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U.S.News Again Ranks UW-Eau Claire Among
Top Five Public Universities in the Midwest

RELEASED: Aug. 17, 2007

EAU CLAIRE — U.S.News & World Report magazine has again named the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire among the best public regional universities in the Midwest.

The 2008 edition of "America's Best Colleges" ranks UW-Eau Claire No. 5 among the top regional public universities in the Midwest and 26th among all private and public institutions in the Midwest.

The publication has ranked UW-Eau Claire among the top five public institutions in the Midwest every year since 1995.

"U.S.News and other prestigious publications consistently name UW-Eau Claire among the best of the best because of our exceptional faculty and staff," Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich said. "With their true student-centered approach to higher education, our faculty and staff regularly find innovative ways to add value to their students' college experiences — inside and outside the classroom. Their efforts bring bright and ambitious students to campus — students who are committed to succeeding in college and beyond."

U.S.News & World Report ranks UW-Eau Claire in what is known as the "Best Universities-Masters" category. The category's Midwest region includes schools in 12 states stretching from the Dakotas in the west to Missouri in the south and Ohio in the east. Public and private universities included in this category provide undergraduate- and master's-level programs, and typically draw students from surrounding states.

The regional rankings include 572 schools in four geographic areas (North, South, Midwest and West). The rankings reflect how schools compare on a set of 15 indicators that have traditionally been used by U.S.News & World Report to compare colleges and universities across the nation. Those indicators include things such as academic reputation, faculty-student ratio, class sizes, freshmen high school class ranking and ACT scores, graduation and freshman retention rates, and alumni giving.

The U.S.News and similar rankings are important to UW-Eau Claire students and alumni because they reflect the university's reputation for excellence, said Levin-Stankevich, noting that in recent months UW-Eau Claire also was included in Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine's list of the "100 best values in public colleges" and in The Princeton Review's lists of "Best Midwestern Colleges" and "America's Best Value Colleges." These kinds of national recognitions add value to a degree from UW-Eau Claire, Levin-Stankevich said.

"The rankings tell employers and others that UW-Eau Claire provides its students with one of the best educational experiences available in the Midwest," Levin-Stankevich said. "Holding a degree from a university that enjoys that kind of reputation for quality will certainly benefit our alumni throughout their lifetimes."

U.S.News & World Report also recognized UW-Eau Claire's undergraduate research and service-learning programs in its online 2008 "Programs to Look For" lists. The lists include schools with outstanding examples of academic programs that are believed to lead to student success. U.S.News identified eight such types of programs and invited college administrators from more than 1,300 schools to nominate institutions with stellar examples of each program type.

UW-Eau Claire was recognized in two of the eight "Programs to Look For" categories:

• Undergraduate research/Creative projects. Independently or in small teams, and mentored by a faculty member, students do intensive and self-directed research or creative work that results in an original scholarly paper or other product that can be formally presented on or off campus.
• Service learning. In service-learning programs, required volunteer work in the community is an instructional strategy. What's learned in the field bolsters what happens in the class and vice versa.

Rankings will be included in U.S.News & World Report's college guidebook, "America's Best Colleges." Many of the rankings also will be included in the Aug. 27 issue of U.S.News & World Report magazine, available at newsstands on Aug. 20. Many rankings also can be found on the U.S.News Web site.

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JB

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