<p>What do "graduation rate" stats really mean? They mean that a certain percentage of a certain demographic do or do not graduate from the institution being referenced. They do not tell you if the students who do not graduate from this particular school fail to earn a college degree. They simply show that they did not obtain one from XYZ University. </p>
<p>The assumption being made by the opponents of AA is that the URMs who do not earn a degree from XYZ fail to do so because they are academically ill-equipped. But is that necessarily true? Like everyone else, URMs are INDIVIDUALS who sometimes find that the school into which they're currently enrolled is a poor fit. The fit can be poor for any number of reasons: It's too far from home. It's too close to home. The school is too large and impersonal. The school is too small and confining. They don't fit in socially. The major they desire is not available. The dorms are poorly maintained or housing is scarce. The food is lousy. The administration is unresponsive---and yes, it's either too academically rigorous, or not challenging enough. Who can say? Many times, the reasons why a person leaves a school have nothing to do with academics. They may have family issues that require immediate addressing. They may no longer be able to afford the school in question. They may be struggling with a physical or mental illness. The list goes on and on.</p>
<p>But URMs also sometimes face special challenges having to do with race, and culture, and feelings of disenfranchisment. Everyone wants to feel as if they "belong", that they are valued as an individual, that the institution supports their goals and appreciates their strong suits. I was speaking with an aquaintance yesterday, whose academically talented daughter (an AfAm freshman at a very prestigious state school) experienced a troubling reaction to her first paper from one of her professors. It seems that he was "suspicious" of the originality of her very well written and insightful paper. Even though he'd given it an A, he asked her to more "closely document" all her statements and she ended up resubmitting the paper twice, virtually unchanged. Though the Professor in question never actually accused her of pledgerism, he clearly did not believe that the work was her own (though he had not the slightest bit of documentation to prove this suspicion). From the beginning, she had faithfully referenced ALL stats and analysis not her own. But she DID include original thought and analysis which she had not derived from anyone else. The professor just didn't want to believe that she was capable of such work. Now I understand that this professorial scepticism could have happened to anyone. But in this student's case, she was plagued with the nagging thought that perhaps this professor had placed low expectations upon her based on her race, that he just didn't believe a black student was capable of such sophisticated thought and analysis. Clearly, the most vocal AA detractors on this thread would be the first to suspect that such work could not have been her own, given their assumptions that AA admits are qualitatively inferior. What I'm trying to say is that black and hispanic students at predominently white schools sometimes face unique social and academic challenges that have nothing to do with ability or academic preparedness, and when they leave a school at which they've faced such problems, they may well just proceed to transfer to a school they believe might be a better fit---and obtain their degree from that institution. </p>
<p>In the case of UMich, such a stink has been raised about AA there that it should not be surprising that some AfAms feel that their abilities are often assumed to be sub-par, that the campus environment is hostile to their presence, that they are not viewed as a legitimate part of the University. If I felt that way about my school, you had darn well better believe that I'd be looking to transfer to a more accepting environment. But it doesn't mean that I would eventually "failed to graduate" from college.</p>