Just over a month ago, days after U.S. News & World Report released the “America’s Best Colleges” rankings, editor Brian Kelly was in Little Rock, Ark., to lecture at the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas. This date was on my calendar for months, as I was excited about an opportunity to question Mr. Kelly publicly.
I had crunched the numbers, comparing top-tier versus bottom-tier schools for national universities, national liberal arts schools, Southern master’s and Southern baccalaureate colleges and universities. I used the South since that is where we find most HBCUs. I went armed to ask Mr. Kelly why his methodology promotes discrimination against groups which make up a significant portion of America.
When recognized, I asked:
The top half of the top-tier national schools have one-third the total of low income students, one-fifth the total of Black students, and one-tenth the total of non-traditional students of bottom tier schools. Since Black, poor and non-traditional students generally have lower SAT scores, are retained and graduate at lower levels than White, affluent and traditional students, aren’t you rewarding those, with few exceptions, that enroll a minimum number of students from these groups while penalizing those of us who serve these students?
He seemed to have never considered that fact. So he rambled for about five minutes, rarely looking directly at me. A number of people chuckled as they commented to me afterwards, “He didn’t answer your question.” He weakly ended his “answer” by saying that the rankings don’t try to drive behavior, and that what I described were “societal issues” for which they have no responsibility.
He did, however, articulate what U.S. News values: wealth and exclusivity. When challenged by a Clinton School professor, he confidently stated and our local newspaper reported, “Wealth matters in American society. There’s no question about it. Exclusivity matters — inputs are important. Fame matters. Reputation is something that is a proxy for other things.”
Kelly’s position is an example of White privilege. This mindset purports that institutions, organizations, and even people who are not of certain backgrounds, attributes, influence and wealth, can be ignored and dismissed.
