[NU Sports] Minny's graduation rate compared with Northwestern

[Eric West]

At 11:38 AM 12/14/2004, Jeff Beamsley wrote:

>The issue is just as much a question of why is NU's graduation rate is 
>LOWER than the overall institutional rate as it is why Minny's athletic 
>graduation rate is higher.

Given the raw numbers, I wouldn't consider it a big issue. It's like that 
water treatment system in Alaska that was found to be below EPA standards; 
the system couldn't remove a high enough percentage of impurities because 
the water was so clean to begin with. (Their solution was to make the water 
*dirtier* so that the system could clean it up.) Basically, it's silly to 
worry about higher vs. lower in this case.

Regarding basketball: hard to say too much specifically without knowing 
exactly what year range they are talking about, but it hasn't been that 
long since the last coaching change/rash of transfers. We've also had at 
least one European leave to play professional ball back home. So it's not 
exactly an "oh dear, we're recruiting a bunch of dummies" kind of 
phenomenon, although it might speak about the nature of college basketball 
today.

Eric West
e-west at northwestern.edu