Yesterday’s resignation of the University of Missouri President and Chancellor marked a victory for college student activists, particularly student athletes, in standing up to racial injustice. Attention to the protests has centered on specific incidents of racism and the institution’s response, but it should also extend to lifting the veil on deeper, systemic institutional racism at Mizzou. Consider the college’s enrollment and graduation of black students.
Photo credit: Daniel Brenner for the New York Times
ACCESS: Disparities in Enrollment
- Only 8 percent of Mizzou’s undergraduate students are black, whereas the state of Missouri had nearly 18 percent and the United States had 16 percent black students among its high school graduates in 2012.
SUCCESS: Disparities in Graduation
- Worse than the access gap is the huge disparity in graduation rates for black students at Mizzou. Within six years of initial enrollment, just over half – 54 percent – of black students receive their degree from Mizzou. Compare this to the nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of white students who complete at Mizzou. This 18-point gap is one of the biggest gaps among peer colleges that have similar admission standards and enroll similarly prepared students.
- The gap is even larger between black men and white men – a 23-point gap over six years. Less than half – 45 percent – of black men graduate from Mizzou within six years, compared to 68 percent of white men.
- Not surprisingly, the numbers are much, much, crueler for black men within four years of initial enrollment: Only 16 percent receive their degree from Mizzou within four years.
Again, all of Mizzou’s graduation outcomes for black students are substantially worse than peer institutions like Florida State University that serve similar students with similar incoming GPAs and SAT/ACT test scores.
These access and graduation gap data should shock the conscience of every single student – black or not – at Mizzou. Whether intentional or not, these gaps are inexcusable, and with leadership, they can be mitigated.
Public colleges in particular have an obligation to ensure the students they enroll are comparable to the demographics of the state and country at large, as well as to actively ensure those students have a comparable likelihood of success as their peers. Anything less is neglect.
Students of Mizzou, of all races, please recognize these inequities as a form of institutional racism and demand Mizzou to do better. Your education – and the education of your peers – is at stake.