GRADUATION RATES of football players
and of men's and women's basketball players at institutions in the National
Collegiate Athletic
Association's top division have fallen to their lowest levels in seven
years, according to a report released by the association last week.
The N.C.A.A.'s annual study of the academic performance of
athletics-scholarship recipients showed that white athletes graduated at
roughly the same rate as last year, but that fewer black athletes
graduated than at any time since the mid-1980s.
In particular, only 33 per cent of Division I black male basketball
players who enrolled as freshmen in 1992 received their degrees within
six years, according to the report. By comparison, 37 per cent of those
who entered Division I the year before completed their degrees.
At nine institutions, none of the male basketball players who enrolled
between 1989 and 1992 graduated within six years of entering: the
Universities of Idaho, Maryland-Eastern Shore, Memphis, Oklahoma, South
Florida, and Texas Pan-American; Southern University at Baton Rouge; and
Southwest Missouri State, and Western Illinois Universities.
Four universities--Lafayette College, Southern Methodist and Stanford
Universities, and the University of San Diego--graduated all of their
male basketball players who enrolled over that four-year period.
The last class of black male players that posted a graduation rate as
low as 33 percent entered in 1985, the year before the N.C.A.A. began
requiring incoming athletes to achieve certain standardized-test scores
and high-school grades in order to be eligible to compete.
The academic performance of basketball players is one of the low spots
in the N.C.A.A.'s report, which includes graduation-rate data for the
1,027 institutions in all three of the association's divisions. Over
all, 58 per cent of Division I athletes who entered college in 1992
graduated, compared with 56 per cent of all students. At 190 of the 312
colleges in Division I, the graduation rate for athletes exceeded the
rate for the student population as a whole.
Since 1986, at least 57 per cent of the athletes in each entering class
have earned their degrees within six years.
Eight universities graduated at least 90 per cent of their athletes, led
by the Universities of Dayton and New Hampshire, with rates of 95 per
cent. The others were: Manhattan College (94 per cent), Stanford
University (93 per cent), Loyola College in Maryland (92 per cent),
Northwestern University (92 per cent), Bucknell University (90 per
cent), and Lehigh University (90 per cent).
At Division II colleges, 50 per cent of the athletes earned degrees,
compared with 43 per cent of all students at the institutions. Division
III institutions do not track their athletes' graduation rates, because
the N.C.A.A. requires colleges to report such data only on scholarship
athletes, and Division III does not award sports scholarships. Sixty per
cent of students at Division III colleges graduated.
A `DISTRESSING' DECLINE
The academic performance of black athletes in Division I declined across
the board. Of the 3,462 black athletes who entered Division I colleges
in 1992, 43 per cent received their degrees within six years. Forty per
cent of black male athletes graduated, and 53 per cent per cent of black
female athletes. All three percentages represent a decline from the
previous year.
Although black athletes graduate at lower rates than their white
teammates do, they continue to graduate at a higher rate than that of
black students as a whole. Only 37 per cent of the black students who
entered Division I colleges in 1992 earned their degrees within six
years, including 31 per cent of men and 41 per cent of women.
Cedric W. Dempsey, president of the N.C.A.A., said he also was concerned
that the graduation rates of female basketball players, both black and
white, had declined for the second straight year. Those women graduated
at a rate of 62 per cent, down from 67 per cent for the class that
entered two years before, in 1990. Over all, white female basketball
players graduated at a rate of 69 per cent, and black players at a rate
of 49 per cent.
The decline in rates "is distressing to me," Mr. Dempsey said.
"We don't
know what the causes for the decline are, but it's certainly an area
that needs to be monitored."
However, 13 Division I institutions graduated 100 per cent of their
women's basketball players who started college between 1989 and 1992,
and an additional 24 graduated 90 per cent or more. Only five
institutions graduated fewer than 20 per cent of their female basketball
players--Florida Atlantic University (11 per cent), California State
University at Long Beach (13 per cent), and the Universities of
Texas-Pan American (14 per cent), Texas at San Antonio (18 per cent),
and Alabama at Birmingham (19 per cent).
While the graduation rates of athletes as a whole held steady at 56 per
cent, there were declines in the number of graduating basketball
players, male and female, and football players. Only 41 per cent of male
basketball players in Division I graduated, the lowest rate since 1985,
before Proposition 48, the rule that first set test-score and grade
standards, went into effect. And 51 per cent of football players
graduated, also the lowest since the class entering in 1985.
Lamar University graduated none of the football players who entered in
1992, and three other institutions graduated fewer than 20 per cent of
their football players: California State's Fullerton and Long Beach
campuses, and Prairie View A&M University.
"Academic standards for student athletes have been the subject of
intense discussions among the N.C.A.A.'s membership in recent months,"
Mr. Dempsey said. "Generally, our student athletes continue to perform
well and graduate at rates that reflect the higher standards that have
been put in place since the mid-1980s."
The N.C.A.A.'s members are not the only people talking about its
academic standards. The association goes to court next week in
Philadelphia to appeal a March ruling by U.S. District Judge Ronald L.
Buckwalter. That decision struck down the way the N.C.A.A. uses test
scores to determine eligibility, on the grounds that the standards
discriminate against black athletes.
DEFENDING ACADEMIC STANDARDS
Association officials have long cited the higher graduation rates of
athletes to justify their academic standards. Graham B. Spanier,
president of Pennsylvania State University and chairman of the Division
I Board of Directors, said the poorer performance of black athletes this
year was no cause to question either Proposition 48 or tougher standards
put in place in 1996, under the rule known as Proposition 16.
"There can be no doubt that, over the long run, Proposition 48 and
subsequent adjustments have had a significant, positive impact on
graduation rates," Mr. Spanier said. "Although there will always be
anomalies, year-to-year variations, and perhaps even trends among
certain groups, it is important for us to continue our commitment to
academic standards."
