Could College Rankings Solve the Campus Rape Crisis?

By Sarah Mimms. A dozen House members want to hit universities where it hurts—their U.S. News & World Report rankings.
This fall, as high school seniors prepare to apply to college, many will scan the rankings provided by U.S. News & World Report. They'll compare colleges' class sizes, tuition prices, the student-faculty ratio, and—potentially—their sexual-assault statistics. That is, if some members of Congress get their way.Earlier this month, a dozen House members, including two Republicans, sent a letter to U.S. News & World Report asking the publisher to include sexual-assault and prevention data in its venerated annual college rankings.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who is spearheading the effort, said she became interested in the issue while working to curb sexual assault in the military. "Oftentimes the Pentagon brass has come to me and said, 'Well, our statistics are better than college campuses.' And I thought, well, if that's the case, then we've got an issue in both settings," Speier said in an interview Wednesday.