The UnHoly Obsession?

After all the recent talk about IFAS cuts and today's Gainesville Sun article about reducing undergrad admissions by 3,000 over the next four years (LINK), I have really started pondering the direction of the University of Florida. While I think most of us are agreed on the IFAS situation, I wanted to take a slightly different angle and hopefully gain some insight from some of you.

Clearly, the goal of the Trustees and President Machen is to catipult our beloved institution into the US News and World Report's top ten public universities. And, sure, I'll be the first to say that ambition is one of the most important ingredients for success. (Plus, you can't blame folks that are used to being at the top of every other poll for wanting to be at the top of this one.)

However, my question is this: By striving to be at the absolute pinnicle of the academic world, is the University of Florida lessening its overall positive impact?

If, to receive the acclaim of a somewhat arbitrary ranking service, you must drastically reduce the amount of students you educate and the services you provide, are you really improving?

Now, earlier today my colleague and I bantered about the relative costs and benefits of low student to teacher ratio, ever increasing admission standards and the supposed increasing value of my orange and blue framed diploma. Personally, I am happy to call myself a Gator, one of the proud lot who met the high (yet, still attainable) standards and benefitted from the quality of the programs and instruction (not to mention 4-H and other extension services).

The US News and World Report currently ranks UF at 49 and I didn't see but three of four land grant institutions ahead of it. Maybe I'm way off base, but the potential prestige and honor of being a top 10 doesn't make up for the loss in accessability and programs that it would take to get there.

I'm interested to see what you think...