• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, May 9, 2007

In a move more symbolic than rebellious, the presidents of 12 small liberal-arts colleges are circulating a letter urging their peers to withhold information from U.S. News & World Report used in its annual school rankings.

The move would only have impact if a large number of colleagues agree. That issue is the magazine's biggest seller and an essential guide for students and parents around college application time. In particular, they are encouraging a boycott of the peer-assessment portion of the survey, where presidents and administrators are asked to rank competing schools--a process the dissidents claim is ethically questionable.

The peer-assessment portion counts for 25% of the rankings, along with the size of schools' financial endowments, student retention rates, class size, etc. A widespread revolt by respondents could substantially alter the outcomes--but that's unlikely to happen, according to Ronald Ehrenberg, a professor of economics and director of Cornell University's Higher Education Research Institute, which studies all aspects of college and university management.

"It has to be a lot more than 12, first of all," says Ehrenberg, noting that the list includes about 1,500 schools in all. He described a situation resembling the famed "Prisoner's Dilemma." "They might object to the way the rankings are compiled, but they also get a lot of prestige from being high up in the rankings--and if everyone else is participating, you better be in there, too."

Without a general consensus to withhold information, few administrators will be willing to risk going it alone. "You wish they would go away, but if they don't go away," Ehrenberg says, "you don't want them to hurt you."

The college-ranking edition of U.S. News & World Report usually sells about 2.5 million copies, as compared with an average paid circulation of about 2 million for other issues. The 2006 issue boasted more ads than any previous ranking.