Our Ears are Burning: Wippman Responds to Rankings
In this month's Minnesota Monthly magazine, incoming Law School Dean David Wippman offers these thoughts on law school rankings. (The article is at http://www.mnmo.com/media/Minnesota-Monthly/July-2008/Winds-of-Change/ if you scroll almost to the bottom)
Objection! The U’s law school grapples with a slip in the rankings
—BETH HAWKINS
When David Wippman takes over as dean of the University of Minnesota Law School on July 1, he’ll have his work cut out for him: This past spring, for the first time in 12 years, U.S. News & World Report announced that the school had dropped out of the top 20 in the magazine’s annual ranking of the nation’s law schools.U faculty have long claimed that the scores have little relationship to a school’s overall quality. Midway down the list, the differences between, say, 15th and 16th place can amount to little more than a few odd factors—like the number of books in the school’s library. Wippman argues that the formula can “create some perverse incentives” for schools to game the numbers (buying more volumes for the stacks, for example). Still, he’s happy to highlight the spots where the U is a standout: “On one measure, peer reputation…
Minnesota is still doing very well,” Wippman says.
Administrators concede that the list has a major impact on a school’s ability to recruit students and faculty, place graduates in sought-after jobs, and tease dollars from alumni pockets. “We do hear from lots of students that it is something they pay attention to,” says Wippman, who already has his finger on the school’s pulse. “If the ranking falls, alumni express concern. If it goes up, they are appreciative of that.”
Wippman, a Minnesota native, most recently did double duty as a vice provost and law professor at Cornell University, which, incidentally, is number 12 on the list. Not that anyone’s keeping track.