Cornell has once again been named one of "50 Best Colleges for African Americans" by Black Enterprise magazine.

The university, which has been on the list every year since it was first published in 1999, was ranked 26th this year out of more than 1,400 public and private colleges and universities considered.

To rank the schools, Black Enterprise used surveys from more than 500 African-American higher-education professionals, including presidents, chancellors and directors of student affairs, and considered such variables as graduation rate of black students, total black undergraduate enrollment and black undergraduate students as a percentage of total undergraduates.

"We are proud of this recognition," said Cornell Provost Carolyn (Biddy) A. Martin. "Cornell's commitment to a diverse and inclusive campus dates back to its inception in 1865 and it continues, but we have a lot of work yet to do, and we will place renewed emphasis on diversity over the next several years."

The September 2006 issue of Black Enterprise that contains the list is now on newsstands, and the rankings will be available online Sept. 7 at http://www.blackenterprise.com/.

This year Cornell also was ranked No. 8 nationally out of 245 colleges and universities by Washington Monthly, which gave top billing to colleges that are engines of social mobility. In addition, U.S. News and World Report ranked Cornell No. 12 among all national universities and put Cornell at the top of its rankings for best undergraduate engineering science/engineering physics programs for the second year in a row.