By Shelley Holmgren /Managing Editor
Despite enrollment struggles and financial strains, Eastern has been named one of the top public universities in its class by U.S. News and World Report for the 12th consecutive year.
Eastern is ranked the 12th among the public universities on the U.S. News’ “Best Colleges” regional list, an improvement from last year’s 14th spot.
Since 1983, U.S. News has been ranking universities all over the country for its annual publication.
U.S. News uses data from each university including campus and faculty resources, acceptance and retention rates and school reputation for the rankings.
To determine which category each university lies, U.S. News uses the Carnegie method that divides universities into several categories.
Institutions that offer a full range of undergraduate programs, some master’s programs but few doctoral programs, such as Eastern and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, are ranked regionally.
Other institutions, such as University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, that offer undergraduate majors, master’s and doctoral degrees are ranked nationally.
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin make up the midwestern region of the list.
Private universities dominate the top of the list – only 11 public institutions break the top 50, and Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo. was the only one to be ranked in the top 10.
Other public universities also saw a change in their rank this year. Western Illinois University dropped to No. 53 from No. 51 last year for the midwest regional rankings. Southern Illinois- Edwardsville experienced a substantial increase – jumping from No. 61 to tying with Eastern at No. 51.
President Bill Perry said although he is pleased with Eastern’s improvement on the list, the rankings are not a significant concern for university operations.
“The ranks are not our focus,” Perry said. “However, since other individuals do look at rankings and can influence the decision of where they will apply, it is always better to improve.”
Instead, Perry said the university will continue to seek improvement for all areas of the university – not just those ranked by U.S. News.
“Our focus is high quality education and to help students become lifetime learners and critical thinkers,” Perry said. “The U.S.
News and World Report system is fairly well understood, so the rankings come out based on the data.”
Blair Lord, vice president for academic affairs, agreed.
“The rankings are not the ‘be all, end all,’” he said.
Eastern continues to consistently boast high retention and graduation rates.
However, one category Eastern improved from last year was in the area of incoming freshman who were in the top 25 percent of their high school class.
For the 2012 rankings, Eastern reported 31 percent of top 25 freshmen, a significant jump from last year’s 12 percent.
However, this increase is actually due to a clerical error last year. Lord said there was an error reporting the percentage because of a change in student record procedures last year. Once the error was spotted, the office of academic affairs submitted a correction to U.S. News.
However, Lord said by the time the correction was submitted, U.S. News did not have the time to deal with it.
Lord and Perry both said they were uncertain whether this error could have a significant effect of the rating. The freshmen 25 accounts for 6 percent of the total score.
Although Lord could not give the exact accurate percentage for last year’s freshman 25, he said there was still an improvement this year.
However, Lord said it was difficult to determine a reason why there was an increase.
As for national rankings for other Illinois public institutions, the U of I ranked No. 45, followed by Illinois State University at No. 160, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale at No. 170 and Northern Illinois University at No. 194.
Shelley Holmgren can be reached at 581-7942
or meholmgren@eiu.edu.
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