The University of Texas — Austin is ending its National Merit Scholarship program next fall, citing budget concerns and a shift in focus toward need-based aid.

According to the Associated Press, the UT Office of Student Financial Services released a statement saying “the financial constraints brought about by the economy on families and the university require the redirection of resources to ensure accessibility to UT — Austin by all qualified students, regardless of ability to pay.”

National Merit Scholars already enrolled in UT will still receive scholarships worth $13,000 over the course of four years as long as they maintain a GPA of at least 3.25.

“Some people mistakenly feel that this is a signal that UT — Austin is no longer interested in recruiting high-achieving students. That’s not the case,” Thomas Melecki, the university’s director of student financial services, told the Houston Chronicle.

Melecki told the Austin American-Statesman that the need for financial aid increased by 10 percent from last year and over 23 percent from the year before. He also told Inside Higher Ed that only a quarter of UT’s National Merit Scholars apply for federal financial aid.

Over $4.4 million was spent on UT’s National Merit Scholarship program last year, and the university has the second highest number of National Merit Scholars in the country, just four less than Harvard University.

Harvard, the University of California — Los Angeles and the University of Michigan — Ann Arbor do not offer scholarships based purely on a student’s designation as National Merit Scholar.

The UC system withdrew from the National Scholarship Merit Program in 2006 because it relied on standardized testing.

However, Melecki maintains that UT’s move is not a criticism of the program.

“We’re making sure we get the word out to National Merit Semifinalists that we have a number of scholarships at the University based in part or in whole on merit,” Melecki said to The Daily Texan. “They’ll continue to have the opportunity to compete for those scholarships.”

The new school year marks the first year of Virginia Ambler’s ’88, Ph.D. ’06 tenure as permanent vice president of student affairs. After a year as interim VPSA, Ambler permanently assumed her current office in July.

The position opened up when Sam Sadler ’64 M.Ed. ’71 retired in 2008 after serving 41 years at the College of William and Mary. Last spring, Ambler was selected as the new VPSA over three other highly qualified final candidates.

The VPSA manages a variety of departments and offices responsible for student services including counseling, student organizations and activities, student residences and student health needs.

“Going through the search process was a wonderful experience because it gave me an opportunity to hear from constituents all across campus about what they envisioned for student affairs,” she said.
Her experience working closely with Sadler in the office since 1991 helped her win the job, along with her love for the school as a graduate of the College.

“Like most of William and Mary, Ginger bleeds green,” Jodi Fisler M.Ed. ’10, assistant to the vice president, said. “She brings an incredible intellect as a scholar and as well as being an administrator. She cares deeply about the students and about William and Mary.”

Ambler’s tenure as interim VPSA helped prepare her to permanently take on the position.

“[As interim,] she certainly got people thinking about what might be coming next, and kept us moving forward as opposed to just treading water. So I think that made it easier when she got the position — she had already thought about what she wanted,” Fisler said.

Currently, she is working on filling positions within her staff. She spent the summer working with student leaders and staff, discussing plans for the year, from the construction of the Cohen Career Center to as long-held traditions such as the Yule Log Ceremony and Commencement.

“I’m particularly excited for the opening of the new Center for Student Diversity,
formerly known as the Office of Multicultural Affairs, here in the Campus Center,” Ambler said. “It has provided me with the opportunity … to expand the scope of what kind of services will be provided in that office.

According to Ambler, the new Center for Student Diversity will work to support the campus community in all areas of diversity, including sexual orientation and religion.

Ambler also hopes to continue implementing the strategic planning effort launched by College President Taylor Reveley last year by building a stronger Tribe spirit.

“Part of what we’re trying to do … is to really work on forging a lifelong relationship between students, alumni and their alma mater,” she said. “We’re looking for ways to celebrate what it means to be a member of the Tribe.”

The issue of fraternity housing is another item on her agenda. Her office is working with the Council for Fraternity Affairs to solve the problem.

Ambler has also been communicating closely with the Student Assembly about improving town-gown relations.

She said the off-campus student organization that has been formed to work in conjunction with the SA to address the tension between the city and students will help the discussion.

“The president has said many times that finding a solution to the town-gown stressors really is going to involve all parties,” Ambler said. “I’m really glad that the students are finding an important way to be involved in that process. I’m working with my administrative colleagues, and hopefully we can make some progress.”

Both Ambler and SA President Sarah Rojas ’10 have committed to regular meetings throughout the school year in order to foster and maintain open communication between the student body and administration.

