Sacramento State?s Athletic Department does not have to worry about being singled out due to low graduation rates among African American athletes. Five of ten schools with the lowest graduation rates for black athletes are predominately black colleges, according to an annual survey done by the U.S. Department of Education.

Jackson State University had the lowest percentage (15 percent) of graduates in 1993-94. The other black colleges with low graduation rates included Bethune-Cookman (third at 18 percent), Texas Southern (fourth at 21 percent), South Carolina State (ninth at 27 percent) and Alabama State (tenth at 28 percent) were listed as having the lowest percentages.

One of the problems affecting low graduation rates among African Americans begins as an epidemic during the recruiting stage, said former Sacramento State basketball player, Arinze Anouro.

“I think in all sports a lot of times programs are trying to build and then later they kind of bag things that they stressed earlier,” Anouro said.

Coaches convince black players of a bright future before the ultimate issue sets in.”Some things take a back seat to basketball,” Anouro said.

In contrast, the top five colleges with high graduation rates for black athletes were Dayton and New Hampshire, both even at 95 percent, followed by Manhattan at 94 percent, Stanford at 93 percent and Northwestern and Loyola (Md.) rounding out the top five at 92 percent.

Institutions? low rates for black players who enrolled from 1990-91 to 1993-94 listed ten Division I schools at zero graduation for men?s basketball: Sac State, Nicholls State, Southern University, Southwest University, Idaho and Memphis did not record one scholarship graduate in the sport. The numbers triggered an investigation by the NCAA Sub-committee for Academic Integrity.

“I think basketball is the biggest concern of the NCAA,” Sac State Athletic Director Debby Colberg said about the governing body of college sports.

The graduation rate is determined by the percentage of scholarship athletes who earned their degrees within six years, according to an article published in USA Today, Dec. 1, 2000. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Oklahoma and Texas-Pan American also fell into the same category with zero graduates.

USA Today also reported that academic performances of Division I black players lag behind every ethnic group when it comes to athletes? graduation rates. Institutions that graduated fewer than 20 percent of black male athletes during that 1990-91 to 1993-94 span listed Sacramento State tied for second with a number of 14 black male athletes (seven percent graduation rate). Idaho State also had a seven percent graduation rate (28 black male athletes graduated). Wisconsin-Green Bay, which topped the list, had three black male athletes, and not one of the trio received a college degree.

Sac State has to set an example of interest before conquering the problem, Newman said.”Coaches and the administration must put their best foot forward,” he said. “That?s what it will take to put them across the stage in four or five years.”

?Russ Edmondson contributed to this report.