A colleague at UCLA writes:

A timely topic on which you and your blog readership may have an interest in commenting and hearing views:  If one believes that the US News rankings are foolish in construction and pernicious in effect, what is the ethically appropriate way to respond to a request from US News to participate in their survey of reputation among faculty?  Ignore it?  Respond as requested?  Respond in a way designed to counteract (to whatever limited extent possible) the defects in the rest of the system?

My own view is that the survey of academic opinion, even though it is carelessly done, is still one of the only parts of the whole exercise that is connected at all to any academic reality and value–so I say, participate!  But what do readers think?  Comments with a full name and valid e-mail address will be strongly preferred.