Hastings Dean Fights Dive in U.S. News Law School Rankings

The Recorder:  UC-Hastings Dean Fights Rankings Dive:

Frank Wu is ready. He's got visual aids, the assistance of a research analyst, and a laptop that's booted and flipped open. His sleeves are rolled up and he's set to talk rankings. It's a presentation the dean of UC-Hastings College of the Law has given before.

Wu is trying to pull Hastings out of a yearslong dive in the rankings. The school was ranked 19th by U.S. News and World Report in 1992, and 42nd when Wu arrived in 2010. This year, after it slipped to 54 from 48, Wu wrote to reassure students and alumni that despite getting clobbered by the bleak hiring climate, UC-Hastings remains among the top law schools in the nation. ...

Like most deans, Wu has plenty of gripes about the rankings, but says he can't afford to ignore them. "Prospective students care. Our faculty care, staff care, alumni care, I care. Our board cares. If I stood up and said, 'I don't care about U.S. News. I'm going to pay no attention to U.S. News,' if I used obscenity and other inappropriate language, I would be removed of my responsibilities," he said. "So, U.S. News is a looming presence, and to rail against it is futile." ...

[T]he school's tumble in the rankings has created an opening for critics. Wu's a talker more than a listener and his in-your-face style is not always welcome. ...

The dean is also taking heat from graduates unhappy with the school's downward trajectory in the U.S. News rankings. "There isn't a day that goes by when I don't go out and have some alum berate me," Wu said. ...

In 2012, UC-Hastings reduced its incoming class by nearly 100 students. To cover the loss of tuition revenue, Wu cut the equivalent of 23 full-time staff positions. The school also raised in-state tuition nearly 30 percent between 2010 and 2012. Since then, it has remained roughly unchanged at approximately $48,000, and Wu is pushing hard to raise revenue through fundraising, bringing in about $6 million in the 2012 fiscal year.

"Some credit is due for keeping tuition flat," said Kyle McEntee, executive director of the nonprofit Law School Transparency. However, McEntee notes that holding "really high" tuition stable isn't exactly a win for students. California law schools such as UC-Irvine, Pepperdine University, Santa Clara University and the University of San Diego have done a better job of controlling tuition, he said.

[T]he biggest drag on Hastings' rank is student employment rates. U.S. News weighs the percent of grads employed in full-time, permanent jobs for which a law degree is a requirement or an advantage. Only 47 percent of last year's Hastings grads could claim that distinction.

Wu has joined with other California law school deans in demanding U.S. News change its methodology, which they say penalizes schools in states with high overall unemployment.

Chapman Dean: U.S. News Rankings Methodology Penalizes Most California Law Schools:

Following up on yesterday's post, Deans Say Rankings Penalize California Law Schools for Bad Economy; U.S. News Rejects Call for State-Adjusted Employment Data:  Tom Campbell (Dean, Chapman) has asked me to post his letter to the editor of The Recorder, U.S. News Methodology Penalizes Most California Law Schools, on TaxProf Blog:

Your article Deans Say U.S. News Rankings Penalize Schools in the Golden State reported the unanimous position of the California law school deans, who agree that California’s poor employment prospects are a drag on the rankings at all 21 accredited California law schools – even though they are no fault of the California law schools or their students. Put simply, if a law school in Iowa, where unemployment is 4.2%, places 85% of its students, and a law school in California, where unemployment is 8.3%, places 84% of its students, U.S. News ranks the Iowa school ahead of the California school. That is nonsense, if the purpose is to rank the quality of the two law schools. ...

Let’s look at the top 10 ranked law schools in California, U.S. News Methodology Penalizes Most California Law Schools, over the last three years:

#4 USC, dropped 2 positions in the national rankings;
#5 UC Davis dropped 13 positions in the national rankings;
#6 UC Hastings dropped 12 positions in the national rankings;
#8 Loyola dropped 33 positions in the national rankings;
#9 UC San Diego dropped 12 positions in the national rankings; and
#10 Santa Clara dropped 23 positions in the national rankings.

The other four top-ten California schools [#1 Stanford, #2 UC-Berkeley, #3 UCLA, #7 Pepperdine] stayed the same in the national rankings.

The “California effect” on our rankings has nothing to do with the quality of education our schools provide. So we proposed to U.S. News to normalize the employment data on law schools the same way they do for differing state bar passage percentages. If a law school’s graduates pass their state bar at a 70% level, that means something different about the law school’s quality if the overall state bar passage is 80%, or if it is 60%. So, U.S. News normalizes for the bar passage rate of the state. They should do the same for employment. Otherwise, law students in entire states like California will be penalized in the rankings not because a lack of quality of their training, but instead due to economic factors beyond their control.

Below I share the full chart showing the significant U.S. News rankings downtrend in California. May I kindly ask that you share this chart and my comments here with your readers?

School Name	2012 Rank	2013 Rank	2014 Rank	2015 Rank	1 Year Change	3 Year Change
Stanford	3	2	2	3	-1	0
UC- Berkeley	9	7	9	9	0	0
UCLA	16	15	17	16	+1	0
USC	18	18	18	20	-2	-2
UC-Davis	23	29	38	36	+2	-13
UC-Hastings	42	44	48	54	-6	-12
Pepperdine	54	49	61	54	+7	0
Loyola-L.A.	54	51	68	87	-19	-33
San Diego	67	65	68	79	-11	-12
Santa  Clara	84	96	96	107	-11	-23
Chapman	104	110	126	140	-14	-36
McGeorge	100	101	124	146	-22	-46
San Francisco	100	106	144	Tier 2	-2 +	-46+
Cal Western	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	n/a	n/a
Golden Gate	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	n/a	n/a
Southwestern	121	129	Tier 2	Tier 2	n/a	-25+
T. Jefferson	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	n/a	n/a
Western State	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	n/a	n/a
Whittier	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	Tier 2	n/a	n/a