Your daily dose of news, notes and links from around Kansas University.

• U.S. News and World Report will release its university rankings at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, and we’ll get to see where KU falls this year.

Last year, KU fell to No. 47 among public universities, its lowest rank in the last decade.

Until last year, KU has been ranked as high as No. 30 (in 1999), and as low as 45th in 2006.

Many closely watch the rankings, including state government officials like Gov. Sam Brownback, who recently, like other governors before him, called for universities to improve their standing.

I often hear a lot of private (and some public) grumbling about the ranking process, saying it’s difficult to quantify the things a university does into a single number.

Last year, the magazine announced it had changed its methodology by changing how it calculated its “reputation” score, broadening the input to include high school guidance counselors.

As always, it will be interesting to see the new rankings,and see the reaction inside and outside the university.

• The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported on some of the fallout from the state mandate to identify and review small degree programs in Missouri.

Here’s the link, but you’ll need a subscription to read it, sadly.

I saw a few interesting points in the article, though:

Missouri (which has a Democratic governor, by the way) identified 586 small-degree programs for possible elimination. In other instances where that has happened, the mere mention of the possibility has had an effect.

If a program is identified for potential closure, students may start flocking away from the program even more, afraid that the program won’t survive until they’re done with the degree. Scholarship can suffer as faculty members try to come up with a plan to get the department back on track.

Another interesting point came from the art department, which was targeted for potential closure, at the University of Missouri.

Its chairman argued that the department offered the only public master’s of fine arts degree in the state and was able to reroute funds to more graduate teaching assistanceships, which raised the enrollment of the program. In the meantime, he convinced his dean that the department needed more studio space, and he got it after the renovation of an old dining room.

“The Department of Higher Education did the department of art a great favor by challenging us to meet the state graduation requirement,” the chairman told the Chronicle. “It was the best thing that could have happened for us.”

While we’ve not had a review of small-degree programs in Kansas yet, government officials have raised the possibility.

• KU has received a $12.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to have KU’s Center for Research on Learning to help the Job Corps program better prepare young people for jobs in the construction and health care industries, according to a KU statement.

The center will lead a consortium to accomplish the task and will work with Job Corps “centers for excellence” in Dennison, Iowa, and Pinnellas County, Fla., eventually expanding to all 125 Job Corps sites in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The center will work with five businesses and nonprofit organizations to accomplish the task.

• People tell me all the time that this little part of Heard on the Hill where I ask for tips is one of their favorite parts of the column. But I’m not sure if I’ve ever gotten an actual tip from one of those folks. So, just to remind you, all you need to do is send me an email at ahyland@ljworld.com. If you’re so inclined, that is.