Once again the University has failed to crack the U.S. News and World Report second tier, while remaining frozen in 19th place on The Princeton Review’s list of party schools. The response from University officials has been a “wait a few years and see the difference” approach.
University Provost Risa Palm has said the University needs time in order to shed its image as a party school and scale the academic mountain that stands before it.
While we understand that, to turn a phrase, academic reputations aren’t built in a day, or a year as Palm would say, we recognize the University has become relatively static in its development. Even the much-touted Flagship Agenda, whose stated mission is to bring the University to national prominence by 2010, seems to have reaped few dividends so far.
In all honesty, we’d wager that the average person from outside the state of Louisiana’s No. 1 public University, thinks of us as one of a number of “cow colleges” whose students are better known for erecting beer bongs than growing up to map the human genome. Indeed, when two of our best known graduates are Shaquille O’Neal and political madman James Carville, it’s hard to argue with that type of outside view, no matter how many counter examples we can come up with.
This is why we believe the University will have a hard time moving up the academic ladder. For one, the U.S. News and World Report list has been roundly criticized in past years for including such categories as “alumni giving rates,” “selectivity ranks” and “peer assessment,” which refers to what individuals at other universities think of ours. These conditions, which favor older, better established schools, also reflect a prejudice against our University, as well as others in areas of the country less well known for their excellence in higher education. While we cannot lay the blame entirely at the foot of others, our reputation unfortunately precedes us.
What then can be done? Our University, as the flagship school of a state not well known for education, must do its best to project a better image. While the administration is doing its best to improve the school, though occasionally we will clash with their methods, we direct our plea at students. While the actions of one individual rarely create change, all the students at this University must realize that they are part of a composite whole and that their behavior reflects on the University at large. We must not simply live for ourselves, but for this institution that we attend.
This means bettering our minds, learning to party responsibly — even the No. 1 party school, University of Wisconsin-Madison is ranked No. 32 in the country on the U.S. News list. Maybe, instead of donating to build up our football team, our wealthy alumni should endow more research chairs and give money to hire nationally known professors.
We have the tools in our garage, we only have to use them to succeed.