University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 5, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 31, 1990 Page: 4 of 15
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4
University News
October 31,1990
News & Letters
UD Ranks in the Fourth Quartile of US News and World Report's College List
Week and the amount of money the
students and faculty collected,” An-
thony Danda admitted.
America in January, and they have al-
ready written us, promising UD it is
somewhere on the list. Judging from
their criteria (quality and availability of
the faculty, quality of the curriculum,
especially a core oriented toward the
Western Tradition, quality of the intel-
lectual environment and interaction
between members of the university
community), especially from the sec-
ond criteria, it seems they developed
Dear Editor,
As a physician and UD alumnus, I
must take issue with Ms. Laura
Hampton’s comment that, “Philoso-
phy, unlike the sciences, teaches you
to think, rather than just memorize the
formulas.”
If science were merely plugging
numbers into formulae, the advances
made by Aristotle, Copernicus, New-
ton, Darwin, and Einstein would never
have occurred. Their work was as
much the product of creative thought
as the Sistine Chapel, Hamlet, or the
Choral symphony.
Science and philosophy are two
facets of man’s creative intelligence:
to emphasize one at the expense of the
other lessens both.
—William M. Mania MD, MPH
Class of '77
Money rated UD according to educa-
tionunits versus money units. National
Review rated UD according to the qual-
ity of faculty, core, and environment. It
appears the better the criteria were, the
better the school performed in the rank-
ings. UD is doing what the Ivy Leagu-
ers do,but without the required price or
pomp.
Average grantper student with need:
$3641
Student/faculty ratio: 11/1
% who graduate in 5 years: 63%
Also on the list were Rice (3), Bay-
lor (16), Trinity University (28), Incar-
nate Word (30), St. Mary’s of St. Anto-
nio (32), St. Thomas Aquinas (38), and
Austin College (77).
The National Review
The National Review comes out
by Sam Caplan
The drawing for the 1990 Charity
Week raffle took place Oct. 24, and the
prizes were awarded as follows: first
prize, a trip to Disney World, was won
by D. L. Johnson of Chesterfield, MO;
second prize, a trip to New Orleans, was
won by Celeste Pritchard of Austin,
TX.; and third prize, a mountain bike,
was won by K. A. Doyle of Orange, C A.
All three are UD alumni.
K. A. Doyle studied at UD from
list, those that charged more did not do
as well. Some of the criteria they used
were: the number of students that go on
to get a Ph.D. (as an indication of the
faculty’s ability to interest a student in
a certain subject), attrition rate, how
much money a school devotes to in-
struction, SAT scores, student-faculty
ratio, and the number of books in the
library. They used the school’s full
price or out-of-state charges as the
school’s cost.
On their list of the top 100 private
schools in the nation, a list which in-
cluded technical, regional, liberal arts,
and national schools, Money rated UD
#33. For their survey Money used these
numbers:
Tuition + Fees: $7900
Room + Board: $3750
% of needs met: 96% (96% of the
students qualifying for financial aid
each school should cost based upon “17
measures of academic performance,”
and then compared that value to the
school’s actual cost. Schools that cost
Letters to the
Editor:
Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the
UniversityNews article concerning the
new Student Government committee
Forward. I am not convinced that a
truly objective news article can be
written. What I am concerned about is
the lingering effects a biased article,
although factual, can leave in the minds
of a community as small as UD.
Specifically, the author of the fea-
ture concerning Forward, its incep-
tion, and its purpose renders judg-
ments on many of the issues surround-
ing the group. The article begins with
a question, “So why in the world do we
need Forward anyway?” which imme-
diately sets a sarcastic tone to the ar-
ticle. Next, the author presumes to
quote student conversations, “They
want to fight student apathy? About
what? I thought they were the guys
with the attitude...” First the quotes
should be attributed to someone spe-
cifically which would give the quote
some validity and secondly the quotes
infer that the members of Forward
have attitudes, leaving a negative
connotation that the committee has a
block on its shoulder and is only out to
prove something.
