New York Times reporter, Ron Lieber, recently surveyed the lack of submission of the Common Data Set (CDS) from a small sample of colleges in the Northeast. Some colleges suggested process issues, some submitted, some refused to do so, and some of the colleges Mr. Lieber contacted didn't respond at all.

The Common Data Set is a single, but thorough, form colleges have submitted for years to a public site. A variety of researchers, regulators, and others used the data to report on higher education trends. This one CDS was the only form required and was used for all sorts of reports and analysis.

I took the story and ran with a similar exercise for 90 private colleges in Illinois, Iowa, and MIssouri. The result: 69 of the 90 had not yet submitted the most recent (2020-2021) CDS.