or not those in the academic community think the U.S. News & World Report ranking of colleges and universities and their graduate schools is a true portrait of a school’s excellence, millions of readers, both adults and those trying to decide what university they might like to attend, do indeed look at the magazine’s ranking and form some fairly strong opinions.

Last year, the KU law school was ranked 63 among the nation’s law schools; in this year’s edition the school plummeted to 100th.

Several explanations have been offered as to why the KU school suffered such a severe drop, but, justified or not, those looking through the magazine to get some idea about the relative strengths of schools are sure to wonder what happened at KU.

This was not good news for the KU law school! Whether faculty members or administrators place much stock in the accuracy of the general assessments of U.S. News & World Reports’ editors or contributors, a drop from 63rd to 100th is damaging, and there is no way to soft-pedal the negative impact.

Now, the goal of those running the law school should be to continue to build the academic excellence of the school to help justify higher rankings and build its reputation as one of the best law schools at any state university in the country.

Some may pooh-pooh rankings made by various publications, but it is always better to show signs of growth and greater excellence than to show a decline.

Students, faculty members, administrators, alumni and the general public all like “winners” and like to support winners, whether they are in the classroom, a specific school within the university, an entire university or college, or a sports team representing a university.

Hopefully, the academic environment on KU’s Lawrence campus, as well as at the medical school in Kansas City, is such that all schools and departments will show continued growth and improvement no matter who the judges may be.

If that’s the case, everyone is a winner: the students, faculty, administrators, taxpayers and the entire state.

But, again, a drop from 63rd to 100th in a national ranking is shocking and harmful to the KU law school. Someone needs to find the reasons for the decline and get to work to correct them.