Yes it really happened, and yes, the leaders publicly cited it as the reason why. "We must remain competitive in the rankings!"

You know what would be REALLY innovative, if instead on judging the department based on the number of PHDs, they would instead look at the accomplishments of the graduates at 5, 10, 20 and 30 year marks.

There is a community college in Gainesville called Santa Fe (it's now considered a "college" I guess) but their graphic design program had something like a 95 percent job placement IN THAT FIELD.