Graduation Rates for Athletes Please Officials at UCLA, USC : Academics: Bruins are third, Trojans sixth in the Pacific 10, survey says.

UCLA is ranked third and USC sixth in graduation rates of scholarship athletes in the Pacific 10 Conference, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education survey.

Saying they are meeting athletes’ needs, administrators at UCLA and USC are buoyed by the results, which the NCAA is expected to make public in August.

Using the forms submitted to the NCAA, the Chronicle’s survey found Pac-10 schools were fifth among 10 Division I conferences. The Big West, with members including Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine, was 10th, the only conference below a 40% graduation rate.

Fullerton, Long Beach and Cal State Northridge, which recently became a Division I independent in basketball after competing in Division II in most sports, were ranked among the lowest of 248 Division I institutions participating in the survey.

Stanford led the Pac-10, graduating 81.5% of its scholarship athletes who were incoming freshmen in 1983 and 1984. The University of California was second at 70.2%. UCLA, at 60.3%, and USC, at 50.4%, were among the majority of conference schools that graduated between 50% and 60% of their athletes.

Nine Division I conferences fell between the Big East football league’s 63.7% to the Southeastern Conference’s 45.7%. The Big West averaged 38.3%.

Ivy League schools and the three U.S. service academies do not give athletic scholarships, and were not included in significant categories.

The school-by-school breakdown compiled by the Washington D.C.-based weekly newspaper supplements an NCAA study released July 2. That report said the graduation rates of athletes reflected those for all students when gender and racial factors were included. The addition of two categories--racial breakdown and a so-called refined rate--make the latest NCAA forms different from previous graduation-rate surveys.

A refined graduation rate counts athletes who transferred in to the school but excludes those who left in good academic standing. The category, which attempts to follow transfer students, is one of the most criticized segments of the NCAA form because its data can be skewed in a school’s favor. The refined rates (see chart) usually increase the school’s percentage.

In another departure from past surveys, the form studies the entering classes of two consecutive years, 1983-84 and 1984-85, in an attempt to target trends.

The focus on graduation rates started at the 1990 NCAA Convention in an effort to thwart Congressional intervention into college athletes. Congress passed legislation last year requiring institutions that give athletic scholarships to make graduation rates of all students public.

In responding to negative publicity over the lack of education of football and basketball players, the legislation was seen as a consumer guide to higher education.

One of the first steps taken to improve academic standards was the implementation of the NCAA’s Proposition 48, which toughened entrance requirements for incoming freshmen.

The classes measured in the NCAA’s latest survey entered college before Proposition 48 was instituted. As a result, administrators say the graduation rates will increase dramatically in the coming years.

Pac-10 officials have followed the changes since the institution of Proposition 48 in 1986 and found dramatic increases, said David Price, assistant commissioner.

At USC, the average Scholastic Aptitude Test for entering freshmen football players increased by 190 points from 1984 to 1988, Athletic Director Mike McGee said.

USC officials say they have made great strides in helping their athletes earn a degree. One factor was the 1985 rule that required USC athletes to complete 27 units per year instead of the NCAA-mandated 24.

“If you look at the University of Southern California four years from now they are going to be up there,” said Douglas Hobbs, UCLA’s faculty representative.

Any discussion of graduation rates is difficult because of the tricky formula used to determine the percentages. The numbers are not always representative of what the school is doing.

For instance, USC’s average for all scholarship athletes in the two years targeted is about 50%. McGee, however, prefers citing another category that the NCAA will use next year: the exhausted eligibility graduation rate.

The category determines how many athletes have graduated after they have completed their eligibility. Under this category, how many years it takes to graduate is not a factor.

Because many institutions, USC included, have adopted programs to encourage former athletes to return to school to finish their studies, the category is relevant. The USC registrar reported that 74% of the 1983 and 1984 entering classes who competed in their sports for four years have graduated.

“The increasing trend is positive, and we need to continue that,” McGee said.

Hobbs, a UCLA political science professor, has dealt with the continuing problem of what to do with transfer students. The unrefined rate attempts to handle the problem, but most Pac-10 officials do not believe it works.

A player who transfers because he or she is not playing often quits going to classes as well as practices, Hobbs said. Thus the athlete leaves in bad academic standing and is counted against the university.

But no matter how much tinkering is done, statisticians will never devise the perfect model.

By virtue of their differences, schools cannot always be compared to each other, administrators say. What must be understood is the university’s mission. For instance, the University of California system approaches education differently than the California State University and College system.

