Administrators claim it and the evidence seems to support it: Northwestern is an institution on the rise.
The Office of Admission accepted fewer students this year in hopes of a smaller freshman class, yet more students than expected decided to enroll. The school’s largest fund-raising drive in history, Campaign Northwestern, has passed $1.4 billion in donations and led to a multitude of new buildings and dorms on campus.
And in a story followed closely by national media, the university’s law and journalism professors were instrumental in helping sway former Gov. George Ryan to empty death row.
But Alan Cubbage, NU’s vice president for university relations, realizes these positive events always will be overshadowed by the more scandalous ones.
In recent years, the university has received its share of negative coverage, from reports of the tragic death of football player Rashidi Wheeler to an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture into animal research practices at the Feinberg School of Medicine to racial and religious vandalism that appeared on several residence hall doors during Winter Quarter.
Although Cubbage said he thinks NU’s national reputation remains stronger than ever, he also understands why some of NU’s mistakes have garnered national attention.
“The fact that Northwestern does a really good job at education, teaching and research is not newsworthy — it’s important and valuable, but it’s not news,” Cubbage said. “Outstanding faculty teaches brilliant students? OK, we do that every day. The news media covers those things that are unusual, not necessarily those things that are worthwhile.”
If a story breaks that may cast a negative light on the university and Cubbage said officials must attempt to provide facts and not hide pertinent information.
“When a major piece of bad news occurs, it is problematic for any institution,” he said. “The worst thing of all is when an institution finds out something has gone wrong, attempts to cover it up and it’s discovered. That’s the Watergate syndrome and you are really in trouble there.”
And experts say it will take more than a few of these isolated incidents to influence national academic rankings or change the national perception of NU as a school.
ADMISSION EFFECT
Carol Lunkenheimer, NU’s dean of undergraduate admissions, never will forget the impact NU’s 1996 appearance in the Rose Bowl had on prospective student applications. The national attention from the football team’s surprise season raised national consciousness about the university and led to an overwhelming increase in the number of applications the following year.
“It was a Cinderella story,” Lunkenheimer said. “It was a shock to everyone. But that increase was just a blip in response to the external events.”
Although athletic success translated into a massive rise in applications, Lunkenheimer said the story of Wheeler’s death after he participated in a 2001 summer conditioning drill and the subsequent wrongful-death lawsuit his family has brought against the university has not led to a negative effect.
“Not one prospective student has even mentioned the Rashidi Wheeler case in an informative session to me or asked about that case,” she said.
Jim Conroy, a post-high school counselor at New Trier Township High School in Winnetka, agrees with Lunkenheimer’s statement. Last year, 103 students from New Trier applied to NU, 27 of whom accepted enrollment and are currently freshmen.
To many prospective students, Conroy said other factors help potential applicants develop a positive vision of a university more than any national media attention for a particular event. For example, an enthusiastic tour guide may have more of an impact than a Nobel Laureate professor on whether a prospective student decides to pick a school, he said.
“The students are aware of the national news, but that doesn’t translate into helping them make a decision,” Conroy said.
BEYOND RANKINGS
Although some officials may view a school’s admission rate as a way to measure their reputation, other members of academic circles pay attention to the U.S. News and World Report’s annual college rankings. Some administrators call the rankings unscientific but still recognize their significance.
Bob Morse, the magazine’s director of data research, said the peer assessment portion of the rankings give administrators at universities a chance to rate each other. The average peer assessment score comprises 25 percent of a school’s total ranking per U.S. News’ formula.
Officials at each school rate others on a scale from one to five, with five being the most distinguished, he said.
Morse said he doesn’t think one investigation or tragic event at a school such as NU would affect the way that institution is viewed by others in their peer-assessment scoring.
“These rankings are academic,” Morse said. “It depends how significant the event was and how long lasting and fundamental it will be to the long-term educational mission of the school. It’s unclear to me how a negative single event could hurt a school’s reputation.”
Although NU’s rankings may continue to rise, some say statistics do not show the whole story on how a school is perceived.
In a March 13 column in the Chicago Sun-Times regarding NU’s handling of the Wheeler lawsuit, sports writer Greg Couch blasted the school.
“Exactly what has happened to Northwestern, anyway?” he wrote. “When I used to think of the school, I thought about brainy nerds. Now I think of shame and scandal.”
In an e-mail to The Daily on Thursday, Couch said he doesn’t think the Wheeler case has caused major harm to the school’s reputation, but he warns officials to be careful.
“The Wheeler stuff makes Northwestern look like just some other school with sports problems,” Couch said in the e-mail. “I did a radio show after writing that column on Wheeler, and the hosts kept telling me that other schools run illegal practices and have players on ephedra too. I said that Northwestern used to be mentioned in the same sentences with Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale, and now you are holding it against other schools?”
RESEARCH RESPONSE
NU’s academic reputation has remained insulated from the athletic scandals and was buoyed by former Gov. Ryan’s historic emptying of death row in January. The intense media coverage of that decision highlighted the efforts of NU’s Center on Wrongful Convictions and journalism Prof. David Protess to bring justice to wrongfully accused death row inmates.
Although the death-penalty reforms represented the zenith of NU’s national media coverage this year, an investigation into possible violations of the Animal Welfare Act in some of NU’s federally funded research projects also have generated attention.
Administrators said the problems has been corrected and they have hired an outside consulting group and pledged $1.8 million to help enact changes to the Office of Research.
Clarke Caywood, a professor of integrated marketing communications who teaches a course in crisis communication, said university officials have subscribed to a successful public-relations strategy: They have dealt with the fallout by being open about the changes that have been made.
“If the president of the university was outrageous and started screaming back at the regulatory authorities and giving an irrational response, then that would be a problem,” Caywood said. “The university hasn’t tried to cover this up. They seem concerned with going forward and addressing if they’ve fixed the problems. They seem to be making efforts to make sure this won’t happen again.”
Couch, the Sun-Times columnist, said he knows NU’s academics and research remain at a high level, despite the fact that some news organizations may continue to harp on the negative.
“I’m sure in the academic world that everyone sti
ll thinks of Northwestern as a top-level place,” Couch said in his e-mail. “Even if some academics are snickering about some issues (at the university), most of them would probably take a job at Northwestern in a snap.”
