ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Hundreds of private colleges and universities that are boycotting U.S. News & World Report’s influential annual college survey launched a Web site yesterday where they say prospective students can get objective information on schools.

The University and College Accountability Network - dubbed U-CAN - contains college profiles and detailed information on graduation rates, tuition, class size and geographic and racial diversity for hundreds of private colleges and universities.

Much of the same information is used by U.S. News to compile its annual college rankings, but the site doesn’t pit one school against another in a ranking system.

"We think a family’s search for the right college for a son and daughter is much more important than that," said Randy Helm, president of Muhlenberg College in Allentown.

U-CAN was developed by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. Its debut at www.ucan-network.org comes just months after a growing number of colleges began voicing their dissatisfaction over the U.S. News ranking system and outright boycotted the portion of the annual survey where colleges are asked to rate each other.

Some college leaders, including Helm, are touting U-CAN as a better alternative to the U.S. News ranking.

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