The Department of Education released its outline of a federal college ratings system that aims to recognize schools which excel at enrolling students from all backgrounds, focusing on maintaining college affordability, and helping all students graduate.

As we heard from Dr. Kim Wilcox, Chancellor of UC Riverside, when he spoke to AAUW Riverside in November, UCR fits these suggested categories exceptionally well.

Low income students pay little or no tuition.  UC Riverside has the highest number of Pell Grants of all California universities.  As a consequence, we also have the lowest amount of student debt.  If social mobility, academic quality and community service are the criteria to rank a university,  UC Riverside is ranked number one in the country by Time magazine and number two by Washington Monthly.  Dr. Wilcox states that we are a great public university, and all students, regardless of gender, race or socio-economic status, graduate at the same rate.  This is unusual.  At last UCR is getting the recognition it so richly deserves.