Keene State College celebrated a variety of high marks from this year’s U.S. News and World Report ranking of colleges in the northeastern region.
Among the rankings, Keene State College was tied in the number one spot for undergraduate teaching. Which means that the college has good undergraduate teachers. The spot was tied with Pennsylvania College of Technology, Colby-Sawyer College and Bard College at Simons Rock.
The Equinox editors believe that it is good for the college to celebrate accomplishments as long as it does not stop making strides to continually improve. Just because Keene State College got high spots this year does not guarantee that the college will be awarded the same next year. Improvement is not just a one-time thing but a constant effort.
With space for improvement being mentioned, one area where the editors of The Equinox see vast room for improvement is in the social mobility ranking. Keene State College ranked 40 out of 42 schools in its ranking for social mobility. This is concerning. Students coming into college should be leaving with a higher social status and economic potential. We understand that being a liberal arts school means some people will not get the chance to have a social standing comparable to STEM majors, but there should be more strides to improve. While it is unfortunate how the capitalistic system works, some jobs will be considered more valuable than others. The college should still try to get better with its social mobility score.
Keene State College recruiting a more diverse range of students could make it possible to improve in this area. We think it is harder to make strides surrounding this because New Hampshire does not require affirmative action, and hasn’t since 2012. It is an even more pressing issue now that affirmative action was struck down by the Supreme Court of the United States. This unfortunate predicament might cost some people getting a higher social status.
While there is room for improvement, that should always be the case. We absolutely think Keene State College is well within its rights to celebrate the victories they rightfully achieved. However, while the college celebrates its wins, we wonder if anyone else is celebrating with it.
Many of the editors of The Equinox did not choose Keene State College because of its ranking on a list. It is simply not why we love Keene State. We love Keene State because of what we made of the college and not someone else’s opinion on the matter. It is definite that a lot of would-be students look at this information and make decisions based on it, but a lot of others are just not interested when it comes down to numbers.
Numbers can be made to look good when it is an arbitrary category. What really makes the college experience special is what an individual sees in it. This does not mean that the college should not try to improve what can be listed in the data, but that each student is going to have a differing view on what they will want out of college.
The students at Keene State College deserve the best the school can give. While the editors of The Equinox believe that the college has every right to bask in the glory of their earned victories, we hope the light of the glory does not leave them blind. There is much to appreciate about Keene State College, but we think that having more to appreciate is better than maintaining the status quo.
