Reed Magazine: November 1999 > News of the College

Same time, this year

It's not the fourth of July, but pyrotechnics nonetheless light up campuses across the country with the start-of-the-school-year release of U.S. News and World Report's college and university rankings. And for the fifth consecutive year, Reed has refused to return surveys to U.S. News for its annual best colleges newsstand issue and college guidebook. (The magazine continues to include Reed by using information it gathers indirectly from other sources and leaving blanks when no information is available.)

The college remains unrelentingly opposed to rankings, viewing them as distracting sideshows. This year, for example, U.S. News dramatically changed its methodology, causing many schools to plummet in the lists even though very little, if anything, had changed at their institutions.

Reed also continues to make news for not participating with U.S. News. For example, the college was recently singled out for special mention on a Cable News Network (CNN) show on the U.S. News rankings.

The CNN host asked if there are schools not on the "best" list because they choose not to participate. "Yes," said Trent Anderson, a contributing editor with the Kaplan/Newsweek College Guide. "A great example is Reed College, a small liberal arts college in Oregon that we actually profiled in the current Newsweek guide.

"Reed, ultra-competitive, doesn't show up on the top list of U.S. News but has an amazing reputation for getting people into graduate school and has an alumni network of raving fans about the school."

Bragdon honored by PSU, Lewis & Clark College

Reed president emeritus Paul Bragdon recently received Lewis & Clark College's Aubrey R. Watzek Award. The award honors those who are "creative and innovative in their achievements, who encourage and inspire others, and who give in ways of lasting value." He also is one of the first two recipients of Portland State University's new Simon Benson Award, an annual civic leadership award. He and Jean Vollum, longtime friend of Reed College, were singled out for their extraordinary contributions to higher education and their longstanding commitments to the area's philanthropy.

Bragdon was president of Reed from 1971 to 1988, and during this time he was identified as one of the 100 most effective college presidents in the country. He has also headed the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology and the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon. A residence hall at Reed was named in honor of Bragdon in 1998.