NCAA to Offer Aid to Black Colleges to Help Them Comply With New Academic Progress Rate Requirements

Colleges and universities that fail to make progress in increasing the graduation rate of their student athletes now risk losing permission from the National Collegiate Athletic Association to award a certain percentage of their athletic scholarships. One problem with the new system is that 17 percent of the athletic teams penalized under the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate program are historically black colleges and universities. Black colleges make up only 6 percent of all NCAA member schools.

Student athletes at many black colleges are from low-income families and come from high schools where they are not prepared for the rigors of a college curriculum. Also, some of the black colleges lack the personnel to wade through the bureaucratic red tape required by the NCAA.

As a result, the NCAA is offering grants to help colleges comply with the regulations. Funds can be requested for both classroom use and administration. The funds are available to any college or university that has been penalized by the new program. But it is likely that the black colleges and universities will be the primary beneficiaries of these grants.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.