University of Oregon recognized for graduation rate of minority students
In analyzing data from colleges and universities, The Education Trust identified significant gains in the number of underrepresented minority graduates among public research universities between 2002 and 2007. In those years, the Top Gainers report showed the UO supported its minority students to six-year graduation rates of 67.1 percent compared with the overall UO six-year graduation rate of 65.3 percent.
"The University of Oregon's ranking by The Education Trust is a reflection of its long-term, concerted effort to diversity and student success at the institution," said Oregon University System Chancellor George Pernsteiner. "Through its campus-wide commitment to first-generation and students of color, the university has developed the programs, support services and financial aid offerings to ensure greater numbers of students succeed to a degree. On behalf of the Board of Higher Education and the OUS, our congratulations go out to everyone at the University of Oregon for this outstanding achievement."
Nationally, approximately 40 percent of underrepresented minority, or URM, students (African American, Latino and Native American) earn a bachelor's degree within six years, says The Education Trust. The figure for nonminority students is more than 60 percent. The UO exceeds these rates for both underrepresented minority and white students.
Although no one specific element can be identified that has led to these high numbers for UO, Charles Martinez, vice president of institutional equity and diversity, says that a focus from academic leadership on improving success for all students and a commitment from the campus community to advance diversity goals in the past five years has increased the diversity of the campus and the ability of faculty and staff to provide support to an increasingly pluralistic student body.
There have been innovations in academic support programs, a heightened emphasis on the importance of mentorship, increasing recognition of the need to create more intimate and culturally responsive learning communities, and more in-depth professional development for faculty and staff focused on enhancing cultural competency.
"Achieving our diversity goals has required the commitment of the entire campus community," said Martinez. "We are proud to continue to show advances in this area at the University of Oregon, and we will continue to address the challenges that underrepresented students face."
While noting the positive signs of progress, Martinez also pointed out that the UO has more work to do in realizing its overall institutional diversity goals and stressed that the methodology used in the report that aggregates subgroups of minority students into one underrepresented minority group can mask important disparities for subgroups of students at UO and elsewhere.
"The University of Oregon has committed to helping students complete degrees and the new research demonstrating our efforts to support underrepresented students is encouraging," said James Bean, provost. "It reinforces how far we've come and motivates us to do even better."
The Education Trust also released a report on Top Gap Closers, which did not include UO, because the gap was small to begin with in 2002. The gap in graduation rates between underrepresented minority students and their white and Asian peers only differed by 3.5 percentage points in 2002, at 56.3 percent and 59.8 percent respectively.
"We didn't have a big gap to begin with in 2002, so we wouldn't expect to make that list," said Martinez. "We are doing better than the national averages and have relatively high six-year graduation rates."
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of the 62 leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.
Contact: Julie Brown, 541-346-3185, julbrown@uoregon.edu
Link: Education Trust research results, http://www.edtrust.org/sites/edtrust.org/files/publications/files/CRO%20...
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