Study of Minority Graduates Finds Room for Improvement

It is no surprise that colleges with large numbers of minority students are the largest producers of minority graduates.

But, according to a new study, some exclusive, predominantly white schools with a strong commitment to recruitment and retention programs are making strides in minority student graduation rates.

The trend has been demonstrated in a study by Black Issues in Higher Education, a newsletter. Frank Matthews, its founder and publisher, said it ranked the nation’s largest colleges according to their records of granting degrees to minority students.

Among the findings: 10 of the top 20 universities with the best records were in California.

The rankings are based on 1989 federal statistics gathered by the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Figures were tabulated at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

“These rankings tell us more about one college’s commitment over another . . . how deep in the bowels of a university does it go?” Matthews said.

Schools with large minority enrollments topped the lists. Howard University, where almost 86% of the students are black, granted the most undergraduate degrees to blacks in the nation--744. Two campuses of the University of Puerto Rico combined to grant the most bachelor’s degrees to Latinos, 2,792.

But Matthews said he was most encouraged by the improved numbers at selective, traditionally white schools, and at some schools not located in or near minority communities.

For example, UC Berkeley, where American Indians make up just 0.8% of the student body, was 11th on that list with 33 graduates. Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota, where two-thirds of the students are American Indians, awarded just 16 bachelor’s degrees to students in that group in 1989.

A “committed” Harvard University at least graduated all of the few minority students it had recruited, Matthews said. He noted few other Ivy League schools even cracked the list.

Matthews said the most successful universities are those with programs for helping minority students get through college. Such efforts include mentor programs, counseling, financial aid and the presence of minorities on the faculty. Minority professors and administrators can serve as role models and help the students feel less culturally isolated, he added.

Minority retention and graduation rates are improving, but still lag behind those of white students. According to the Education Department, slightly more than 80% of the Asian-Americans who enter college graduate within five years, and the rate is about the same for white students. But only about two-thirds of blacks and Latinos and about half of American Indians graduate by their fifth year.

“Many of these institutions still think of minority education as a moral responsibility,” said Franklyn G. Jenifer, Howard University president, “but it’s in this country’s general interest to educate students from diverse cultures and who have international perspectives.”

Matthews said that a revised report, due out in September, will examine the reasons that some colleges did well while others are “conspicuously missing from the lists.”

Minority Grads

Universities issuing the greatest number of undergraduate degrees to minority students in the 1988-89 academic year: Institution: Degrees 1. Univ. of Puerto Rico--Rio Piedras: 1,837 2. Univ. of Hawaii--Manoa: 1,594 3. UC Berkeley: 1,559 4. UCLA: 1,521 5. San Francisco State: 1,078

Other California universities in the top 20, with rank: San Jose State (7), Cal State Long Beach (9), Cal State L.A. (11), Cal State Fullerton (13), Cal Poly Pomona (16), USC (18), UC Irvine (19).

Source: Black Issues in Higher Education