LISTS CAN MAKE, BREAK COLLEGES

Schools Pull Out Stops In Trying To Strike Right Image For Prospects

Whether a prospective college student's first concern is academics,
partying or which school can claim the healthiest squirrel population
population, they can find some publication that ranks colleges as good, bad
or bland.

The University of Colorado at Boulder appears in more than a dozen
rankings, including "Party Schools," "Reefer Madness," and "Students Almost
Never Study."

CU appears in an October ranking by High Times, a magazine dedicated to
marijuana use and culture, just after Playboy released an issue featuring
13 CU students baring all in a feature titled "Girls of the Big 12."

On the other hand, the school might take pride in receiving four out of
five acorns on a website that rates schools according to the number and
health of squirrels on campus. CU also touts the high rankings it receives
for its academic programs.

While some of the rankings may seem frivolous, they are serious business
for colleges. Rankings influence a school's image. A school's image, in
turn, influences donations and enrollment, which is why image and spin have
become full-time jobs for major universities.

"To ignore these rankings would be foolish," said Judy Phair, president of
PhairAdvantage, a public-relations company that works with schools and
nonprofits. "If you don't address or counter these negative rankings,
that's the only information people have to form their opinions of your school."

On a recent tour of CU, Megan Balmforth, a high school senior from Colorado
Springs, said she knew of the school's rankings - academic and otherwise.

"I put some stock in them, but they're not the final word," Balmforth said.
"I'm not going to go to a school for partying, but I probably wouldn't want
to go to one of the schools where nobody ever parties."

Phair, who spent years working in the PR departments of several
universities, including Johns Hopkins, said she often fielded calls from
parents and alumni worried about ranking too low on an academic list or too
high on a party list.

One way to address those rankings is to discredit them. CU sent out a news
release in April attacking the Princeton Review just before the publication
ranked the school high on a list of campuses for marijuana smoking,
drinking and partying.

The news release, which the American Medical Association also co-signed,
criticized the survey's techniques as being unscientific and designed to
produce attention-grabbing outcomes.

CU officials said the decision to address the rankings before they were
even released was deliberate.

"We wanted to get the facts out there before people read this so they'd
understand the rankings are bogus," said Bob Maust, the principal
investigator for the school's anti-binge drinking program, "A Matter of
Degree."

Not all schools react the same way.

The University of California at Berkeley ignores the rankings.

"We don't really pay much attention," spokeswoman Marie Felde said.
"They're not very accurate. If you look at them from year to year, you'll
see schools' rankings change very quickly. Anybody who knows universities
knows that they don't change quickly."

But discounting rankings altogether comes at a cost. CU received high marks
for its business, engineering and aerospace programs in the April rankings
put out by U.S. News and World Report. If the school dismisses rankings
altogether it could become difficult to brag about these positive nods.

"If you want to get attention when you do something good, you have to take
the bad things head on," said Steve Orlando, who works in the PR office of
the University of Florida.

CU lists several flattering rankings in the video it shows to prospective
students and their parents during tours and informational sessions.

Tom Milligan, a spokesman for Colorado State University in Fort Collins,
said a philosophy he learned from football coach Sonny Lubick sums up the
school's approach to the rankings.

"You don't get too high on the wins, you don't get too low on the losses,"
Milligan said.

The school doesn't take the rankings too seriously but tries to use
positive listings to its advantage, Milligan said. The school's website
makes references to some of the academic rankings.

"We use it in our promotions," Milligan said. "We'd be silly if we didn't.
But we don't buy into the hype too much."

While some parents and university officials may take the various rankings
quite seriously, would-be college students seem to take them in stride.

Renee Ashe, who had made the journey from Colorado Springs to Boulder with
Balmforth and her mother, said the school's rankings don't bother her at all.

"College isn't all about partying, but it isn't all about studying either,"
Ashe said as she waited for a tour of the CU campus to begin.