Dear Editor,

I must say that I was quite perturbed after reading Thursday’s front page article. [“Cox deemed ‘middle of the road'”]

I won’t debate whether or not SMU’s Cox School of Business MBA Program fell 20 spots to 29 on the Wall Street Journal’s list of the top 50 business schools of our nation. But I was angered that the article didn’t make clear that the MBA program, and not the undergraduate program, was the school that descended. Ryan Lamb, the author of the article, must have missed the print that wasn’t so fine in the Journal’s publication.

I quote the text found directly above the list of business schools found in the Journal: “The top-ranked MBA programs in The Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive survey of corporate recruiters. Scores are based on how recruiters rated each business school on 26 attributes, as well as the number of respondents who said they recruited at the school.” The key term would be MBA.

The content and quotes found in the article were misleading. Two undergraduate students, the dean and a local recruiter were quoted. Didn’t Mr. Lamb think it might have been, if not wise, then at least relevant to quote a graduate student or a teacher in the graduate program? I certainly would think so. And you know who else would? A lot of Cox undergrads that read that article. I don’t speak for everyone, but many undergrad Cox students are not happy with this gross misrepresentation.

What I thought was the worst about the article was the headline itself. “Cox deemed ‘middle of the road.'” By what authority? Mr. Pugliese? Frankly, who cares what he thinks. Dean Niemi even ventured to mention that Pugliese “has never recruited from SMU.” Would you say that chocolate doesn’t taste good if you have never tried it? A more apt headline would have read, “Cox MBA Program Drops 20 Spots.”

In the future it might be in the best interests of The Daily Campus to let the staff writers handle the more sensitive headlines articles, such as the ones denouncing our own university’s colleges. It might also be in their best interests to make sure they are denouncing the right colleges. Any business student will tell you, due diligence is a must.

Jimmy Hinton, Jr.
Senior business major