Emeritus professor of history Roy Schreiber recently published a letter in the South Bend Tribune about graduation rates. He urged readers to consider that a four-year graduation rate may not be the most informative clue, especially when understood by itself. His full text:
According to the AP report in The Tribune (Feb. 5), the graduation rate for IUSB and the other Indiana University regional campuses is 15 percent. That would mean of the roughly 1,200 freshmen admitted each fall, 180 would graduate four years later in the spring. In fact many times that number graduate IUSB. That is why the campus rents the University of Notre Dame Joyce Center for its graduation ceremonies. No building on the IUSB campus is large enough to accommodate all the graduates and their guests.
What causes the underestimate of graduates? It has to do with the way the federal government calculates graduation rates. It counts only those who enrolled in IU as full-time freshmen and then graduated four or six years later. No transfer students are counted, no students who dropped out and returned years later are counted and no part-time students are counted. While by no means typical, I know of one student who took 22 years to earn his BA degree. Perhaps counting and cheering for the students who fought so hard to earn their degrees is worth consideration. (February 10, 2017)