The article continues to frame facts
with innuendo and opinion. The au-
thor concludes that the resolution offi-
cially creating Forward passed nar-
rowly because it received 19 votes out
of a possible 28 and fails to mention
ethe abstentions as well as the absen-
tees. The article ends on a somber note
as well as a conclusion by the author,
“Until the class representatives can
establish student opinion, Forward is
doing no harm in pursuing its goal.”
Please, in the future present the facts
as unbiasedly as one can and allow the
reader to determine if Forward is doing
no harm in pursuing its goal.
My aim in writing this letter is not
to criticize the University News. Its
purpose is simply to dispel some of the
innuendo and negative perceptions left
by an article which affects many
members of the UD community.
—Matthew Clarke
Jknith College (MA)
Davidson College (NC)
lish to Spanish speaking persons, and
another that teaches mothers with small
children about nutrition. Anotherproj-
ect is the Elderly Program, in which the
Brady Center provides a hot meal
Monday through Friday to elderly per-
sons. They also have various activities
such as arts and crafts, ceramics, sew-
ing, bingo and dances for the elderly.
The Catholic Community Appeal,
an ongoing ministry of the Catholic
Diocese of Dallas, will also receive a
portion of the Charity Week proceeds.
The CCA sponsors programs such as
Family Life, and marriage and adoption
counseling.
by Georgeann Higgins
The problems facing higher educa-
tion these days abound: tuition is going
up, admission standards are going down,
and applicant pools are getting smaller.
Politics on college campuses abound
adding to the conflict and dissatisfac-
tion in learning. Worse, the actual
quality of education offered by Ameri-
can colleges has become notorious: the
Gallup Organization polled college
seniors, asking them questions such as
“Who said this? Churchill or Stalin?”
and 25% could not answer. The poll
concluded “Using the standard ‘A’ to
‘F’ scale.. .55% of the students would
have received a grade of *F’ and another
20% a ‘D’.” The National Endowment
for the Humanities feels the lack of a
solid core curriculum is the problem. In
their own survey they found 38% of
America’s colleges and universities do
not require taking a history class at all,
77% do not require studying a lan-
guage, 41% do not require studying
mathematics, and 33% do not require a
natural or physical science course.
With these deplorable figures in
mind, recently several national maga-
zines published their own lists of “the
best.” To comprehend fully each
magazine’s list and UD’s place on it,
one
magazine used.
U. S. News and World Report
U. S. News and World Report ranked
1374 four-year colleges and universi-
ties. First they sorted the schools into
five main categories: national universi-
ties, national liberal-arts colleges, re-
gional colleges and universities, regional
liberal-arts colleges, and specialized
proceeds was $17,889, falling short of
the $20,000 goal. The raffle, which was
expected to boost the Charity Week
proceeds over the $20,000 mark, did
not generate the response that was
expected. Out of the 9600 letters that
were sent to parents and alumni re-
questing them to purchace the tickets,
only 222 were returned, and only 908
out of 48,000 tickets were purchased.
“I am somewhat disappointed in the
return of raffle tickets this year., .overall
1971-76. “I was just being a nice per- I am pleased with the results of Charity
son sending in a donation ..I never win
anything!” she said.
The grand total for the Charity Week
supports a high-quality full-time fac-
ulty, its overall financial resources, and
the level of student satisfaction as
measured by the school’s attrition rate.
“Evaluating faculty included consider-
ing the number of PhD’s, student/fac-
ulty ratio, and average faculty salary,
including fringe benefits for tenured
full professors.” To determine the
school’s overall rank they gave a score
of 100 to the highest raw score in each
category and then assigned all other
scores as compared to that one score.
When all the dust had settled, they had
their list:
Top 10 Liberal-Arts Colleges
1. Amherst College (MA)
2. Swarthmore College (PA)
3. Williams College (MA)
4. Bowdoin College (ME)
5. Wellesley College (MA)
6. Pomona College (CA)
7. Wesleyan University (CT)
8. Middlebury College (VT)
9.
10.