The UC system has tougher entrance requirements and seeks only the top percentile from high school classes. The Cal State system is designed to serve the rest of the college-bound students.

These students commute 30 miles one way to school, have outside employment and other interests beyond earning a degree, said Bill Shumard, Cal State Fullerton’s athletic director.

As a result, the graduation rates are lower, and that is reflected in the student athletes. Fullerton is 27.2%, Long Beach 23.2% and Northridge 16.9%.

Shumard, in his first year at Fullerton, came from USC, where he learned to appreciate the importance of academic image. But the Fullertons and Long Beaches of Division I do not have the resources to offer strong academic support systems such as those at UCLA or USC.

“We’ve got one director, an administrative assistant and a handful of tutors,” Shumard said. “We’re pretty lean.”

Fullerton administrators have tried to turn the disadvantage into a plus. Instead of walking athletes through the system, the educators try to teach them to do it for themselves.

“We’re placing a lot of responsibility on the athletes themselves,” Shumard said. “We think that is good. You’re teaching them to grow up and get ready for society, because life is certainly not going to be easy for them.”

GRADUATION RATES PACIFIC 10

WHITE MALES BLACK MALES SCHOOL Total Pct. Total Pct. ARIZONA 90 46.7 27 25.9 ARIZONA STATE 49 40.8 41 24.4 CALIFORNIA 51 72.5 32 68.8 OREGON 61 37.7 21 19 OREGON STATE 83 54.2 28 64.3 STANFORD 69 82.6 10 50 UCLA 59 69.5 24 41.7 USC 43 48.8 28 32.1 WASHINGTON 50 52 25 28 WASHINGTON STATE 47 44.7 18 33.3

WHITE FEMALES BLACK FEMALES SCHOOL Total Pct. Total Pct. ARIZONA 41 48.8 9 55.6 ARIZONA STATE 48 60.4 6 16.7 CALIFORNIA 35 82.9 5 60 OREGON 43 53.5 5 80 OREGON STATE 27 63 4 0 STANFORD 38 92.1 0 0 UCLA 38 65.8 6 83.3 USC 27 70.3 7 57.1 WASHINGTON 29 72.4 3 33.3 WASHINGTON STATE 30 63.3 3 0

PACIFIC 10

ALL ATHLETES REFINED RATES* SCHOOL Total Pct. Total ARIZONA 177 44.6 139 56.8 ARIZONA STATE 153 39.9 181 47.5 CALIFORNIA 141 70.2 141 78.7 OREGON 146 41.8 152 51.3 OREGON STATE 149 55.7 93 89.2 STANFORD 135 81.5 116 94.8 UCLA 151 60.3 163 65 USC 115 50.4 112 58 WASHINGTON 119 52.1 112 58 WASHINGTON STATE 108 45.4 130 56.9

OTHER SOUTHLAND SCHOOLS

WHITE MALES BLACK MALES SCHOOL Total Pct. Total Pct. CAL STATE FULLERTON 36 27.8 16 6.3 CAL STATE LONG BEACH 26 15.4 13 CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE 27 11.1 11 0 LOYOLA MARYMOUNT 9 44.4 1 100 PEPPERDINE 24 50 5 20 UC IRVINE 23 60.9 3 0 UC SANTA BARBARA 25 60 4 25 UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO 12 83.3 0 0

OTHER SOUTHLAND SCHOOLS

WHITE FEMALES BLACK FEMALES SCHOOL Total Pct. Total Pct. CAL STATE FULLERTON 13 61.5 1 0 CAL STATE LONG BEACH 18 55.6 8 0 CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE 20 30 1 100 LOYOLA MARYMOUNT 9 55.6 0 0 PEPPERDINE 6 50 2 0 UC IRVINE 15 66.7 4 25 UC SANTA BARBARA 19 63.2 1 0 UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO 17 64.7 0 0

OTHER SOUTHLAND SCHOOLS

ALL ATHLETES REFINED RATES* SCHOOL Total Pct. Total Pct. CAL STATE FULLERTON 81 27.2 84 39.3 CAL STATE LONG BEACH 82 23.2 55 34.5 CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE 65 16.9 84 29.8 LOYOLA MARYMOUNT 22 54.5 26 69.2 PEPPERDINE 45 44.4 41 70.7 UC IRVINE 48 58.3 50 80 UC SANTA BARBARA 51 58.8 60 76.7 UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO 30 73.3 37 91.9