At the Tuesday, Oct. 23 Student Senate meeting, President Eli Caywood asked Interim Provost Duane Ford to comment on the recent noncompetitive ranking that UW-Platteville received  in the Barron’s Profile of American Colleges publication. Ford said, “The last time [Barron] sent a request for information was in 2005. It is clearly not representative of data today.”

“If you read Barron’s own standard, it is pretty clear that we should not be ranked noncompetitive,” Ford said. “The bottom line is that I believe that Barron made a mistake.”

Ford went on to say that UW-P would like to focus on the quality of graduates that come from UW-P.

“[UW-P] placed 93 percent of our students after graduation,” Ford said. “We are very solidly accredited.”

Rich Egley, dean of students, asked whether a high school senior would be better served by looking at Barron’s data or the 2006 accreditation. Ford replied by saying to the audience, “When you were choosing a college, did you read the Barron’s report?”