CSU improves rankings in U.S. News & World Report

CSU is moving up in the world.

The 2005 U.S. News & World Report’s edition of “America’s

Best Graduate Schools” placed three CSU programs ahead of where

they have ranked before.

CSU’s occupational therapy master’s degree program ranked

seventh in the nation, up three slots since 2001, the last time

this category was ranked. The vocational and technical education

graduate program also moved up to seventh place, improving two

places since 2004. CSU’s graduate engineering program settled in at

53rd, advancing from 56th in 2004.

“The programs that we’re talking about here are very

high-quality programs,” said Peter Nicholls, provost/academic vice

president for CSU. “We sort of expected and hoped that they would

do well.”

Jodie Redditi Hanzlik, the occupational therapy department head,

gives a nod to students in her department for its continued

success.

“I think because of our consistent amazing accomplishments,

people really are aware that we do great things and we have great

students,” Redditi Hanzlik said. “We were just hoping and hoping

that we would continue upward in their ranking and we did.”

Budget cuts were a potential threat to success for many of these

departments. External funding, mainly from research grants, has

kept these departments doing well.

“Like everybody on campus, we’ve faced our fair share of cuts. I

think we’ve done very well in external funding,” said Tom Siller,

associate dean of academic affairs for the College of Engineering.

“There’s just been a big push toward excellence in this

college.”

Rick Ginsberg, director of the School of Education, hopes to

continue watching a pattern of improvements and achievements unfold

at CSU.

“We’ve been in a pattern of getting recognition each year and

moving up all the time,” Ginsberg said. “We are really a leader

nationally.”

These programs differ significantly in size and structure. The

occupational therapy program is home to just 109 students while the

engineering graduate program hosts 604 students.

Along with CSU faculty, students have worked hard to make these

programs great, said Nancy Hartley, dean of the College of Applied

Human Sciences, home to both the occupational therapy and education

programs.

“I think we always want to improve our performance,” Hartley

said. “Both areas have worked very hard.”

CSU fought for ranking against similar schools like the

University of Pennsylvania, North Carolina State University,

Michigan State University and Ohio State University. CSU plans to

continue outperforming these universities.

“We did expect to do well with these programs because we know

they are such high quality,” Nicholls said. “I am surprised and

delighted.”