Low Graduation Numbers Belie CSUN’s Success Story

On their face, the numbers look pretty bad: Less than one-third of freshmen at Cal State Northridge graduate after six years, a smaller share than in the Cal State system as a whole. The results of a 12-year study of 112,000 students tend to reaffirm past criticisms of campus administrators for failing to shepherd students through the university, but the data also reflect new realities in Southern California: More students juggle jobs and families as college costs climb faster than wages.

The old image of young scholars spending four years hitting the books is outdated at a school such as CSUN, where more than half the students live off campus and commute. Most of the school’s 25,000-plus students are products of local high schools, with 70% coming from northern Los Angeles and eastern Ventura counties. Many hold down jobs and may even be raising families. Getting through college means scrimping both money and time.

Consequently, the average CSUN freshman now takes 5.6 years to graduate, about the same as the average freshman in the Cal State system. But fewer of them make it to graduation day. Just 31% of CSUN students finish in six years, compared to the Cal State average of 39%. And fewer than 4% of freshmen graduate in four years, compared to 10% for the system as a whole. For students with high school grade-point averages higher than 3.5, almost half graduate within six years.

Granted, many students take longer than four years either by choice or because of financial difficulties. But others who truly want to get through quickly cannot. CSUN students--like their counterparts at most other public universities--still complain about the unavailability of classes when they need them and of receiving little advisement on scheduling. For instance, failing to get a single class in a sequence can delay a student by as much as a year.

Recognizing this, CSUN administrators--still busy rebuilding a campus devastated by the Northridge earthquake--are taking steps to help students stay on track and graduate on time. For instance, the Faculty Senate this month approved plans to make guidance counseling mandatory for incoming freshmen. And a one-stop student services center scheduled to debut in two years promises to simplify often-confusing registration and admission procedures.

These days, numbers alone are poor measures of a university’s success. At best, they provide a quantitative overview of individual experiences and situations. CSUN administrators deserve credit for the improvements already underway, but the study should make clear that today’s students need all the support the university can muster.

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Who Graduates From CSUN?

Graduation rates for selected groups graduating in six years, who entered as freshmen from 1984 to 1990:

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Women 35% Full-time 33% Part-time 16% Athletes 34% H.S.GPA 3.5up 49%

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Source: Cal State Northridge study