Minority ReportAmerican universities are accepting more minorities than ever. Graduating t

Minority Report

American universities are accepting more minorities than ever. Graduating them is another matter.

Barry Mills, the president of Bowdoin College, was justifiably proud of Bowdoin's efforts to recruit minority students. Since 2003 the small, elite liberal arts school in Brunswick, Maine, has boosted the proportion of so-called under-represented minority students in entering freshman classes from 8% to 13% . "It is our responsibility to reach out and attract students to come to our kinds of places," he told a NEWSWEEK reporter. But Bowdoin has not done quite as well when it comes to actually graduating minorities. While 9 out of 10 white students routinely get their diplomas within six years, only 7 out of 10 black students made it to graduation day in several recent classes.

"If you look at who eithers college, it now looks like America," says Hilary Pennington, director of postsecondary programs for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has closely studied enrollment patterns in higher education. " But if you look at who walks across the stage for a diploma, it's still largely the white, upper-income population.

The United States once had the highest graduation rate of any nation. Now it stands 10th. For the first time in American history, there is the risk that the rising generation will be less well educated than the previous one. The graduation rate among 25-to 34-year-olds is no better than the rate for the 55-to 64-year-olds who were going to college more than 30 years ago. Studies show that more and more poor and non-white students want to graduate from college— but their graduation rates fill far short of their dreams. The graduation rates for blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans lag far behind the graduation rates for whites and Asians. As the minority population grows in the United States, low college graduation rates be some a threat to national prosperity.

The problem is pronounced at public universities. In 2007 the University of Wisconsin-Madison—one of the top five or so prestigious publi 3 universities—graduated 81 % of its white students within six years, but only 56% of its blacks. At less-selective slate schools, the numbers get worse. During the same time frame, the University of Northern Iowa graduated 67% of its white students, but only 39% of its blacks. Community colleges have low graduation rates generally—but rock-bottom rates for minorities. A recent review of California community colleges found that while a third of the Asian students picked up their degrees, only 15% of African-Americans did so as well.

Private colleges and universities generally do better, partly because they offer smaller classes and more personal attention. But when it cones to a significant graduation gap, Bowdoin has company. Nearby Colby College logged an 18-point difference between white and black graduates in 2007 and 25 points in 2006. Middlebury College in Vermont, another top school, had a 19-point gap in 2007 and a 22-point gap in 2006. The most selective private schools— Harvard, Yale, and Princeton—show almost no gap between black and white graduation rates. But that may have more to do with their ability to select the best students. According to data gathered by Harvard Law School professor Lani Guinier, the most selective schools are more likely to choose blacks who have at least one immigrant parent from Africa or the Caribbean than black students who are descendants of American slaves.

" Higher education has been able to duck this issue for years, particularly the more selective schools, by saying the responsibility is on the individual student," says Pennington of the Gates Foundation. "If they fail, it's their fault. " Some critics blame affirmative action-students admitted with lower test scores and grades from shaky high schools often struggle at elite schools. But a bigger problem m

A．The small proportion of minority students.

B．The low graduation rates of minority students.

C．The growing conflicts among ethnic groups.

D．The poor academic performance of students.