UNL a Leader in Improving African-American Graduation Rates

[Mavric]

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is one of the nation’s best four-year institutions in substantially improving graduation rates for African-American students, a newly released national report shows.

 

UNL was No. 11 among four-year public institutions in the report, authored by the national advocacy group The Education Trust. The university is underlined for its 10-point reduction in the achievement gap between white and black students between 2003 and 2013. In that timeframe, UNL saw a 4.5 percent increase in overall graduation rates and a 13.7 percent increase in graduation rates for African-American students.

 

The report, published March 23, is titled “Rising Tide II: Do Black Students Benefit as Grad Rates Increase?” and is the second comprehensive Education Trust study in recent months to note how UNL has stood out in improving graduation rates for traditionally underserved and underrepresented minority students.

 

The first report, published in December 2015, showed that UNL led the nation in narrowing completion gaps between white and underrepresented minority students over the same 10-year timespan.

 

Amy Goodburn, UNL’s associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and interim dean of enrollment management, said the university’s gains can be attributed to several factors, including efforts to boost retention of all students, and special programs that focus on mentoring and support for underrepresented minority and first generation students. For instance, OASIS -- the Office of Academic Success and Intercultural Services -- and the William H. Thompson Scholars Learning Community both provide academic success classes, peer mentors and program staff, and social, academic, and cultural programming for students who receive various scholarships, many of whom are underrepresented minority students.

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[Mavric]

As an aside, Keyshawn Johnson Sr. tweeted a link to this article, posting something to the effect of 'One reason why my son made the right choice.'

[Landlord]

I wonder how much of this has to do, if any, with the extremely small amount of non-athlete blacks at the university compared to schools in more populated states and more urban areas.

[JJ Husker]

I wonder how much of this has to do, if any, with the extremely small amount of non-athlete blacks at the university compared to schools in more populated states and more urban areas.

Wow! Your post caused me to Google the demographics at UNL. When I attended back in the early 80's, it seemed like there were a fair amount of black or African American students there. Keep in mind I was raised in Columbus so even 3 POC would've seemed like a lot to me at that point in time. But what I found today was that only 2.4% of the enrollment is black/African American. Even more surprising was the stat that 4.4% of the student body is varsity athletes. I was thinking I might refute your claim of "extremely small amount of non-athlete blacks at the University", but you are absolutely right. It is an extremely small amount. Causes me to wonder now if this is just a Nebraska/Lincoln thing or if black college enrollment is really low in many larger Universities. Anyway, thought I'd share.