When the term "public Ivies" became de rigueur some 30 years ago, URI was mentioned as a state school that "...everybody (in RI) knows that it's high school after high school."
Based on this academic's "research", I don't think they've increased the school's rating in a positive direction.
Maybe they did, and it's the prof that can't keep up with the expectations of students, so it's a matter of job security for her to want lesser prepared scholars.
(Don't know much, if anything about her collaborator's Bucknell.)
I don't think it has changed much...if you couldn't get into URI, there was always Keene State. :)