Athlete graduation rate holds

The Associated Press KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- NCAA athletes, with the exception of white female players, are losing ground in the classroom. Led by an alarming dip among white male basketball players, Division I athletes who entered school in 1991 showed the first overall drop in graduation rates in four years. According to NCAA statistics released during the weekend, 57 percent of Division I athletes who were freshmen in 1991 had graduated by 1997. For each of the three previous years, the rate was 58 percent. The NCAA began tracking graduation rates in 1984, using a formula that counts all transfer students -- even if they go elsewhere and graduate -- against the rates of their original school. It allows six years to complete a degree program. Thus, graduation rates for the 1992 freshman class will be compiled and announced next year. Almost every category for the 1991 entering class -- which includes males, females, blacks, whites, football and basketball -- took a tumble. White male basketball players were hardest hit, plunging from 58 to 47 percent. ''That's a significant change,'' NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro said. ''We've seen changes before, but I'm not sure we've had that big of a change.'' White female athletes, holding steady at 70 percent for the third straight year, retained the highest rate among all classifications and were the only group not to decline. ''I don't think we know the answer,'' Renfro said. ''A one-year flip like this may not be particularly meaningful, especially in light of the fact we changed the reporting process.'' For the first time, the NCAA let the federal government collect the data instead of having the schools report directly. ''But I don't want to lay it off on that entirely,'' Renfro said. ''The fact is we'll have to watch the trends and see what happens.'' The NCAA noted that 57 percent for athletes was better than the 56 percent graduation rate of the general student body. In fact, the athletes' rates have been either one or two percentage points higher than the general student body's since 1986. Among big-time athletic schools, Duke and Georgetown showed particularly well. Of the 71 freshman athletes who enrolled at Duke in 1991, 97 percent graduated -- five percentage points better than the student body. At Georgetown, 92 percent of athletes and 89 percent of students in general got their degrees. On the other side of the spectrum, only five percent of the athletes at Maryland-Eastern Shore, 18 percent at Cal State-Fullerton and 23 percent at Bethune-Cookman and Texas Southern graduated. Among all male students, the graduation rate declined from 53 to 51 percent. Among all females, the decline was 68 to 67 percent. Black male athletes went from 43 to 41, and white males from 57 to 56. Black female athletes declined 3 percentage points to 56 percent. In basketball, males dropped from 45 to 41 percent and females went from 66 to 67. Black males dropped from 39 to 37. White female basketball players dropped from 74 to 71 percent and black females from 58 to 55. Among all football players, the decline was 52 to 50 percent. White football players went from 61 to 60 percent and blacks from 45 to 42.