CarolynB

HWS consistently is ranked among the greenest US colleges and the latest Princeton Review listing continues HWS' green reputation, following earlier EPA, "Sierra Magazine" and Sustainability Endowment Institute ratings.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges - Daily Updates

Sue22

Whoever wrote the article for HWS should be taken out to the woodshed for misrepresenting the Princeton Review green ratings. HWS did not make the honor roll of green schools, which consists of the top 16 schools. It was simply one of the 322 schools included in the green guide.

CarolynB

I think it's all a matter of how you define "greenest." Of over 3000 colleges in the US, HWS was included as one of the 322 schools in the guide. The article doesn't say HWS is one of the top 16 schools; that's your interpretation of "greenest" and that's fine.

Sue22

768 institutions participated in the survey. Each was given a ranking of 60-99 and the schools that scored an 83 or above were included in the book. In other words, HWS scored among the top 42 percent of respondents. The headline of the linked article is "Princeton Review Ranks HWS as Greenest". Seems like fudging to me. I'm not saying that HWS isn't green, just that trumpeting that one is the -est of anything by virtue of landing in the top 2/5th seems disingenuous to me.

Sue22

This made me curious about the other claims in the article. The first I checked on, the Sierra Club rating was, like the Princeton Review rating, technically correct but still misleading. In 2011 HWS was rated #67 among respondents to a Sierra Club poll used to create their "cool schools" list. The only problem is that there were only 118 respondents, meaning that HWS ranked in the bottom half.

I'll shut up now, as I didn't mean to beat up on HWS, a fine school IMHO.

CarolynB

Sue22, I understand your point, but my point is that it all depends on how big a pool you're talking about. Are we talking about whole scope of 3000+ American colleges and universities or are we talking about a smaller pool, such as those already invested in doing "green" things? It all depends on your frame of reference, that's all.

Sue22

^Except that over half of the schools on the Princeton Review's green honor roll don't show up anywhere on the Sierra Club's list, meaning they didn't bother to return the survey. I think when you have a response rate of something like 4 percent (118 out of 3000) it calls your results into question.

Now here I am feeling bad again. I don't want to bash HWS. I'm sure it's doing what it can to go green and I genuinely do like the school. I just hate to see statistics misused. I'm a bit of a wonk that way.

CarolynB

Sue22, you are a bit of a stat wonk, for sure! I know a couple of other CC people just like you. As Mark Twain said, "There are lies, damn lies and statistics!"