Back in September, FAMU officials were quick to proclaim the University as the “highest ranked public HBCU” in the US News & World Report’s ranking of “National Universities” coming in at 123 overall, and sixth among Florida’s twelve public universities. What FAMU’s press release failed to mention was that between the 2018 and 2020 ranking FAMU dropped 10 spots in USNWR’s National Universities ranking.
During this same time frame FAMU had also fallen from the No. 1 spot to No. 2 as the USNWR’s top public HBCUs.
FAMU’s peer school, North Carolina A&T State University finished at No. 281 among National Universities, and No 6 overall HBCU. Howard University landed in the No. 104 spot among and No. 2 in the HBCU ranking.
“These rankings are an indication of the excellent work of faculty, staff, administrators and, most importantly, our students themselves,” President Larry Robinson, Ph.D. proclaimed at the time. “We continue to implement innovative and time-proven strategies to ensure the success of our students in every aspect of their lives.”
What Robinson didn’t address is why the slide backwards.
Although the rankings do not affect students’ day-to-day lives, the school’s multi-year drop impacts its reputation.
Administrators said rankings are one of many factors that prospective students use to determine if a school is right for them, they did not say how they plan to reverse the recent drop in rankings and pointed instead to FAMU’s recent improvements in graduation and retention rates.
Instead of shrugging off the issue at hand, FAMU must be open about its backslide in rankings and state how it plans to rise back up.