UCLA, UC Irvine law schools join boycott of U.S. News & World Report rankings
The University of California, University of California regents and the University of California, Irvine, have agreed to stop using U.S. News’ annual “Best Law School” rankings of the nation’s law schools.
The move, which the law school presidents have asked be kept secret, leaves the University of California no choice but to comply with higher national rankings.
“We believe that this measure has become so important to the law school community that it is better to publicize it until the full impact of the boycott is known,” UCLA president Johntype said.
“The boycott by the law schools will not, of course, in any way prevent U.S. News from continuing to publish its annual rankings on the website,” said a U.S. News spokesman.
The boycott, which will cost law school ABA law school rankings that measure “general academic quality and quality of the undergraduate experience,” came as a surprise to UCLA law school dean Richard Kramer, who said he was unaware of the planned action.
“I think it would really impact our ability to provide the quality of education that we do every day here,” Kramer said.
“Every law school gets some kind of an assessment at some point. It’s not unusual to do them all at some point,” said UCLA S.J.B. Murphy, dean of the UCLA School of Law and a former dean of the UC Irvine School of Law.
“I’m not familiar with this particular boycott, but I would be surprised if it were an isolated decision by law schools, and I’m not surprised if all law schools go ahead to continue using U.S. News,” said UCLA law school dean William Alsup.
The boycott comes at a time when the nation’s law schools are vying for national recognition.
In the coming year, there are to be changes to the ABA’s three-part evaluation system for law school rankings. The first version of the system was published in the spring of 2002. A new version, to be released in the summer, will measure the academic excellence of law schools in three categories: “global reputation,” “student services