“I think that many of the areas that fall under her office are undergoing huge changes,” Rojas said in an e-mail. “Other areas like the student conduct system are areas that the Student Assembly hopes to work with Vice President Ambler on in the near future.”

In the long run, Ambler hopes to serve the College’s best interests by both promoting dialogue between students, staff and administrators and also meeting people individually and in groups.

“When I leave this position, I hope that I leave behind a network of relationships that will continue to strengthen the William and Mary community,” she said. “I really believe that community makes William and Mary strong, and community comes by the building of relationships … I never underestimate the power of Tribe pride.”

*City of Williamsburg hosts business workshop*

The City of Williamsburg Economic Development Office, the James City County Economic Development Office, the York County Economic Development Office, the Hampton Roads Small Business Development Center and the Williamsburg Chapter of SCORE are hosting a small business financing workshop on Thursday, Sept. 10.

The workshop will take place on the third floor conference room of the Municipal Building and will last from noon to 1:30 p.m. The event is free of charge.

Director of the Business Center at New Visions New Ventures Caroline Nowery will offer information about what lenders are looking for and what financing sources are available in today’s economic climate.

*Law school professor receives Fulbright Award*

Linda Malone, the Marshall-Wythe Foundation professor of law at the College of William and Mary Law School, received the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in International Environmental Law award for 2009-2010. She is one of 40 individuals worldwide to receive the award this year. As the Fulbright distinguished chair, she will research and lecture at the Polytechnic Institute of Turin in Italy in the spring of 2010.

“Professor Malone’s contributions as a scholar and teacher have enriched our law school community and the international academic community for many years,” law school dean Davison M. Douglas said.

Awards from the Fulbright Distinguished Chairs Program are considered the most prestigious appointment in the Fulbright Scholar Program.

*William and Mary launches flu prevention website*

The College has launched a website with flu prevention tips and information on swine flu. The website is operated by the College’s Emergency Management Team and includes links to all flu-related campus-wide messages. It will also feature background information and news updates from the Center for Disease Control and the College’s EMT.

“This year the flu season is likely to begin earlier and be of a much stronger intensity than in previous years,” Chair of the EMT and Vice President for Administration Anna Martin said. “The College has been making preparations to manage through the season in a way that helps you stay healthy and the school year stay on track.”

Third, fourth, fifth, sixth — go ahead and take your pick. 33rd, 48th — you might not know which should stick. Neither does the College of William and Mary.

The College finds itself in a publicity dilemma after having been named the sixth-best public school in U.S. News and World Report’s rankings of the best national universities. It is third, fourth and fifth on other, generally less prestigious “best public” lists complied by the Princeton Review, Forbes and Kiplinger.
And while the College places higher in Forbes’s “best public” list than it does in U.S. News’s, in Forbes’s overall list it falls in at no. 48, fifteen behind its overall ranking in U.S. News.

“There is so much to accomplish at the College and so few resources to do it so we don’t spend much time ranking the differing university rankings,” College Spokesman Brian Whitson said in an e-mail. “There are so many — U.S. News, Forbes, Kiplinger’s, Business Week, Princeton Review — and we certainly don’t make any policy or curriculum decisions based on how that might impact one ranking or another.”

Whitson denies that the College, like some universities, directs resources toward improving their ranking. Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Jim Golden, who leads the Office of Economic Development, echoes Whitson.

“We do want to score well so we make sure we do everything within the guidelines of the rankings to submit the most accurate and complete information,” Golden said. “But we don’t make policy, curriculum or budget decisions based on rankings.”

According to Dean of Admissions Henry Broaddus, the effect of rankings systems on student enrollment is negligible.

“Students and parents tend to use U.S. News as a blunt instrument to see whether an institution is in the top tier, but ultimately, they look beyond the finer differences in rankings when it comes to building the right college list for themselves,” Broaddus said.

However, the College does value its high rankings as a publicity device.

“We refer to them all, and any kind of third-party validation of William and Mary’s excellence provides a helpful tailwind for our recruiting effors,” Broaddus added. “That said, we don’t lead with success in rankings as the primary reason for a student to choose William and Mary.”

Even so, rankings of the College receive a fair amount of publicity in promotional materials meant for prospective students.

On its “W&M By the Numbers” webpage, the College lists all of its major rankings, with U.S. News rankings topping the list, followed by Forbes, Princeton Review, Kiplinger and BusinessWeek.

