When Darryll Pines, dean of the engineering school, heard that his college was ranked in U.S. News & World Report's list of the top engineering schools across the country for the first time ever, he sent a celebratory e-mail to the entire engineering faculty.
"I was very happy for the faculty, staff and students for the much-deserved recognition of their hard work over the past several years," Pines wrote in an e-mail earlier this week.
The engineering school was not just ranked — it was awarded the No. 19 spot on the list of the nation's top 20 engineering programs and the No. 9 spot among programs at public universities.
This ranking, published Aug. 17 in U.S. News & World Report's 2011 best colleges guide, came on the tail of several favorable rankings issued by The Princeton Review in its annual report earlier this month. In The Princeton Review's rankings, the university was placed on the Green College Honor Roll, which listed the most environmentally sustainable schools in the country. Among U.S. News & World Report's national university rankings, this university placed at No. 56, down three spots from last year.
Although it fell slightly in its national ranking, administrators and other officials touted the university's latest achievements.
Linda Clement, vice president for student affairs, said administrators are thrilled with the Green Rating by the Princeton Review — a perfect score of 99.
"This [ranking] is something we have charted for quite a while, so it's a nice acknowledgment and reinforces all that the staff has done," Clement said.
According to the Princeton Review, the score was based on "whether students have a campus quality of life that is both healthy and sustainable; how well a school is preparing students ... for citizenship in a world now defined by environmental concerns; ... and how environmentally responsible a school's policies are."
Vice President for Administrative Affairs Ann Wylie, a member of the university's Sustainability Council, said the ranking is more than validating; it may help propel the university's initiatives.
"Now that we have this recognition, we must continue to work to ensure that we are on this same list in the years to come," Wylie wrote in an e-mail.
The ranking awarded to the engineering school, Pines said, was welcome news to his faculty. Although the school had not been included on the list before, Pines said it was not because they didn't deserve it.
"Our reputation has far lagged behind the reality," he wrote.
To rank colleges, U.S. News & World Report categorizes each institution based on its reported mission, gathers information from each school in 16 areas related to academic excellence and then sorts them by a composite score.
Although the engineering school has made great strides over the past few years, Pines says the best is yet to come.
"We have a few big surprises in the works," he wrote. "Stay tuned."
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