Even though the number of black and Hispanic students entering college has increased dramatically over the last 30 years, students from these groups still lag well behind white students in earning college degrees, according to UC Davis researchers.

The research by Michal Kurlaender, assistant professor of education, and Erika Felts, a graduate student in sociology, is due to appear in their forthcoming book, Realizing Bakke's Legacy.

Allan Bakke and UC battled to the U.S. Supreme Court over a UC admissions policy that considered race as a way to achieve a diverse student body. UC prevailed in a 1978 ruling. California's voter-approved Proposition 209 in 1996 took race out of admissions; other states have passed or are considering similar referenda.

After studying data from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics, Kurlaender and Felt cited a number of possible causes for the lagging degree count: Underrepresented minority students today are more likely to enter four-year colleges as transfers from two-year schools; to be among the first in their families to go to college; to attend college part-time; to be low-income and dependent on financial assistance to complete their degrees; and to attend institutions where faculty mentoring, class size and student participation in college activities may be less than optimal.

Donna Justice is director of communications for the School of Education.

THE DATA

More black and Hispanic high school graduates entered college in 1992 (compared with 1972 in parentheses) ...

Blacks -- 69.5 percent (46)

Hispanics -- 70 percent (47)

... but, by 2004, completion rates had fallen (compared with 1975 data):

Blacks -- 33 percent (38)

Hispanics -- 34 percent (40)