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U.Va. Black Graduation Rate Still No. 1 / For 12th Straight Year, It Tops the List Among Major Public Schools

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By CARLOS SANTOS

The University of Virginia has the highest graduation rate for black students among major public institutions, according to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.

The six-year graduation rate for black students who entered the school in the fall of 1998 is 86 percent, according to data published this week in the journal. Nationwide, the graduate rate overall for black students is 42 percent.

The six-year graduation rate for white students at U.Va. is about 93 percent.

Jade Craig, a fourth-year black student from Mississippi, said efforts by the school and by black students themselves have led to the high graduation rate at U.Va.

"The university has built an entire infrastructure for black students," said Craig, including a peer advisory program that matches incoming students with older students "who help black students psychologically, academically and socially.

"There is also a great amount of support with black students helping other black students," said Craig. "We feel a connection to a community." About 9 percent of the 13,400 undergraduate students are black.

This is the 12th consecutive year the school has posted the highest graduation rate for major public institutions.

"I don't see this as necessarily something the university does," said U.Va. President John T. Casteen III. "But instead I think it is something students do. They succeed."

Casteen said U.Va. admissions officers watch for leads on promising students as early as middle school and seek out younger siblings of successful students.

Casteen also said that success in Advance Placement courses and tests has a high correlation with success at U.Va. "We have an uncommonly high proportion of incoming Virginia African-American students who had done AP in the right subject areas - math, science and history."

The University of California at Berkeley and the University of New Hampshire had the next-highest rates among flagship universities with a 70 percent graduation rate, followed by a 69 percent graduation rate for blacks at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and 67 percent at the University of Michigan. The University of the District of Columbia had the lowest rate at 7 percent.

William Harvey, U.Va.'s chief officer for diversity and equity, said the graduation rate is "a pretty significant achievement."

Noting some racial problems that occurred earlier in the school year, Harvey said the black graduation rate "gives some context, that a lot more happens here in a positive way than a negative way."

Among all colleges, including private, U.Va. ranked 19, with Harvard University at the top with a 95 percent black student graduation rate.

The journal article stated that nearly 70 percent of black students said they didn't finish college because of high student- loan debt. Under U.Va.'s comprehensive financial-aid program, qualified students can graduate with little or no debt, U.Va. officials said.

Contact staff writer Carlos Santos at csantos@timesdispatch.com or (434) 295-9542.

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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