Lots to celebrate with state universities’ high rankings

Florida’s political and higher education leaders are celebrating some good news from the U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings.

There’s a lot to celebrate.

One of our universities ranked the seventhbest public university nationally while another ranked 18th.

In a new social mobility category that measures how successfully schools graduated students from low-income households, the University of South Florida ranked 11th and Florida International University came in 12th. Nine of the 12 Florida state universities were in the Social Mobility Top 100.

And overall Florida was named the nation’s best state higher education system for the third year in a row!

This is due, partly, to our low tuition rates and the success of our state college system, which keeps costs down while feeding students into our universities after they complete their two-year degrees.

While the rankings grant us bragging rights and some national prestige, they might also have an economic benefit by attracting new businesses to our state to take advantage of our talent pool.

Of course, with every ranking system, you must look at the metrics that are used to come up with scores. U.S. News considers the time it takes students to complete their degrees, the tuition cost, student debt, faculty resources and graduation rates of students who receive federal grants.

Without debating whether those are the best metrics or whether others should be included or given greater weight, we should agree that offering students a highquality education with top-notch academic faculty at an affordable price and getting them through the degree program as efficiently as practicable should be our objective. We appear to be competitive nationally in meeting that goal.

The University of Florida, my alma mater, continues to be the state’s highestranked university. Go Gators!

UF ranked seventh nationally out of all public universities and 34th nationally out of all universities — public or private. That’s up one spot in each category from a year ago. It’s Great to Be a Florida Gator!

Since 2012 UF has climbed from the

19th spot to the seventh but University of Florida President Kent Fuchs isn’t through. He is determined to get to number five. I believe he will take Gator Nation to the top five.

While Gators can rightfully brag about being the highest ranked, Florida State University made the biggest jump from 43rd in the nation among public universities in 2016 to 18th in this year’s rankings.

FSU President John Thrasher deserves a lot of credit for the rapid climb to 18th and is no doubt eyeing a move into the top 10.

In full disclosure, I served in the Florida Legislature with then state Rep. Thrasher and was matched up with him as my mentor when I was a freshman legislator and he was on his way to being Speaker of the House. Thrasher certainly knew how to get things accomplished — including establishing a medical school at FSU.

While I had tremendous respect for John’s intellect and political skills, I was initially wary of his candidacy for FSU president in 2014, believing someone from academia would be better suited for the job. Many FSU students and faculty shared similar concerns about someone coming from the political world.

President Thrasher proved us wrong with his strong and steady leadership in boosting performance, as evidenced by the rise in national rankings. He also performed admirably in crisis situations — adeptly handling a campus shooting and another mass shooting off campus that affected the FSU community.

Thrasher knows his way around the legislative budget process, is skilled at lobbying and is proficient at fundraising. Perhaps he is mentoring some of his colleagues.

The Legislature can be frugal with higher education funding, while insisting on keeping tuition low, so university presidents are expected to raise a lot of money.

Elected officials also tend to meddle — often working through the Board of Governors to push their personal agendas.

While it’s important to have oversight over the 12 independent institutions and to exercise some fiduciary responsibility over spending, we should allow them the autonomy to be innovative and responsive to the needs of their students and faculty.

There is no better investment that we can make as a state than to educate our students and prepare them with the knowledge, skills and leadership to get or create high-wage jobs.

Paula Dockery