Monorities trend to graduate

Metro exceeds goal, rates grow for
sixth consecutive year

By Perry Swanson
The Metropolitan

Metro exceeded its goal for ethnic minority graduations this year by about 2 percent, continuing a trend of rising rates over the past six years.

Nearly 20 percent of Metro graduates from July 1, 1996 to June 30, 1997 were minorities, according to figures from the office of Institutional Research. The official figure, 19.4 percent, is 2.1 percent above a goal set by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education for that time period.

Vernon Haley, Metroâs vice president of Student Services, said intervention services have helped students who might drop out because of financial or academic difficulty. Haley said Metro has identified students with academic and financial problems and has moved to address them.

ãWe want to get more people into the service loop as soon as possible,ä Haley said.
Minority enrollment at Metro has also increased to 23.4 percent this fall, up 4.4 percent from 1996, according to a Sept. 15 press release from the office of College Communications.

The Colorado legislature directed the CCHE in 1987 to develop a policy to increase the proportion of college graduates who are minorities. The following year, the commission announced a statewide minority graduation goal for the year 2000 of 18.6 percent. This percentage reflects the number of 1988 Colorado high school graduates who are minorities.

Colorado colleges and universities have different minority graduation goals for 2000, depending on the local minority population. Metroâs goal is 21.2 percent.

It is higher than the state average because more minorities live in the metro area where the college draws most of its students.

Metro President Sheila Kaplan has talked tough about diversity and minority graduation rates since arriving at the college in 1993. Back then, minorities made up 13.5 percent of Metro graduates, a rate Kaplan called ãterrible.ä

Since then, Kaplan has consistently noted increases in the minority graduation rate as a victory for her administration. From 1993 to 1997,  the rates climbed about 6 percent, and now ethnic minorities are almost as well represented among Metro graduates as they are among Metro students.

ãIâm not sure how everyone else is doing, but I hope we will always be the college which exceeds these numbers,ä Kaplan said.
Kaplan recently criticized colleges in Texas and California for abandoning affirmative action in their student application policies. Metro wonât take that road unless Colorado law changes, she said.

The CCHE requires colleges that donât meet their yearly goals to submit a plan explaining how they will increase recruitment, retention, graduation and transfer of minority students. The commission also requires those schools to increase budgets for programs to keep minorities in school.