Reading the Rankings

In a recent letter to the editor, my good friend and colleague Jon Appleton draws attention to the fact that Dartmouth did not do so well in a recent ranking exercise in The Times Higher Educational Supplement and then uses this result to condemn the academic leadership at the College ("Dean of Faculty Gets an F," The Dartmouth, November 10). Although the overall results place Dartmouth 138th out of 200 universities world wide, this should not be a cause for concern or a basis for criticism. I've never been one to pay much attention to university sweepstakes about who is No.