“Tracking and improving success among SCSU’s black undergraduate students” is a document that SCSU releases and is open to the public. The document’s name is descriptive in that its purpose is to track the graduation and retention rates of Black students and compare their rates to the total of the student body.
The document shows some trends and helps get a picture on SCSU’s Black student population and their success rates. According to the document, SCSU nearly quadrupled enrollment of black students from the year 2000 to 2010 with 173 black students attending in 2000, jumping to 799 in 2010.
Judith Siminoe, special adviser to the president, said “St. Cloud State University has made it a priority to try to serve students who identify as minority students. We have some initiatives to recruit students into that group. If you talk to someone in admissions, they would talk to you about having hired a more diverse staff to recruit and have some specific days and activities to reach out and reach students in that group that they have colleges and options to join us.”
While enrollment of Black-identifying students may be on the rise, the retention rate for these students remains lower than the total of SCSU’s population. The document tracks the six-year graduation rates of students, which is the level of students who have graduated from SCSU within six years after enrollment.
The document paints a different story for Black students’ retention rates. From 2000-2006, the percentage of black students was 28 percent. In 2003-2009, the document’s most recent data, that number increased to 38 percent. The document compares that data to the total of the student population, whose graduation rates were 47 percent and 50 percent, respectively.
Siminoe said, “You see a lot of comment on the fact that graduation rates for minorities tends to be lower than the graduation rate for students generally. Most people are kind of surprised that the graduation rates for all students is lower than you would expect. At least I’m surprised by that.”
The document also tracks retention to second fall, which is the two-year retention rate of all students. The retention rate for students identifying as Black from 2000-2009 hovered from a low of 50 percent to a high of 80 percent. The two-year retention rates for the total of SCSU’s population was between 69 percent and 73 percent.
The document compares SCSU’s six-year graduation rates with the rest of MnSCU. SCSU falls in at the highest for total retention rates compared to the rest of MnSCU at 38 percent. SCSU also has the second highest population of students identifying as Black with 102, while MSU Mankato had the highest at 110. Metropolitan State University is at the lowest of the MnSCU system with zero Black students counted.
Siminoe said, “One of things I will tell you is a criticism of the IPEDS reporting system is that if you are a population of primarily commuter students that are non-traditional, then they are more likely to take longer than six years to finish. If you could get graduation rates for the people who took 10 years because they were only able to attend part time, Metro State might do better because they might be a commuter school population. We have a lot of commuter students here, but Metro is right in the middle of the city and that tends to be a larger proportion of their student body.”
SCSU falls in the middle of the road as far as total student population’s six year graduation rates when compared to the rest of MnSCU. Winona State University, MSU Mankato and Bemidji State University all score higher than SCSU. Metropolitan State University, MSU Moorhead and Southwest MSU all score lower than SCSU.
The document shows the number of students who have “met MnSCU’s persistence and completion” criteria. According to the document, students are successful if “they are currently enrolled, or have graduated, or have transferred to another college or university.” The document does not specify what kind of university or if it needs to be in the MnSCU system.
SCSU’s Black population meets the criteria of MnSCU persistence and completion with a high success rate. The lowest six-year graduation number from the years 2000-2009 is 74 percent and the highest is 95 percent. SCSU’s Black population also beat out the total of SCSU’s population in terms of percentage in meeting this criteria. From the years 2000-2009, Black students had five years of higher percentage completion than SCSU’s total population.
The document also turns its attention to the regions of the United States Black graduation rates. New England scores the highest at around 43 percent, while the Great Lakes region, which includes Minnesota and Wisconsin, scores the lowest at around 30 percent.