They ranked the top 25 schools
employing this method, and assigned
the remaining 1349 schools to their
respective quartiles, based upon the
‘academic reputation’ survey given to
school administrators. The schools in
must understand the criteria each the four quartiles, U S. World News and
Report's “Best of the Rest,” were not
ranked according to the five categories
fisted above. They received their rank-
ings based upon national reputation
alone.
In the final product UD did not
come out on top. Its size, location, and
age (less than 40 years old) worked
against it in the reputation poll and
ulty with doctorate to 98%)
Student/Facuity ratio: 14/1
Total spending per student: $5825
(This is the amount of money UD spent
on each student for the 1989-1990school
year, found by dividing the total univer-
sity budget, which includes salaries,
maintenance and supplies, and dividing
it by 2767, the total graduate, under-
graduate, and part-time student enroll-
ment for that year. In 89-90 UD’s
financial aid budget was $2,565,881.
University-granted scholarships such as
the Competitive Exam were considered
a discount on tuition, therefore they
were not included in the total budget.)
Graduation rate: 58% (58% of the
entering freshmen each year remain to
graduate)
To add insult to injury, the maga-
zine listed the example schools of each
quartile in alphabetical order, which
put UD fourth from the bottom of the receive it)
last quartile. Undoing this damage will
be difficult, especially considering the
expanse of the circulation of this maga-
zine and the fact that many high schools
use it as a text in some history and
politics classes, as well as keep it in
their libraries. The Development Of-
fice is contacting Phi Beta Kappa, the
oldest honor society in America, and
the other four schools in the fourth
quartile who are members of it, asking
the fraternity to publish their own list of with their list of top 50 schools in
top schools in America, based upon the
three-year studies they do of a school
before granting it a Phi Beta Kappa
chapter. One of the weaknesses of U.S.
World News and Report's study was
that they failed to note schools with a
Phi Beta Kappa chapter, and UD is the
institutions (e.g., engineering schools placed the school in the lowest quartile youngest school ever to be granted one.
and the military academies). Then they of their profile. The Admissions office feels the astute
mailed an “academic reputation” sur- Most of their categories are self- high school student will pay more at-
vey to 4131 college presidents, deans, explanatory: tention to the average SAT score and
and admission directors, of whom a rec- Average SAT: 1100 the number of freshmen in top 10% of their criteria after visiting UD.
ord 60.1% responded. They asked the Freshmen in top 10% of class: 47% class before making a final judgement; U.S. WorldNews rated UD accord-
respondents to rate only their competi-
tion, placing schools into one of four
quartiles. Each vote in the top quartile
received four points, each vote in the
second quartile received 3 points and so
on. “Don’t know”s received no points.
They then combined the results of this
survey with data provided by each
school: the selectivity of the student
body, the degree to which it financially
of their profile.
Most of their categories are self-
explanatory:
Average SAT: 1100
Freshmen in top 10% of class: 47%
(Highest in our quartile, andhigher than hence they feel it unnecessary to try to ing to its still-developing reputation.
5 of the 10 schools mentioned in the top respond to the magazine.
quartile) Money Magazine
Acceptance rate: 88% Money Magazine used a money-
Faculty with doctorate: 84% (This quality ratio. They computed how much
figure does not include faculty with
terminal degrees, such as the Master of
Fine Arts degree; otherwise UD’s Art;
and Drama faculty would have been
included, raising the University’s fac- less than expected rated hightly on their
Charity Week 1990 Finally Draws to a Close with Completion of the Raffle
The money raised will be given to
the Brady Center and the Catholic
Diocese of Dallas. The Brady Center,
located in the Saint Edwards school
building at 4009 Elm Street in Dallas, is
a non-profit social service organization
whose purpose is to provide financial
and social assistance to needy persons
in the East Dallas area.
The Brady Center’s main function
is to provide needy families with finan-
cial assistance for rent, utilities, food,
and medicine. They also operate a thrift
store which sells second-hand clothing.
The Brady Center is involved in an
educational program that teaches Eng-
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University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 5, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 31, 1990, newspaper, October 31, 1990; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1221023/m1/4/?q=led+zeppelin: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Dallas.