Update from Penn State
In the past week, Penn State has received some good news from two distinct sources. On Sept. 10, U.S. News & World Report issued its annual college rankings, the most recognized and popular of all college rankings.
Penn State now ranks No. 8 among all public national universities in the "2014 Best Colleges Rankings," up five places from last year.
"Our university consistently delivers the highest-quality education to our students and helps prepare them to succeed in their careers and in life beyond the classroom," said University President Rodney Erickson. "We are proud of our students, faculty, staff and alumni, and their positive impact on the world speaks loudest and best for Penn State."
But it's always nice to be recognized among the leading universities.
In the overall "National Universities" category, which includes both public and private institutions, Penn State has risen to No. 37 overall, up nine places from last year. According to U.S. News' methodology, schools in the "National Universities" category emphasize faculty research and offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master's and Ph.D. programs.
In the Big Ten, Penn State ranks No. 2 among public nationals, and No. 3 in the overall nationals.
For more on this story, go to http://news.psu.edu/story/286949/2013/09/10/rankings/penn-state-rises-2014-us-news-best-colleges-rankings or visit http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/09/us-news-college-rankings-universities/2791069/
The other positive news last week was the report by Sen. George Mitchell, the independent, third-party monitor assigned by the NCAA under its Athletics Integrity Agreement (AIA) with Penn State. On Sept. 6, Sen. Mitchell issued his first yearly report, which commended Penn State for accomplishments over the past 12 months in the areas of safety, risk management, human resources, youth programming and athletics, among others.
Sen. Mitchell commended the University for the amount of resources, time and energy devoted to implementing virtually all of the 119 recommendations from the Freeh Report, fulfilling all of the annual requirements of the AIA that was signed by the NCAA, the Big Ten and Penn State.
In a recent interview on the topic, University President Rodney Erickson noted that the reforms that have been put in place have not only made Penn State a safer institution, but also have resulted in the University being a leader in the nation in terms of security, governance, human resources policies and more.
"What we’re really trying to accomplish as an institution is to weave what we’ve done into the fabric of the institution," Erickson said, "so that long after any individual or individuals have left the university, we’ll continue to operate under what I believe is a set of best practices for governance, for administration, for policies and for operations."
Erickson said that Penn State has become the university that others look to for advice on reform and change.
"While this is a significant milestone, there is still more to be done," Erickson said. "This does not represent the conclusion of our efforts. We are keeping our teams in place and will be embarking with a sustained sense of urgency on the next phase of our plan to continuously improve our governance, policies and procedures and operations."
For more information about the report, go to http://news.psu.edu/story/286607/2013/09/06/athletics/penn-state-officials-vow-continued-focus-positive-change
As always, University Relations hopes these communications provide timely and important information to you about Penn State. Thank you for being a part of our University.