Since the list is neither in alphabetical nor chronological order, the prioritization may be a matter of reputation or methodological value.

“Stateside, there is a recognition that U.S. News is the most highly regarded, but other programs, specifically grad/professional, focus more on rankings such as BusinessWeek,” Associate Provost for Enrollment Earl Granger said in an e-mail.

Whether U.S. News’ priority to Forbes on the list reflects a value judgment of the rankings’ respective methodologies or an expedient public relations move, why the College ranks differently in each list remains a separate question.

*Methodologies*

Generally, college rankings are based on evaluations of an institution’s student body, faculty, alumni, finances and graduation rates.

On the surface, various methodologies share the same criteria, but a closer look reveals differences in weight and approach that explain differences in the College’s latest national rankings.

For instance, U.S. News bases 15 percent of a school’s ranking on the “student selectivity.”

A school’s ranking is determined by weighing each university’s acceptance rate, students’ high school ranking and students’ SAT and ACT scores. Forbes, on the other hand, bases 8.33 percent of its ranking on the number of students who receive nationally competitive awards like Rhodes or Marshall scholarships
while attending the university.

Similarly, 20 percent of the U.S. News ranking is based on “faculty resources,” 35 percent of which is determined by faculty salaries, 15 percent from the percentage of faculty members that hold the highest degree offered in their field, five percent from the percentage of faculty that is full-time, five percent from the student-faculty ratio and 40 percent from class size.

Forbes evaluates faculty and staff of academic institutions differently from U.S. news.

Five percent of its ranking comes from the percentage of faculty who receive “awards for scholarship and creative pursuits,” while 25 percent comes from student evaluations taken from RateMyProfessors.com.

Perhaps the greatest difference between Forbes and U.S. News is that 25 percent of Forbes’s ranking comes from student evaluations while 25 percent of U.S. News comes from the peer assessments of administrators from other universities.

According to Forbes’ “Methodology” webpage, “The academic world is replete with schools trying to maximize spending to improve resource-intensive factors in the U.S. News rankings, something not possible with these rankings.”

U.S. News, whose reputation as a college ranking publisher is better established than Forbes’s, defends its statistics, declaring on its website that it “takes pains to ensure their accuracy.”

Dean of Admissions at George Mason University Andrew Flagel, who penned an article entitled “Exposing the Hypocrisy of the College Rankings System” that appeared on FastWeb.com last week, criticizes U.S. News and Forbes alike.

“U.S. News also offers a bunch of other rankings, including a survey of guidance counselors and some specialty rankings based on the same entirely fair and unbiased survey of presidents, provosts and deans they use for the overall ranking,” Flagel wrote. “Princeton Review and Forbes use student surveys. Of course, students have no bias and are a great source of statistically sound data, and by that I continue to mean the exact opposite.”

Regardless of whether one values peer assessment or pupil assessment, faculty resources or faculty achievement — or none of the above — comparing ranking methodologies serves only to clarify one’s personal values regarding how to judge a College.

The College’s institutional values, as articulated in its mission statement, are left virtually unexamined by any of the major ranking methodologies.

Differences in college rankings can be explained by differences in criteria.
In most cases, the College says that these numerical differences are nominal.

The differences tend to be greater when the College is compared to both public and private schools, rather than just public.

Nevertheless, across public and private lists, best quality and best value, Forbes and U.S. News, the College maintains a fairly high ranking.

If there is then one measure of the College to be extracted from all of the rankings’ methodologies, according to Whitson, it’s consistency.

“We continue to be among the leading universities in the country — no matter the format or methodology or rankings,” Whitson said. “Not everyone can say that.”

Tuesday, Aug. 25 — An individual reported a damaged vehicle near Grad Housing 300. The estimated damage is $1,000.

Thursday, Aug. 27 — An individual reported several items stolen from a basement storage unit on the 700 block of Ukrop Wy.

Friday, Aug. 28 — An individual reported a stolen purse on the 100 block of Jamestown Rd. The estimated value is $130.

Saturday, August. 29 — An individual reported stolen banners on Ukrop Way. The estimated value is $160.

— An individual reported a stolen sign on the 200 block of Ukrop Wy. The estimated value is $50.

Sunday, Aug. 30 — An individual was arrested for public drunkenness at Unit G.

— An individual reported a vandalized vehicle on the 100 block of Rolfe Rd. The estimated damage is $50.

Monday, August 31 — An individual reported a stolen bicycle on the 200 block of Ukrop Wy. The estimated value is $50.