Diploma Out of Reach

Op Ed from San Francisco Chronicle: There is a losing culture in big-time college sports that has nothing to do with wins and losses in basketball or football, or the millions of dollars being made. Using those standards, many universities are doing fine, with some profiting greatly from the success of their football and men’s basketball teams. The losses we refer to are the ones that really matter: student-athletes who don’t go pro and never graduate. Too many universities are losing on this measure and failing their student-athletes — particularly black male athletes. California campuses are no exception.

UC Berkeley ranks at the bottom of black athlete graduation rates for all California universities studied. While 91 percent of all students and 64 percent of black male students graduate from Cal, just 34 percent of black male athletes graduate...

UCLA is making some progress toward closing the graduation gap, with 61 percent of its black male athletes graduating, compared with 91 percent of all students. However, the overall findings rightly create outrage and demand change...

From: http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Where-California-universities-fail-black-male-8342126.php [Paid subscription needed, but you can get full op ed by subscribing to UC newsclips at newsclips@ucop.edu.]