New data shows a significant drop in the four-year UW-Madison graduation rates for two campus diversity programs, though their retention rates are higher than the overall campus minority population.
The two programs, Posse Scholars and the Pre-College Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Excellence, seek out underrepresented student groups on a state and national level and provide mentoring and scholarships to help them succeed in a college setting.
According to data assembled by the UW-Madison Office of Academic Planning and Analysis, the UW-Madison four-year graduation rate for PEOPLE students was 9.8 percent for the class that enrolled in the fall of 2005. The previous enrollment group had a four-year graduation rate of 18.9 percent.
Posse Scholars saw an even larger drop from a 43.5 percent four-year graduation rate for the 2004 enrollment group to a 4.5 percent rate for the 2005 group.
In comparison, the overall four-year graduation rate for UW-Madison students has steadily increased since 1999, to 52.4 percent from 42.4 percent. Of the targeted minority enrollment group from 2005, 29.2 percent graduated in four years.
Jocelyn Milner, director of the Office of Academic Planning and Analysis, said though their recent graduation rates seem low, the sizes of the PEOPLE and Posse groups that enrolled in 2005, 41 and 22 respectively, are somewhat small to base statistics on.
PEOPLE Program Director Jackie DeWalt said these numbers need to be put into perspective, pointing out that PEOPLE was originally based on a five-year benchmark, more students are graduating in five or six years and the 2005 PEOPLE enrollment group has a retention rate of 82.9 percent.
Some of the Posse students in the 2005 class are in academic programs that usually take more than four years to complete, such as engineering and education, according to Ruttanatip Chonwerawong, director of the UW-Madison Posse chapter.
""We would want four-year numbers to be higher. We're going to work real hard to do anything we can to try to get us there,"" vice provost for diversity and climate Damon Williams said, adding there is a trend of more minority students graduating, even if it is not in four years.
Valeria Davis, a spokesperson for the UW-Madison School of Education, said statistics showing these students graduating in more than four years is not a sign of weakness in the programs, especially because of the low number of students this data draws from.
""There's nothing disappointing about the diversity programs that we have, especially these that are bringing students in that are … finding out that this is a place where they can come and thrive and launch a very good career,"" Davis said.
