I think it's more significant that most of them are in the SEC with strong football programs, as the article indicates.
 
I doubt it means much of anything at all. We have no idea what their criteria were or how valid they are. They are clearly focused on undergraduates, not graduate programs. If anything is significant, it's the effect of local culture on the image of a university.
 
Suzanne M. Stauffer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Science
Louisiana State University
275 Coates Hall
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
(225)578-1461
Fax: (225)578-4581
[log in to unmask]


Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?



--T.S. Eliot, "Choruses from The Rock"







From: Open Lib/Info Sci Education Forum on behalf of Gretchen Whitney
Sent: Thu 2/16/2012 7:38 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: slacker schools





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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