Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 2, 1993 TAG: 9307020074
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO. LENGTH: Medium
\ College graduation rates for black athletes have increased since the NCAA tightened standards for eligibility, but about 700 fewer black received athletic scholarships in the first year of Proposition 48.
An NCAA survey released Thursday showed the graduation rate for black males entering school in 1986 increased to 41 percent from the 33 percent three-year average over 1983-85. It also showed black participation for men and women in Division I sports dropped from 27 percent before Proposition 48 to 23.5 percent in 1986-87.
The survey found the overall graduation rate for athletes increased under Proposition 48 from a 51 percent three-year average over 1983-85 to 57 percent for the class entering college in 1986. The survey defined graduation as students who received degrees within six years after entering college.
The NCAA survey of all 298 Division I schools showed only 30 percent of black males in the general student body received degrees within the six-year period, far below the 41 percent graduation rate for black male athletes.
Overall, 55 percent of the student body received degrees compared with 57 percent of the athletes.
Proposition 48, which took effect for the 1986-87 academic year, established requirements for freshman eligibility for scholarship athletes. Most black educators opposed the move, saying the standardized tests on which the requirements were based were culturally and racially biased.
"We told them 10 years ago this would happen, that they would be excluding young people who should not be excluded," said Harold Lundy, president of Grambling State University, a school with a predominantly black student body.
"You expect graduation rates to go up if you exclude people," Lundy said. "But the survey does not address those hundreds of young people who were turned away and denied educational opportunities. Where are they now? What's to become of them?"
Jerry Kingston of Arizona State, chairman of the NCAA's academic requirements committee, noted that Proposition 48 proponents had predicted these results.
"There was very little controversy about the fact higher academic preparation would raise graduation rates," he said. "That there was about a 4 percent decline in the percentage of of black athletes in Division I almost precisely was what we predicted. I would expect the percentage of blacks would begin to rise again."
Said Lundy: "I do not anticipate that. They have wound up denying opportunities and discriminating against a segment of students, both black and white."
Under the standards, a freshman had to have a C average in 11 "core" courses such as English and math and minimum scores on the Scholastic Assessment Test and American College Test exams.
"There is no question that higher graduation rates are a positive, a significant positive," said Jim Frank, commissioner of the predominantly black Southwestern Athletic Conference. "But the survey doesn't take into account the black athletes after 1986 who were denied opportunities because they did not measure up in the SAT or ACT scores."
Proposition 48 requirements were further toughened at the 1992 NCAA convention, where schools increased the number of core courses to 13 and introduced a sliding scale that mandates higher SAT or ACT scores.
The increase in graduation rates for blacks was consistent for football and basketball. In men's basketball, the increase for blacks was from 30 to 38 percent. In Division I-A football, the rate for blacks went from 35 percent to 43.
by CNB