Black students show how its done
To push themselves and each other to obtain diploma, about 300 students have gripped markers and signed an MSU student group’s banner intended to increase graduation rates among black students.
Janeen Anderson, president of Black Student Alliance, was the first to sign the 3-by-5 foot banner.
“The whole point of the banner is to get people to strive to graduate from MSU and not become a statistic,” said Anderson, a human biology senior.
“The banner will affect the number of black students who graduate because by signing in permanent ink, they are promising themselves they will own up to their responsibility to graduate.”
Anderson created the banner after the issue of increasing retention rates among the black community was brought up at a town hall meeting organized by the group in November.
The national black student college graduation rate was 43 percent in 2007, according to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.
The national black student college graduation rate was 43 percent in 2007, according to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.
About 6.2 percent of bachelor’s degrees earned at MSU went to black students during the 2006-07 school year, according to statistics provided by the Office of Planning and Budgets.
Christina Lowe, an advertising sophomore, said the low percentage of black students who graduate from higher education institutions does not play a role in her personal choices and plans to graduate from MSU.
“The statistics don’t bring my spirits down,” said Lowe, who is black. “When you’re at the bottom, the only way you can go is up. Every time someone graduates, that statistic goes up.”
Lowe said the dropout rate of black students could be because people allow these statistics to influence their goal to graduate.
“You have to embrace your own self-drive and graduate because it’s important to you,” she said.
The banner, which the group began asking people to sign in November, has little visible white space. The majority of signers were inspired to scribble their signature during Black History Month, Anderson said.
Although the group’s encouragement has prompted many black students to sign, Candace Eason had her own reasons.
“I didn’t sign the banner because someone told me to,” said Eason, a studio art sophomore who is black.
“I signed it as a written proposal to myself stating that I’m taking the responsibility to graduate and I’m keeping myself accountable to this responsibility.”
Group members said a disparity in the gender of graduating black students is another issue to consider. Of the 379 black students who graduated during the 2006-07 school year, 62 percent were women.
John Beason III, political affairs director of the group, said he hoped to change that statistic by signing the banner.
“The banner sets a standard within the black community,” Beason said.