I'm not sure if this will make it into their recruiting materials

As a Clarkson University alumnus, I was intrigued by this bit from The Watertown Daily Times: Clarkson University, Potsdam, and St. Lawrence University, [SUNY] Canton, both received high marks for their environmental efforts in the 2009 edition of the Princeton Review's "Best 368 Colleges."

It's the first year that the New York-based educational services company has evaluated schools' "green ratings," based on their environmental practices, policies and course offerings. On a scale of 60 to 99, Clarkson scored a 95, while SLU scored 87.

Though I was equally interested to notice some other distinctions 'awarded' to Clarkson.

The primarily engineering and business school ranked third in the country for "This is a Library?" and 12th for "Least Beautiful Campus." The university also was voted No. 15 for "Least Happy Students" and No. 19 for "Class Discussions Rare."

Clarkson's library is certainly an embarrassment and aesthetically, it is an ugly campus.

The primary function of the university is to produce obedient, focused drones for mega-corporations like Boeing and IBM. So perhaps it's not surprising they are so grumpy, apathetic and not prone to vibrant discussion.

The assistant to the president for strategic advancement said that Clarkson's bad ratings were actually a good sign.

She explained, "Overall, I think students from technical institutions are often more candid in their responses, and I think that fits with our academic environment and the curriculum we have."

This displays the kind of mental gymnastics that an African information minister or Bush administration spokesperson might admire.

So maybe there is some creative thinking going on at the university.