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And Now The Basketball Gap...

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports this morning on a new study by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (TIDES) (Don?t you just love that title?) that finds a continuing ? indeed, slightly growing ? racial gap in the graduation rates of white and black male NCAA Division I tournament-bound basketball players.

The key finding: ?Eighty?four percent of white and 56 percent of African?American men?s Division I basketball student?athletes graduate.?

According to Richard Lapchick, the primary author,

the continuing significant disparity between the academic success of African?American and white men?s basketball student?athletes is deeply troubling. In fact, the already large gap increased by four percentage points. One of higher education?s greatest failures is the persistent gap between African?American and white students in general. This is also true for white and African?American basketball student?athletes in particular

Lapchick notes one bright (or at least brighter) spot:

... it is equally important to note that African?American basketball players graduate at a higher rate than African?American males who are not student?athletes. The graduation rate for African? American male students as a whole is only 38 percent, a full 18 percent lower than for African?American basketball student?athletes. Presently, too many of our predominantly white campuses are not welcoming places for students of color, whether or not they are athletes. There are lessons that our campuses could learn from athletics.

Welcoming? The problem is that black males are not sufficiently welcome?

What pap.

Full post as published by Discriminations on March 17, 2010 (boomark / email).