For more than two decades, SAT and ACT scores, along with other student statistics, have helped land Butler University on U.S. News and World Report’s list of best Midwest colleges.

More than 2,000 miles away from Butler, Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif., acknowledged this month that a former admissions administrator had been falsifying SAT scores to earn a spot on a similar top ten list.

For five years, the official submitted fake SAT and ACT scores, which went unnoticed until the story broke nationally.

Questions are being raised about the validity of scores that thousands of universities nationwide, including Butler, submit  each year.

Currently there are no laws directly dealing with misreporting test scores. This is a concern for the admissions department, said Tom Weede, vice president for enrollment management.

“I fear that the federal government will get involved and become heavy-handed,” he said. “We don’t need a one-size-fits-all law, but it needs to be a part of a school’s accreditation process.”

Score reporting at Butler is a two-step process, Weede said.

The academic office collects information, and then the office of institutional research is responsible for sending that data to agencies like U.S. News and World Report, Weede said.

He said that the university prevents potential misreporting of test scores by not allowing the admissions office to report the information itself.

“Admissions may benefit from inflated scores, but we’re garnered due to the fact that we do not directly report the scores,” Weede said.

The possibility of a situation like the Claremont McKenna incident is unlikely to occur at Butler, said Nandini Ramaswamy, director of the office of institutional research and assessment.

“We have three people working in our office to cross-check data,” Ramaswamy said. “We also collaborate with the registrar whenever questions are raised.”

Questions remain about how much of an impact rankings have on prospective students’ decisions.

Butler’s college ranking was a big factor in freshman Aaron Wentzlof’s decision to attend Butler.

“There’s only so much you can learn about a university from visiting it,” Wentzlof said. “Before you make a decision, you should research deeper and look at the university’s data and statistics.”

Freshman communication sciences and disorders major Sam Pfeil said even though there were schools ranked higher in her major, she ultimately chose Butler due to other factors after visiting the campus.

“I chose Butler because of the friendliness of people on campus, the small classroom size and the overall size of the school,” Pfeil said.

Freshman pharmacy major Steven Frankowski said the pharmacy program was the main reason he chose Butler, not its college ranking.

“Butler is close to home,” Frankowski said, “but the main reason I came here was because of the quality pharmacy program of the university.”

While college rankings help a university establish a reputation, students make decisions based on multiple factors, Weede said.

“It’s like Butler basketball,” Weede said. “It helps bring national attention to the university, but ultimately students make the decision to come here based on the programs we offer, our academics and location.”

Officials from Butler University’s Office of Annual Giving said they are looking forward to working with President Jim Danko in his vision to aggressively fundraise for the university.

“We’re really excited about the direction that President Danko is taking with fundraising,” said Lee Vriesman, senior director of annual giving.

The university’s endowment currently sits at $150 million, but is projected to rise to $175 million by 2014, Vice President for Finance Bruce Arick said at a town hall meeting last week.

“I’ve never been at an institution so tuition-dependent,” Danko said at the meeting. “It’s like we’re waiting to hear whether or not that last student is coming so we can decide what we can do.”

Danko said that only about 25 percent of the university’s 43,000 living alumni give back to the university.

Vriesman said she understands that number to be higher than  the rates at most universities that Butler looks to for comparison.

“We’re pleased with that, but there’s always room for improvement,” Vriesman said.

Specific plans to increase or adjust giving programs are still in the works.

“There are many, many ways for alumni to give through the university, and we’ll just be looking at all of those and figuring out where the opportunities need to be increased,” Vriesman said.

Alumni participation can affect how prospective students view the university, since they are included in national rankings like U.S. News and World Report, where Butler was ranked No. 2 last year in the Regional Universities Midwest category of America’s Best Colleges.

Chris Beaman, senior class president, said that the class of 2012 is encouraging undergraduate participation in the Ovid Butler Society, one of Butler’s giving groups.

“My gift to Butler signifies how appreciative I am for the changes it has made in my life,” Beaman said, “and the belief that I am placing in Butler to provide more students with that along the way.”