Columns:: Worth Repeating

since 12/15/98

Columns::September 4, 2001

Worth repeating

At the regular presidential media briefing on Aug. 22, reporters asked about magazine rankings of colleges and universities, currently the subject of scrutiny as a result of a national magazine story about how the rankings are done. President Michael F. Adams responded, in part:
“I think generally the rankings are better than they used to be, but you ought not to live and die by them. My basic philosophy is that it’s like sports--wins are a by-product of doing things right. Rankings are a by-product of doing things right--and I’d rather us spend our time trying to make sure that we have the right quality student, the right quality faculty, the right level of resources in place. The rankings will come. . . .
“A lot of the college rankings, frankly, are inverse listings of resources. I have said over and over that there’s no such thing as cheap excellence. And that’s why it is so important that we keep increases in all of our revenue lines. We need to continue to increase development output, research output, tuition output, state support output, outside entity output--the Research Foundation, the Real Estate Foundation, the overall UGA Foundation, the Athletic Association. . . .
“But all of the basic trend lines at the University of Georgia right now are strong, and for that I’m grateful. Generally, our national reputation--because of the work of our faculty and students--continues to rise. But whether we’re 15th or 18th in some list--that’s a finer cut than I’m able to make.”

--Beth Roberts

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