Graduation rates for African-American college athletes have jumped 17 percent over the past 20 years, according to a study released Thursday by the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.
The graduation rate for all African-American athletes who entered school in 1998 and were given six years to graduate was 52 percent, up from 35 percent in 1984. Richard Lapchick, who heads the institute and conducted the study, said colleges do not deserve the criticism they’ve received in the past.
“I think there was a point in the history of college athletics where there was in effect widespread exploitation,” Lapchick said in a phone interview from Orlando, Fla. “These numbers show we’re past that point and schools are trying to deliver that promise of graduation when student-athletes enter schools.”
However, the above figures were determined by the old Federal Graduation Rate, which counts athletes who transfer out against a school, doesn’t include junior college transfers who graduate or former athletes who return after six years and get a degree. Under the NCAA’s new Graduation Success Rate, which reverses all those factors, the graduation rate for all African-American athletes jumps to 59 percent.
Female African-American athletes, at 73 percent, far outdistanced their male counterparts’ rate of 54 percent using the new formula, but both figures have gone up significantly.
In 1984, under the old federal rate, male African-American graduation rates were 33 percent and the female rate was 45 percent.
Lapchick said colleges have put a greater effort into educating minority athletes.
“Campuses got embarrassed by the graduation rate, particularly African-American ballplayers, when the numbers came out in the ’80s,” Lapchick said. “They began programs with academic support staff. … Anytime we increase academic standards, we’re sending a signal to student-athletes that academics are important.”
John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
