Greetings,
   I find that there is usually a bit of truth in the most whacko 
assertion.  Here is another example.  The trick is to find the truth.

   I was surprised to learn earlier this week that the Univ of Tenn had 
been ranked nationally as a "slacker school" - (and I quote)

"Inside College quoted CollegeHumor, whose rankings aren't probably as 
highly regarded as U.S. News and World Report's annual list, describing 
its rankings as the "power rankings" for schools "having the maximum 
amount of fun while putting forth the least amount of effort.""

See http://tinyurl.com/7psmb2t or the longer URL

http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/University_of_Tennessee_ranks_in_Top_T
en_Slacker_Schools_Website_139217624.html

Upon examination of the original reporting site, there clearly were no 
criteria for these rankings.  However examination of the original site 
turned up that the following universities (with schools of LIS) were also 
included in the top ten slacker schools as listed in the institutional 
members of ALISE::

   Alabama (Tuscaloosa)
   Oklahoma (Norman)
   Louisiana (Baton Rouge)

and Penn State (which as I recall used to have an LIS program of some 
description).

   I just find it downright weird that, despite the lack of criteria for 
identifying "slacker schools," universities with LIS programs account for 
nearly half of the top ten universities identified as "slacker schools.". 
When there are fifty or so LIS programs across the country, and at least 
there are hundreds of universities to be considered.  I'm not saying that 
LIS programs drag down universities (it well could be that LIS programs 
grew up in less-demanding universities), but I note the interesting 
appearance of these universities with these LIS programs on this list at 
such a heavy proportion)..

   I also note that there are no iSchool universities on the list. Again, 
this is just an observation. I would certainly not assert that an iSchool 
could alone raise the perception of a university within its community. 
But it is interesting that they do not show up here.

   Comments and observations are welcomed, as always.
   --gw

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Gretchen Whitney, PhD, Retired
School of Information Sciences
University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN 37996 USA           [log in to unmask]
http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/
jESSE:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/jesse.html
SIGMETRICS:http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html
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