The following article was previously published on The Flat Hat’s website during the week of Oct. 9. However, due to an unforeseen technological glitch, it was removed from the website for a period of time and was re-uploaded today, Nov. 6.
Wednesday, Sept. 27 to Friday, Sept. 29, the College of William and Mary’s board of visitors met to discuss pressing matters facing the College.
Thursday, the Committee on Institutional Advancement discussed enrollment numbers, admission statistics, fundraising updates and the All-In campaign.
The committee largely skipped discussion about the College’s 12-spot drop in the U.S. News and World Report’s annual rankings. The board charged College President Katherine Rowe with forming a working group to explore the College’s options and approaches to the rankings in July. At that time, the working group was also tasked with presenting its report to the committee.
According to College Vice President for Strategy and Innovation Jeremy P. Martin Ph.D. ’12, MBA ’17, who serves as chairman for the working group, members of the group held initial meetings on Aug. 29 and Sept. 15. However, the group did not submit its final report to the committee at the September board meeting.
“We do have a working group underway on values and rankings,” Martin said. “As you’ll recall, the charge is to do both.”
The committee received its direction from Rowe in August following the board’s summer retreat.
“The working group should identify an approach to rankings that affirms the primacy of the university’s mission,” Rowe wrote in an email to committee members. “The group will draft a statement conveying that approach to the William & Mary community, building on the president’s back-to-campus message and fall communications.”
Martin also detailed the College’s plan to conduct a fall positioning study. The survey is designed to identify the College’s perceived strengths, weaknesses and opportunities among prospective and current students.
The survey will include feedback from 1000 prospective students and 1000 current undergraduate students, with an executive report due the week of Nov. 20.
Board member S. Douglas Bunch ’02, J.D. ’06 commented on the recent rankings report for the College.
“Anyone who discounts William & Mary because of our rankings misunderstands where our priorities lie — they misjudge the end game we’re striving for,” Bunch wrote in an email to The Flat Hat. “Where the rankings depart from William & Mary’s values, William & Mary will not follow.”
Bunch also emphasized the College’s commitment to focus on factors that the College deems relevant.
“Maybe one day the rankings will catch up with what students and alumni and prospective students and faculty care about, and what’s actually relevant,” Bunch added. “And then we’ll align. Until then William & Mary will focus on what actually matters, as opposed to manufactured benchmarks that don’t reflect who we are or what we hope to be.”
In an internal document written by Senior Associate Director of University News Erin Jay, the College is investing in things that it values and that USNWR’s new methodology diverts from those. The College has been declining in the rankings since 2018.
“Exceptional teaching, recruiting outstanding students, engaging our amazing alumni, reducing student debt, increasing Pell scholarships, ensuring broad access to internships as pathways to careers,” the document reads. “[USNWR] cut key measures W&M and our students have always cared about, including small class size, high alumni giving and low student-debt ratio.”
The document further attributes the College’s fall in rankings to changes in the methodology.
“The national rankings landscape has undergone unparalleled change this year, including new rankings for some publications and completely overhauled methodology for others,” the document reads. “The result is unprecedented movement up and down among the nation’s leading universities, creating understandable uncertainty for students and parents on what rankings convey about an institution.”
The College administration continues to emphasize the College’s success in other value-specific rankings, including the College’s sixth place ranking in USNWR’s undergraduate teaching category.
According to the document, the College leadership also emphasized that USNWR’s college rankings are waning in significance, with Niche’s report on the College leading to four times the amount of website views than USNWR.
The presidential working group on rankings will report back to the Institutional Advancement committee on its progress. The next board of visitors meeting will take place Thursday, Nov. 16, and end the following day.
