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HBCU Triples Grad Rate Thanks to Black Panther’s Grade Inflation

Posted By Daniel Greenfield On March 15, 2014 @ 8:03 pm In The Point | 7 Comments

Winston-Salem State University, a historically black college whose student body is 72 percent African-American. And it managed to triple its graduation rate with a little help from a friendly neighborhood black panther.

In 2006, Winston-Salem State University  had a 14.8 graduation rate for students in four years… the UNC system set their six-year graduation rate goal at 36.9 percent for students who entered WSSU in 2005 and graduated in 2011. The actual graduation rate was 41 percent.

How was this goal achieved?

No passing grade? At Winston-Salem State University (WSSU), that’s no problem.

According to documents exclusively obtained by Campus Reform, students unable to successfully pass a class often have options other than taking a failing mark. And these options bode well for WSSU as higher graduation rates bring more grant money.

In fact, the majority of students enrolled in a constitutional law class in the fall of 2012 were saved by a last minute rescue mission in the form of an independent studies class—less than two weeks prior to the semester’s end.

The “qualified individual” placed in charge of this independent studies program, Larry Little, isn’t without his own scandals at the university.

Little, an activist in the Forsyth County, N.C., community—both for the Democratic Party and the Winston-Salem Black Panthers—provides students with extra credit should they work on campaigns.

Last September, Little invited Democratic councilman Derwin Montgomery, who was running for reelection, to speak to his class. Little then offered his students the opportunity to leave class early in order to vote. Several students accepted rides from Montgomery’s campaign to cast their ballots. While Little wasn’t working for Montgomery’s campaign this go around, he served as Montgomery’s campaign manager during his first run for office in 2009.

That’s the problem with hard graduation targets. They just create incentive for completely trashing academics to achieve them.


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