In keeping with its own ethical standards, McDaniel College follows the guidelines set by its professional association when measuring alumni giving participation rates. Period.

“To Boost Donor Numbers, Colleges Adopt New Tricks,” a page-one story in the March 2 Wall Street Journal, examined the tactics some colleges and universities use to calculate and inflate this percent of participation, which is a factor in the U.S. News and World Report rankings as well as in grant decisions made by corporations and foundations.

McDaniel’s institutional advancement team found the manipulations cited in the Journal to be both surprising and disappointing. However, the College will continue to follow its own code of ethics and the reporting standards established by its fund-raising professional association, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). How other colleges conduct themselves has no bearing on McDaniel.

“That’s who we are. We wouldn’t think of doing it any other way. Our integrity is more important than rankings or grants,” said Robin Adams Brenton, associate vice president for alumni relations and annual giving and a 1986 alumna of McDaniel. “We’re proud of that. Our numbers are clean – they accurately reflect the percent of our alumni who make gifts to the College.”

The examples in the Journal’s article did cast doubt in some readers’ minds as to the validity of college rankings.

“People are asking ‘Just what do rankings mean if they are based on manipulated numbers?’” said Brenton, echoing the question she’s heard from parents, seniors making college selections, educators as well as her fundraising colleagues. “Trust is certainly an issue here.”

The long-term effects of the Journal article are yet to be seen. Still, CASE research shows a drop in participation rates since their 20-year high in 1990 to a little more than an average of 12 percent, resulting in some colleges manipulating their participation rates, according to the Journal. An average of 20 percent of McDaniel’s 13,226 alumni make a gift to the College each year.

The measurement of how many alumni give to their alma maters has long been viewed as an indicator of how satisfied graduates are with their college experience and education. The theory is that the bigger the percent of graduates who give back, the greater the number of satisfied alumni.

In rankings and grant decisions, satisfaction is often used as an indicator of a college’s value – “Best Colleges” in U.S. News – and how deserving the college is of funding.

Some colleges used as examples in the Journal’s article have spread over five years gifts made during a student’s senior year, even if it amounts to $5 a year. The student isn’t counted in the alumni pool but is counted as a participant. Some colleges also eliminate or stop tracking addresses of alumni who have never made a gift, thus reducing the pool of alumni. Most of the colleges used as examples vowed to change the way they figure alumni participation rates.

McDaniel counts all known B.A. alumni as its potential donor pool – and every effort is made to keep track of graduates addresses. In fact, the College knows the whereabouts of 98 percent of its bachelor’s graduates – fewer than 2 percent are unknown. Every gift does count, whether it is $1 or $1-million, but gifts are counted in the year they are made unless the donor specifies a pledge over a finite time period and gives each year of that period.