U.S. News and World Report recently ranked Geneseo in the top spot for Regional Universities in the North for Undergraduate Teaching, a ranking rewarded to colleges with a commitment to teaching undergraduates. Due to Geneseo’s dedication to undergraduate education as opposed to graduate programs, the school received the most votes from top college administrators for focusing on undergraduate teaching.
According to Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs David Gordon, teaching is the most important part of the evaluation process when hiring professors.
“When we’re hiring faculty, we need to make sure we are hiring people who are going to be good teachers,” he said.
Gordon added that the success of the school comes from contributions by the faculty.
“[The professors] spend a lot of time with their students,” he said. “Our faculty really go out of their way to work with students individually to find out their unique talents and try to help develop those.”
Gordon praised the hard work of students as well, emphasizing their dedication to learning.
“They’re inquisitive and they’re serious about learning,” he said. “We’ve got the best in both the faculty and the students.”
Gordon also noted that the college also owes this ranking to the involvement of its students outside of class.
“Many of our students do presentations at professional meetings, go to conferences where they present research, or are involved in community projects, so people get to see them in action,” he said.
Geneseo is continuing to improve as a college and has made other lists of distinction recently. On top of being ranked first on the U.S. News and World Report’s Undergrad Teaching List for the North, it is ranked at number 14 on the publication’s Regional North Universities list of Best Colleges. Geneseo also made The Princeton Review’s Best Colleges list and was ranked on Kiplinger’s list of Top Best Value Colleges in the nation. With growing recognition, Geneseo continues to improve curricula.
“Over the past several years, the provost office has been making available curriculum innovation grants to individual departments so that they can evaluate their own curriculum and think about ways to improve that,” Gordon said. “Most of our departments have taken advantage of that and made some really good improvements.”
He also explained that an outcomes assessment program has been in place for many years.
“We continue to support undergraduate research and enable students to go to professional meetings to present their research,” he said.
Geneseo students continue to be involved in the community, creating relationships with people outside of the college.
“This ranking is a real testimony to the quality of what we do here,” Gordon said. “It’s gratifying to see our faculty and students get well deserved external recognition.”