Remember this classic scene from The Jerk?

I imagine that this week (maybe next week) this scene will be repeated over and over again as the higher ed cultists respond to the release of the promised framework/model/something-or-other for the Postsecondary Institution Ratings Systems (PIRS,#PIRS). As this release gets closer, it is clearly meaningless when compared to what’s going on around us in Ferguson, New York City, and Cleveland. But life goes on and a lot of people will justify their existence writing about it, complaining about it, supporting it, or trying to figure out how to game it.

So folks in nice clothes will dance around like Snoopy  singing “The Ratings are here! The Ratings are here!” The anticipation is not quite that which as associated with the five-year long practical joke on Twitter last May, but it’s close. There really is very little more exciting than comparing your institution (thus yourself) to another institution (former colleague, classmate).

Of course, I will be writing and talking about it, too. I just hope it comes on a slow day when I don’t have anything useful to do. Then again, there won’t be any surprises for me. I know how the ratings were developed. The clip below was filmed at a meeting in DC about the ratings.

I think.