Soyster: Rankings should be ‘wake-up call’ for Penn State’s board of trustees

Recently, members of the Penn State Board of Trustees held a special meeting to approve a 10-year contract extension for our football coach. But there is another special meeting needed to address a 10-year plan about our disappointing 2022 US News & World Report academic ranking. Pennsylvanians should expect this rather dismal ranking to garner at least as much attention from our board as football contracts.

The most recent 2022 USNW ranking of national universities places Penn State at No. 63, and tied for eighth in the Big Ten. And, Penn State has the highest in-state tuition among all the public Big Ten schools. Most disappointingly, USNW ranks Penn State at the bottom of the Big Ten in “Best Value.” Then, it is not surprising that the report also ranks Penn State No. 174 in the nation in Best Value.

This is shocking to me. (Best Value benchmarks include in-state Temple at 75th and, nationally, Towson at 173). Our board, along with a new president, needs to step up in support of all Pennsylvanians who should demand that we successfully compete with schools like Michigan (ranked No. 23), academically, as well as on the football field. And compete too with cost, as more than a quarter of in-state Michigan students pay no tuition.

What is needed is a board (and new university president) for which improvement in our academic performance and standing supersedes all other strategic decisions. Obviously, this has not been the focus in recent years. With visionary leadership, a university can overcome organizational barriers and reach the most unlikely goals; I have witnessed just such a renaissance at another university.

In 1997, after 15 years at Penn State, I was appointed dean of engineering at Northeastern (a private university) in Boston. More importantly, a new president was appointed with the singular task to improve the academic performance and standing of Northeastern. Boston includes many of the most prominent universities in the world, so we either had to compete or shrink into oblivion. At the time, Northeastern was ranked 152 out of about 400 national universities. So, what did we do?

Since USNW was becoming the de-facto measure of university standing, we used their measures for a broad roadmap to help guide future decisions. This ranking includes critical factors that measure the well-being of a university, (e.g., graduation rate, student quality, class sizes, faculty resources and alumni support). The whole process was driven by savvy and entrepreneurial board members with broad experience in business and government, and in close collaboration with the academic leadership. Fast forward to the present: Northeastern is ranked 49th, 14 places higher than Penn State! In 1997, such a difference in 2021 was unfathomable.

Do other schools pay attention to these metrics? They do! All are keenly aware of their ranking and communicate with their stakeholders (when the results are positive). The University of Pittsburgh Provost on the USNW metrics: “We don’t necessarily want to run our University just according to their metrics ..., but we regard their ranking as very important because families regard it as important, students regard it as important and employers.” By the way, Pitt is now ranked higher than Penn State.

Our board needs a wake-up call. In 2014 (during the Sandusky travesty and amid our board turmoil), Penn State ranked 44th (previous 5-year average) compared to Michigan’s 29th. Today, the 16-place deficit in 2014 has widened to a 40-place deficit in 2021! Could it be in 10 years that we are ranked on par with Michigan?

I fervently hope that our new president believes it is fathomable. Regardless, notwithstanding my concerns, our family will continue to support Penn State through our engineering scholarships and awards. We Are.