LI colleges close minority graduation gap

The studies issued Thursday by The Education Trust, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., ranked public and private schools making progress in leveling the graduation field for those minority groups.

Blacks and Latinos have lagged in graduation rates because of a variety of factors. These include economic barriers, lack of access to advanced placement classes before college and the need for academic support services, study authors said.

"It's a high priority for us and something that the leadership of the university takes very seriously," said Stony Brook University president Samuel L. Stanley Jr.

Mary Marquez Bell, enrollment services vice president at SUNY Old Westbury, said that though the college is proud that 48 percent of its black students graduate -- a 16 percentage point rise from 2004 -- it is working to improve white graduation levels that were at 28 percent as of 2010.

"The difficulty we have is one that supersedes the ethnic one and that's the financial one," Marquez Bell said.

Nationally, Hispanics improved graduation levels by 3 percentage points, from 44 percent to 47 percent, in that six-year period, still below an overall graduation rate of 64 percent at the colleges they attended. Black graduation rates remained stagnant at 41 percent.

"What we do see is some very modest improvements for Hispanic students overall in graduation rates, but we haven't seen those gains for African-Americans," said Jennifer Engle, study co-author and higher education research and policy director at The Education Trust. "Unfortunately, the disparities are still too large for both populations."

Yanil Nuñez, 20, a student of Dominican heritage who participated in the summer program, said ongoing guidance has helped her immensely. A psychology and sociology major, she's already applying for graduate school pending her 2013 graduation.

"When I came here it was my first time away from home as a first-generation college student and the school helped me prepare and work on study skills," Nuñez said. "I became more self-aware about what I liked and what I wanted to pursue."

Graduation rates

SUNY New Paltz: 67.3%

Rochester Institute of Technology: 58.2%

SUNY Oneonta: 21.9%

SUNY Purchase: 19.9%

University at Buffalo: 17.6%

Stony Brook University: 71.3%

University at Albany: 71%

SUNY Plattsburgh: 60%

LIU Post: 35.4%

SUNY Old Westbury: 16%

LIU Post: 12.9%

Metropolitan College of New York: 11.9%