Campus Briefs: Monday, April 21, 1997

Stanford to launch Web site to compete with 'U.S. News' rankings The development of the new Web site comes in response to concerns voiced by the Forget U.S. News Coalition founded by Stanford students. "U.S. News should eliminate its attempt to rank colleges and universities like automobiles or toasters," Casper said in a written statement. "The fact that the rankings of many institutions change dramatically from year to year says more about inconsistent scoring methods than actual changes in quality," he added. While the information posted on Stanford's Web site will be limited to data and statistics on the university, Casper said he hopes other institutions will follow Stanford's lead in establishing similar sites. "We invite interested colleges and universities to join us in further refining definitions and categories, and in posting standardized Web pages that clearly display facts and statistics on programs, students, student-faculty ratios, faculty quality, financial resources and other pertinent indicators," he said. He added that such information would give applicants a more accurate picture of the differences between various institutions. "With such information, students and their families would be able to review and compare schools' programs and resources directly, without the distortion of information that occurs in the U.S. News ranking system. Casper said Stanford will continue to submit objective data to U.S. News -- at least for this year -- but noted that the university will not contribute to the subjective reputational rankings. And he added that the university will also continue to cooperate with other independent college guides. -- Shannon Burke