U .S. NEWS & World Report's annual Best Colleges publication consistently lends high praise to the University. Throughout the list's existence, the University has never ranked lower than the second best public university in the nation, and have always been a top-25 institution overall. These rankings seek to determine how well colleges are providing for the individuals that attend them. That the University is constantly held in such high regard attests to its continued commitment to the cultivation of the best educational atmosphere possible for its students.
Despite the University's ability to stay atop this list, it fails to garner such grand recognition from a different set of college rankings. In their assessment of U.S. colleges and universities, Washington Monthly places the University as the 53rd best institution. The difference between the two publications is their methodology. U.S. News focuses on what a college can do for you, the individual student; the Monthly ranks universities according to what they are doing for the country as a whole. This is done through the utilization of three criteria: research, service and social mobility, which is the admitting and graduating of low-income students.
Although the University receives high marks for its research production, the same cannot be said for the latter two criteria. Therefore, administrators should use the University's underwhelming performance in these areas, and its not-so-favorable overall rating, to reflect upon how they can create an institution more committed to civic duty, and why creating such an environment is of critical importance.
If the University desires to exhibit a greater dedication to social mobility, administrators must make it a priority to admit a greater number of low-income students. According to the Monthly, only 8 percent of students attend the University on Pell Grants, which is the third lowest of the 100 schools ranked. A first step toward increasing low-income enrollment would be slightly lowering admissions standards for these students, which would allow more of them to attend the University. This would fulfill the University's duty as a public entity committed to equal educational opportunity and strong academic achievement for all demographics.
Opponents suggest that lowering standards poses an unfair challenge to higher-income students because they would be viewed less favorably than low-income students with similar credentials. Giving this advantage to poorer students, however, simply acknowledges that they have not had access to all of the educational opportunities some of their peers have had, and that low-income students have to work against a greater number of obstacles to achieve the same results as middle- and upper-class students.
Additionally, it has been argued that lowering standards simply sets up these students for failure. This is a misguided conclusion, as the University graduates 93 percent of Pell Grant-receiving students. The University does fine in promoting the success of low-income students, it just needs to admit more of them.
Similarly important to administrators should be increasing support for the Charlottesville community. The Monthly ranked the University 155th nationally in both student participation in community service and institutional support for service. Solving this problem is a matter of increasing administrative advocacy for community involvement in a way that will lead students to volunteer their time.
This can happen by meshing the student body with the greater Charlottesville area. If more community events are held on Grounds, service opportunities off Grounds are given greater advertisement, and service hours become a minor requirement of some classroom curricula, the student body will develop a stronger relationship with the surrounding area. This will increase students' desire to serve and will create a greater commitment to civic duty overall as an institution.
When asked how the University can increase its dedication to civic duty, Madison House Executive Director Elizabeth Bass responded, "I think the key to positive connections between the University and the local community is relationship building, and those relationships take time and care
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