Yesterday I took some time and went to a 'Future of Ross' lunch thing; students got to air their grievances and hopefully suggest some new directions for the school. One of the themes that came up was rankings - Michigan has slid out of the top ten in the USNews & World Report standings. I don't buy in too much, but I do feel slighted when the school doesn't continue its upward trajectory. The real problem is the lack of transparency, because we can't see what went wrong overall while four of our subject areas were ranked in the top five nationally. It's also frustrating in the sense that there's not much you can do to actually affect these things, despite working to improve the things about the community that you believe in. I think USN&WR would rank MTrek at the top of all MBA outdoor adventure programs, so that's what is important to me.