Binghamton University has often been marketed as the ‘Premier Public University in the Northeast,’ but a system designed to compare public universities may force BU to prove itself when exam scores are stacked up against other institutions nationwide.

The program, called the Voluntary System for Accountability, is a collaboration between two associations representing 600 public universities, and aims to compare colleges through a template called the College Portrait.

Currently, the Portrait includes much of the information already found on BU’s Web site (such as graduation rates, living costs and financial aid information) in a single format.

One part of the template, however, is designed to measure ‘student learning outcomes’ and will require participating colleges to incorporate exams that will report on students’ ‘broad cognitive skills.’ The exams have already drawn attention as standardized methods of measuring and comparing learning ‘ and have been compared to a voluntary version of No Child Left Behind for higher education.

The standardized tests may be as much as four years away, as the two organizations ‘ the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges ‘ have yet to specifically decide on its format. It will, according to the VSA Web site, attempt to measure learning gains from a sampling of students in their freshman and senior years.

According to David Edelson, the associate director for public affairs for NASULGC, the College Portrait will allow colleges to ‘compare and contrast how their institution is performing’ ‘ but will only succeed if those taking part in the comparison are ‘learning something about themselves.’

The VSA is in part a response, Edelson said, to the growing demands for accountability to students, parents and other stakeholders among public universities, and has been in development for years.

The University of California announced yesterday that they would not be taking part in VSA because of skepticism over the exams.

The five-page template will also include a cost calculator to give students and parents shopping for a college a more specific cost estimate, and additional sections will also measure student opinion of the institution through surveys.

Though Provost Mary Ann Swain could not respond immediately about where BU stands on joining the VSA, SUNY System Administrator John Porter said the issue was a ‘campus initiative’ that would be left up to individual SUNY branches.

Six SUNY campuses have voluntarily included the pilot College Portrait on their Web sites, Porter said. The SUNY branches of Albany, Fredonia, Buffalo State College, Environmental Science and Forestry, Purchase and Oneonta have all implemented the program.

The College Portrait, he said, would be more ‘useful’ for SUNY schools that are one of many options for students ‘ adding that BU ‘attracts students from across the state, across the country.’

Still, Porter said he was ‘uncertain of the value’ of what he called the ‘most controversial’ segment of the College Portrait: the exams.

‘The challenging aspect comes in measuring student learning,’ he said, adding that the cost of the testing would be incurred by colleges themselves.