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buck_turgidson_jrAnne Branigin
1/30/18 3:51pm
Anne:
As always I am very informed by your articles. I am not sure you are using all information available by stating Georgia State is predominately white. GSU is not a white version of UGA in downtown Atlanta. The fact is based on demographic information from the school, there is no “predominant” anything. But I think exploring what the school has done to get where they are now for 6 year graduation rates shows the school is focused on diversity. http://hechingerreport.org/at-georgia-state-black-students-find-comfort-and-academic-success/
I know GSU is not an HBCU. I think looking at what support GSU gets from the state versus public HBCU’s is a worthy question. HBCU’s should expect funding for similar programs. But GSU is not a “white” school.

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  Anne Braniginbuck_turgidson_jr
  1/30/18 4:21pm
  Thank you for catching this. Sometimes when I’m going fast I’ll transpose words and forget to catch/clean it up before passing along. It’s been fixed!
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JonsLegionAnne Branigin
1/30/18 11:58am
It angers me seeing how the resources for college students have been cut back from what they were. I see my son struggle to keep a job and go to school and I remember doing the same, with about twice the amount of money coming to me every semester, with less than half of the loans, at half the interest, and all this was 25 years ago. It really is that they GOP wants to keep people stupid. It just fucking infuriates me.
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  JonsLegionJonsLegion
  1/30/18 2:48pm
  Okay, because stupid motherfuckers are stupid, lemme lay this down. A teacher’s pay has Shit all to do with the fact that minimum wage hasn’t kept up with inflation in the last quarter century. A teacher’s pay has Shit all to do with how predatory student loans are now. A teacher’s pay has Shit all to do with how little Pel Grants will help kids that are living on their own and trying to do this by themselves now. Go fuck yourself with your fucking straw man you ignorant motherfucker.
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Uncle RemusAnne Branigin
1/30/18 12:12pm
“More low-income students—typically, lower graduation rates. Why? Because low-income students don’t have access to the same college-prep opportunities and because they don’t have the financial safety nets of middle- and upper-income students,” Gasman explained. “Please note that institutions that have very few Pell Grant-eligible students typically have very, very high graduation rates.”
this is an important point, and I’m glad both Gasman and Branigin included it. This is a race issue BECAUSE black folks are disproportionately low-income BECAUSE anti-blackness is real. Singling out HBCUs in this report is a bullshit move by the AJC.
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  StartingOverAgainUncle Remus
  1/30/18 12:50pm
  It sounds like the AJC was studying HBCUs specifically, which, for an Atlanta newspaper, seems like a relevant thing to study.
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  BlackMage2030Uncle Remus
  1/30/18 1:11pm
  Do not believe this is a hit job on HBCU so much as a study that was exclusive to HBCUs. Granted, I would want to know the age and socioeconomic spreads of the students before doing any shit like cut off money
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HotocracyAnne Branigin
1/30/18 1:44pm
I’ve have always been a little ambivalent about graduation rates. At FAMU it always felt like we would let anyone in, but you are only going to graduate if you have your stuff together. This stands in contrast to say a Virginia Tech, were many of my coworkers in the past attended. Tech is selective of who enters the school but will let just about any student graduate. This has led to very untalented co-workers who would have never graduated from my school. Many of our public HBCUs are about a trans-formative experience, not just accepting 17-18 yearolds who are already good on paper. We care about who you are when you graduate not so much who you are when you start. I could care less about a institution that takes upper-middle class kids and spits out upper-middle income earning adults. If you are doing the work of transforming lives you are going to have lower and longer graduation rates. This however doesn’t account for the single digit rates that some schools have, and it doesn’t excuse the lack of support for students who drop out or take longer because of finances. If We can pair our high standards with better support... watch out mediocre PWI grads!
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  Nanook44Hotocracy
  1/30/18 2:34pm
  Virginia Tech is a better school than you’re giving it credit for. Can you back that up with anything, or is it just your opinion? Anecdotal experience isn’t exactly empirical data. Mediocre people graduate from college all the time, including places like Harvard and, yes, FAMU.
  Graduation rates can be misleading. But 5% of freshman in 6 years is enough said. Perhaps these schools need more money. More likely, they need a change of culture at the administrative level.
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  hntergrenHotocracy
  1/30/18 3:37pm
  That’s a good point actually, and I think that’s a commendable practice, however, you have to realize when you’re doing more harm to someone than good. If a student isn’t prepared for college, and cannot afford college on top of that, by accepting them, you may transform their lives for the better if you can provide them the support to thrive in that academic environment and succeed overall, but you also risk transforming them into a dropout who’s deeper in debt than when they started and has nothing to show for it.
  But this is a problem that, while perhaps affecting poor populations of color disproportionately, is pervasive in this country and is a reflection of our economic reality. We are at a point in our economic development where the only real avenues to financial success entail becoming skilled. Whether it’s labor or knowledge, skills and specialization are what really count. The problem is we have a society with high bars to post secondary education, and a large, unskilled, work force. We need more, different, avenues to success, as well as alternatives to college. Apprenticeships, vocational programs, technical schools...unfortunately, higher education is never going to be accessible or even the best fit for everyone, and we have to create options and pathways for those people. If not, we’re going to end up like developing nations that have these massive underclasses living in poverty—the middle class in America is already shrinking, and the gap between rich and poor is widening. We have to do something different.
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sTalkinggoat, first and last of his nameAnne Branigin
1/30/18 11:42am
Shit, it took me a decade to get my degree. Granted I only went full time my last year and only because I was so sick of school at that point I took out extra loans so I wouldn’t have to work. A bad decision in hindsight but the only option I had anyway. Seems like these days it’s almost impossible to graduate in 4 years.

A 5% graduation rate sucks though. That’s like Trump University numbers.
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  StartingOverAgainsTalkinggoat, first and last of his name
  1/30/18 11:58am
  Seems like these days it’s almost impossible to graduate in 4 years.
  It’s workable, but even if you’re white, unless you are 99th percentile in SAT kind of smart or affluent, you have to make tradeoffs and choices that I don’t think even the most level headed of 18 year olds are equipped to make very well.
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Obfuscatio: philosopher at largeAnne Branigin
1/30/18 11:38am
“Thoughts and prayers. And a full shipment of bootstraps, just in case.” - The GOP
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whatamithinkingAnne Branigin
1/30/18 12:06pm
Shit, what a drag.. this isn’t what I wanted to read on my lunch time. And I suspect overall the graduation rate for black men ...yep, worst.
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d00seAnne Branigin
1/30/18 11:35am
Virginia State Univ. Petersburg Va. Im looking at YOU. Im ashamed to be an alum right now. I vividly remember the dread that went over me in not having any preparation nor support at graduation.
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