To the editor:

I am writing with regard to the Sept. 14 J-W editorial decrying KU’s U.S. News rankings.  The editorial suggests that KU has slipped, noting that “not too many years ago Kansas University was considered one of the elite of the former Big Eight and now Big Twelve Schools.”

The writer(s) may have been thinking of the Fiske college guides of the 1980s and ’90s that routinely described KU as among the best state universities in the region. The problem is that these earlier guides were largely reputational, relying on the judgment of former NY Times education writer Edward Fisk.

Today’s U.S. News rankings, on the other hand, depend on different metrics, most notably selectivity, retention and graduation rates, highly inter-correlated facets of most institutions.  As a relatively non-selective institution, KU does not perform well on such measures, but it did not perform well on them in the past either. Had earlier guides used similar criteria, KU’s rankings then probably would have been quite comparable to today’s.

In short, the editorial makes the error of comparing apples to oranges in college rating criteria, which shifted significantly over time.  KU remains an academic leader nonetheless.  As an AAU member, one of just three in the Big 12, its standing in this regard is quite clear. Perhaps the J-W should focus more on the university’s efforts to sustain and augment that status, rather than making spurious comparisons to an imagined bygone era of academic preeminence.