I was glad to see that Northwestern ranked the highest in black male graduation rates in the NCAA, but still concerned that there is a noticeable gap that needs to be closed to the general student population. Rightly so, this stuff is taken very seriously by the institution. NU leads the nation in many statistics concerning academic progress of student athletes and graduation rates.

It's something that is very important to me, primarily because I'm still one of those idealists that believe in the ideal of the student-athlete... not simply a minor league for the pros. No one talks about this stuff. All they care about is winning and championship banners. But I think it is important when institutions have a commitment to develop its student population and make sure that these kids are simply used as a vehicle for sports revenue dollars. I'm sure the more bitter folks on this board will still say the institution (or any Div 1 institution) doesn't care, but I genuinely believe that they do... and its nice to see the numbers suggesting the same.

http://www.gse.upenn.edu/equity/sports

Interesting and probably not terribly surprising (albeit still concerning) stats from the study include:
- Between 2007 and 2010, Black men were 2.8% of full-time, degree-seeking undergraduate students, but 57.1% of football teams and 64.3% of basketball teams.
- Across four cohorts, 50.2% of Black male student-athletes graduated within six years, compared to 66.9% of student athletes overall, 72.8% of undergraduate students overall, and 55.5% of Black undergraduate men overall.
- 96.1% of these NCAA Division I colleges and universities graduated Black male student-athletes at rates lower than student-athletes overall.
- 97.4% of institutions graduated Black male student-athletes at rates lower than undergraduate students overall. On no campus were rates exactly comparable for these two comparison groups.
- At one university, Black male student-athletes graduated at a comparable rate to Black undergraduate men overall. On 72.4% of the other campuses, graduation rates for Black male student-athletes were lower than rates for Black undergraduate men overall.

Is any of this a surprise???

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Go Cubs!!!!

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I think if you suspected this, now you know how bad it is. And if you wanted to know which schools are performing better or worse and addressing the gap in grad rates, then you know that too. Frankly if I'm a father of a student athlete, this stuff is extremely important to me.