For several consecutive years, the Olin Graduate School of Business has dropped in its rankings in U.S. News and World Report’s annual “Best Graduate Schools” guide. This year, Olin dropped from 26th in 2000 to 31st.

Stuart Greenbaum, dean of the business school, said the ranking decrease is largely a result of the school’s low percentage of graduates that find job opportunities, both at the time of graduation and three months later.

According to U.S. News, the percentage of 2001 graduates employed at graduation was 72.2 percent and was 84.1 percent three months after graduation. Greenbaum cited the declining economy as a chief factor in the low placement percentage.

However, student Kun Qian blamed the school, not the economy, for the lackluster job placement facing Olin students. Qian, a second year MBA studying marketing and international business , said that the school did a poor job of helping students find jobs and internships.

“Last year, especially when we were looking for internships, a large percentage were from friends and relatives,” said Qian. “The Career Center could have done more one-on-one customized assis tance to help us find jobs.”

The correlation between the consistent ratings drop and the school’s sizeable endowment and new facilities, specifically the newly built Charles F. Knight Center, funded by Knight, Chairman of the Emerson Corporation, has raised questions among members of the WU community.

But Greenbaum said that the ratings drop is a completely separate issue from the school’s endowment and does not expect Knight or any other significant contributor to the school to decrease his funding.

“The money won’t change. Not at all,” said Greenbaum. “There’s no correlation at all [between the school's endowment and rankings]. It’s destructive to infer something negative like that. To make a great deal out of it, like connecting it with the endowment, is a Herculean leap that would defy any rational examination of the fact. The summary number is so tight for these rankings. They’re only separated by a tenth of a point for each school.”

Qian agreed with Greenbaum and dismissed the idea that the school’s increasing funding did not match with the decreasing rankings.

“It’s not the funding that’s the issue,” she said. “The key issue is the performance of internships and jobs. The academic ranking is actually going up.”

Greenbaum said the school’s academic reputation is still climbing every year, despite falling ranking numbers. He mentioned the Knight Center, the exchange program in Shanghai, the quality of the faculty, the advancing quality of the students and staff, and the advance in the design and quality of the business school program as factors that keep the school academically competitive.

Reputation building, towards which the school is constantly working, he said, is an integral piece in the rankings.

“We’re a great school and we haven’t quite been recognized yet,” said Greenbaum. “Many great Business Schools have taken 10 to 12 years to get recognition. If you look at schools like Duke or Northwestern and examine the history of these schools, you’ll find that they’re 10 or 12 year projects. You have to plan programs and do your best to execute them with a measure of skill. If you do that long enough, then you realize that doesn’t happen in two or three or even five years, as much as I would like it to be the case.”

The next step for the business school is to work with consultants McKinsey and Leo Burnett, who will offer advice in the school’s marketing strategies. Although the consultants were hired before the rankings were published, they will also take into account this year’s rankings and ways to increase next year’s rankings rather than suffer another decrease.

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