Excerpt: Can we be sure that the data accurately reflect the reality of life within the university? Regrettably, the answer is no. As we will see, several of the key figures supporting Columbia’s high ranking are inaccurate, dubious, or highly misleading. In what follows, we will consider these figures one by one.
Columbia and U.S. News
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Rank ranking wrote:
Excerpt: Can we be sure that the data accurately reflect the reality of life within the university? Regrettably, the answer is no. As we will see, several of the key figures supporting Columbia’s high ranking are inaccurate, dubious, or highly misleading. In what follows, we will consider these figures one by one.
I couldn't get that link to work. But the one below works:
http://www.math.columbia.edu/~thaddeus/ranking/investigation.html
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damn. Wow
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Here is an article. I love the guy who wrote it, former Rhodes scholar Michael Thaddeus who is a math prof.
“I do actually have the best interests of the institution at heart, even though it might not seem that way,” he explained. “The way I look at it is it’s only fair to hold Columbia’s administration to the same standards of integrity as we hold our students to.”
It reminds me of WADA and doping. We have to hold them to high standards.
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University administrators are like the CEOs of companies. They say whatever is best for the bottom line whether it is true or not. For those against the tenure system, if it didn't exist this professor would never have written this article and we would never know the university was less than truthful, else he would have gotten fired.
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Tenure's an essential shield against politically motivated thought control and silencing, and all credit to this professor for penetrating the cone of silence in which university administrations game the numbers to raise their rankings. I believe this practice to be very widespread and harmful.
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This means the CDC is probably withholding data while they decide the most believable way to transform that data into lies. obfuscation and BS.
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US News rankings are a big sham. I work in healthcare and we waste hundreds of thousands of dollars prepping data to try and be a top 100 hospital or whatever. It's all about who spends the most time and money prepping and then it comes down to reputation between a bunch of blow hard old farts that score each other. We do patient care improvement for lots of reasons but US News isn't one of those. Some of the top US News hospitals actually have pretty mediocre outcomes so never base your hospital selection on them.
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I would suggest listening to the two part podcast episodes Malcom Gladwell did on the US News Rankings on his Revisionist History Podcast this past summer and what a complete sham they are.
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JD Power has been a marketing charade for over 50 years. The automotive industry considers the JD Power rankings to be an essential part of their dog and pony show.
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Now USC might be fessing up regarding its education school:
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Nice "running threads only" function.
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rojo wrote:
Here is an article. I love the guy who wrote it, former Rhodes scholar Michael Thaddeus who is a math prof.
“I do actually have the best interests of the institution at heart, even though it might not seem that way,” he explained. “The way I look at it is it’s only fair to hold Columbia’s administration to the same standards of integrity as we hold our students to.”
It reminds me of WADA and doping. We have to hold them to high standards.
What a dumb@ss and a punk. Who gives a sh!t where colleges are ranked by US News and World Report? Columbia is an Ivy League school. I don't care if it's ranked 2nd or 20th. It's still a great school, and more importantly, it brings in great students, so if you are a student you are surrounded by other stellar students, and the degree gives you opportunity that not ALL degrees from other colleges do.
Anyone with half a brain knows that any ranking of colleges is mostly subjective. Yes, there are some objective things that go into it, but this math professor should not give a crap.
He's a bit self-important if you ask me. Absolutely NO REASON for him to write that. If I were a member of the university higher ups, I'd be looking for ways to get rid of him. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. There are reasons to push back on an employer...this ain't one of them. What an a$$hole.
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zcvxzvcx wrote:
Tenure's an essential shield against politically motivated thought control and silencing, and all credit to this professor for penetrating the cone of silence in which university administrations game the numbers to raise their rankings. I believe this practice to be very widespread and harmful.
This is not news. Yes, it is widespread. No, it is not harmful. No matter how you slice it, Columbia is a better college than Shawnee State University here in Ohio. Better students, better facilities, more accomplished professors, higher expectations, etc. Does it matter if Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, switch around among the top 5 each year? No.
Just absolutely unnecessary bad press for Columbia. The guy is an a$$hole.
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That is a strange take. If your employer put out a yearly press release with your personal accomplishments, education background, and previous employment history that was grossly exaggerated and incorrect you would be ok with it?
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loose morals wrote:
That is a strange take. If your employer put out a yearly press release with your personal accomplishments, education background, and previous employment history that was grossly exaggerated and incorrect you would be ok with it?
NO, but I would talk to my employer about it (in my case, I am my own employer, but we're speaking hypothetically here), not write a public condemnation of them.
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Flagpole wrote:
loose morals wrote:
That is a strange take. If your employer put out a yearly press release with your personal accomplishments, education background, and previous employment history that was grossly exaggerated and incorrect you would be ok with it?
NO, but I would talk to my employer about it (in my case, I am my own employer, but we're speaking hypothetically here), not write a public condemnation of them.
Maybe he tried and this was the only way to get a policy change. Maybe this causes other institutions to check they aren’t doing the same. Educational institutions are more like law firms where everyone is the boss than like companies that have an all powerful controlling ceo/coo.
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zcvxzvcx wrote:
Tenure's an essential shield against politically motivated thought control and silencing, and all credit to this professor for penetrating the cone of silence in which university administrations game the numbers to raise their rankings. I believe this practice to be very widespread and harmful.
The professor, Michael Thaddeus, is pro- "intellectual diversity." It is basically critical race theory for conservatives.
"Conservatives sometimes complain that academia does not have sufficient “intellectual diversity,” by which they tend to mean that university professors are overwhelmingly liberal. State legislators have even introduced “intellectual diversity acts” that would require colleges to bring more conservative speakers to campus so that “both sides” of an issue can be heard."
I had not idea anything like a call for "intellectual diversity" existed. And I was surprised to find that it is a top priority in conservative lead states, like Florida.
"Citing concerns that universities are "indoctrinating" students and not presenting a wide variety of viewpoints, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new law this week that requires Florida public colleges to administer "intellectual diversity" surveys to students and staff."
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loose morals wrote:
Flagpole wrote:
NO, but I would talk to my employer about it (in my case, I am my own employer, but we're speaking hypothetically here), not write a public condemnation of them.
Maybe he tried and this was the only way to get a policy change. Maybe this causes other institutions to check they aren’t doing the same. Educational institutions are more like law firms where everyone is the boss than like companies that have an all powerful controlling ceo/coo.
He seems to be unhappy with his tenure situation. His tenure offers him job security, but it is also somewhat locks him into his university.
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loose morals wrote:
Flagpole wrote:
NO, but I would talk to my employer about it (in my case, I am my own employer, but we're speaking hypothetically here), not write a public condemnation of them.
Maybe he tried and this was the only way to get a policy change. Maybe this causes other institutions to check they aren’t doing the same. Educational institutions are more like law firms where everyone is the boss than like companies that have an all powerful controlling ceo/coo.
You are correct to push me on this. It is possible he tried that. If he did, and then also let them know he would go public with it unless they confirmed to him that they wouldn't do that anymore, then I'd give him a pass. Just as an overall though, I don't think outside of that that getting a policy change is his business here, and it's not important enough to sh!t on your employer like that.
A professor's job is to give the best education he/she/they can possibly give to their students. It's not to get involved in any kind of political drama. My wife is a college professor, and let me tell you, professors who do sh!t like this guy did are not looked upon favorably by their peers.
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