Data Reveal Black Student Graduation Rates
December 12, 2014
A set of recently discovered data shows that 1 in 5 students who identify as Black or African-American did not graduate from Oberlin in 2013.
This 80 percent graduation rate is the lowest of any racial group — according to the data, which were publicly available on the website of the National Center for Education Statistics, 85 percent of students identifying as Asian, 89 percent of students identifying as White and 90 percent of students identifying as Hispanic or Latino graduated last year.
The low retention rates have galvanized action among a number of students; meanwhile, others are pointing to the fact that Black students make up less than 6 percent of Oberlin’s student body.
“Wherever you are, if you stand up and count the number of Black students, you’ll only need one hand,” said College senior Ali Amiri. “It’s ridiculous. Oberlin College, the first school to admit Black students, hardly has any representation.”
Amiri, a Black student himself, has organized several actions to call attention to what he defines as the “severe underrepresentation” of Black students on campus.
One of these actions took place on Friday, when a number of students placed jackets on chairs throughout Stevenson Dining Hall to signify what many have identified as the low enrollment rates of Black students at Oberlin.
“There aren’t people who look like me in my classes. I’ve hardly had any Black professors. And barely any of my readings are written by Black authors.”
Amiri also commented on the vast segregation of Oberlin’s campus — with the majority of Black students living on the south side of Oberlin.
“When I came to this school, I thought there were a good number of Black students,” Amiri said. “But all I had to do to find out what was really going on was to go north.”
While many have cited these numbers as deplorable, members of the administration have cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
According to Director of Institutional Research Ross Peacock, the data are unfavorably skewed in how they are documented. When the federal government adopted a new reporting protocol in 2010, several races and ethnicities were grouped together, while others were prioritized.
For example, after 2010, any student identifying as “Hispanic” is documented as Hispanic regardless of race. Similarly, anyone who is not Hispanic and who selects “more than one race” is counted only as “two or more.”
Under the pre-2010 method, the percentage of Black students en- rolled at Oberlin would be 8.5.
“Without change in student com- position, a number of African-American and Asian-American [students] moved out of their original catego- ries and into new categories,” said Peacock.
Additionally, the statistics correlated with student enrollment, retention and graduation rates are often difficult to interpret, said Peacock. Since the administration tracks students who enter in a given year and return the following year, the students who do not return will lower the retention rate, regardless of whether they plan to return in the following years.
“The changes have caused all sorts of problems,” said Peacock.
Despite the difficulty in interpreting the statistics, Oberlin’s enrollment and graduation rates for Black students still fall on the low end of the spectrum.
When compared to 29 of some of its closest peer institutions, the College remains well down on the list. In terms of enrollment rates, the Col- lege has the 14th lowest percentage.
In graduation rates, Oberlin has the 21st worst percentage.
One reason for the low rankings may be that a large number of Oberlin’s peer institutions have a larger endowment per student, allowing them to accept and fincnace more low-income students.
However, even when compared to institutions with similar endowment per student ratios, such as Davidson College, Wesleyan University and Col- gate University, Oberlin still does not rank as high as might be expected. Among these institutions, Oberlin’s enrollment and graduation rates remain average.
For Amiri and many others, Oberlin’s low-to- average rankings are unacceptable given what many have taken to defining as the school’s “false image” of diversity.
“They are profiting so heavily economically from [it],” said Amiri. “When [ financial] decisions are made, they aren’t thinking about people of col- or in the least bit. Anyone can tell you that increas- ing tuition is going to be detrimental to students of color being able to afford this school because of structural elements in our society of a whole.”
Amiri went on to say that, although Oberlin does reach out to communities of color, their sights are often set on those who are likely to be more capable of paying tuition.
“They’re literally using that fact to bring [in] as many white students who can pay full tuition as possible,” he said.
