IvyGate Index: The Executive Branch

by Chris Beam | September 11, 2006 at 12:54 pm

IvyGate Index: The Executive BranchWhen George W. Rootin’-Tootin’ Bush was elected in 2000, Ivy Leaguers got a little nervous. Would this folksy Texan smoke all the elites out of the executive branch?

Then we breathed a big, brandy-perfumed sigh of relief. The U.S. government can’t function without elitism! First there’s the pecking order of offices: Bush beats Rumsfeld beats Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne. Then there’s seniority: Rumsfeld and Cheney were helping run the country back when Bush was still doing lines off Andover china. Even though W.’s Yale and Harvard roots were kept on the hush-hush, we knew: Ivy League snobbery just might have a chance in this administration!

And so, almost six years into Bush’s tenure, we bring you the second installment of the IvyGate Index, measuring Ivy influence in our government’s executive branch. Our crackerjack statisticians have once again inhaled reams of data, using patented hegemony formulae to produce another set of cutting-edge visual representations. Duck down, clown: the pie charts are back.

Verdict: Mild dominance!

IvyGate Index: The Executive Branch 

To be precise, the executive branch’s IvyGate Index Quotient (IGIQ) is 52.9 percent. Color us shocked, shocked — we had no idea our plainspoken president was such an elitist at heart! After the jump, we’ve included the raw data for your statmongering perusal.

EARLIER: The IvyGate Index: Calibrating Hegemony Since 2006 (the media)

Raw Data

Office Incumbent Undergraduate Graduate Ivy?
Presidency George W. Bush Yale Harvard Yes
Vice Presidency Dick Cheney Wyoming (Yale dropout) Wyoming Yes
State Condoleezza Rice Denver Notre Dame No
Treasury Henry M. Paulson Dartmouth Harvard Yes
Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld Princeton Yes
Justice Alberto R. Gonzales Rice Harvard Yes
Interior Dirk A. Kempthorne Idaho No
Agriculture Michael O. Johanns Saint Mary’s (Minn.) Creighton No
Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez Monterrey Inst. of Tech. No
Labor Elaine L. Chao Mount Holyoke Harvard Yes
Housing and Urban Development Alphonso R. Jackson Truman State WashU No
Transportation Maria Cino (acting) St. John Fisher College No
Energy Samuel W. Bodman Cornell MIT Yes
Health and Human Services Michael O. Leavitt Southern Utah No
Education Margaret Spellings Houston No
Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson West Point Columbia Yes
Homeland Security Michael Chertoff Harvard Harvard Yes

Source: The Internets

Note: The IvyGate Index may be adjusted to 55.8 percent if the Senate confirms as Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who attended but did not graduate from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.  

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5 Responses to “IvyGate Index: The Executive Branch”

  1. Comments anon Says:
    September 11th, 2006 at 12:24 pm

    Shouldn’t the National Security Advisor be good for something as well?

  2. Comments Anonymous Says:
    September 11th, 2006 at 12:54 pm

    never anyone from brown… :(

  3. Comments columbian Says:
    September 11th, 2006 at 3:24 pm

    I thought grad status only counted for .5?

  4. Comments columbia2010 Says:
    September 11th, 2006 at 11:01 pm

    I like these posts. Keep the IvyGate indices coming!

  5. Comments Hake Says:
    November 15th, 2006 at 1:38 am

    Because of this disastrous new layout, A LOT OF YOUR POSTS ARE COVERED UP BY THE ANNOYING COLUMN ON THE RIGHT!