Graduation Rate for UCI Athletes About Average : Study: Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State lag well behind national standards.

UC Irvine ranked just above the national average for Division I schools in graduating athletes from the freshman class that entered school in 1988, according to an NCAA study released Thursday.

But Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State were well below the national average of 58%, in tracking of student-athlete performance by the NCAA since Proposition 48 established stricter academic standards in 1986.

Fifty-nine percent of UC Irvine student-athletes graduated during the designated reporting period, as compared to a 73% graduation rate for all freshmen entering the school in the fall of 1988.

Thirty-one percent of Cal State Fullerton student-athletes graduated, compared to 45% of all freshmen; Long Beach State had rates of 39% for student-athletes and 35% for all freshmen.

Although the national average rose 1% in the third year of the study, after finishing at 57% of student-athletes entering school in 1986 and 1987, graduation rates declined in men’s basketball.

The rate for Division I basketball players who entered college in 1988 was 42%, a drop from 46% for the previous class.

The steepest decline was among white players, whose graduation rate fell from 57% for the 1987 class to 50% for the 1988 group. The rate for black players fell from 39% in 1987 to 37% in 1988.

“It’s fascinating, but it’s fascinating in a negative kind of way,” said Dr. James Frank, commissioner of the predominantly black Southwestern Athletic Conference.

Under Proposition 48, which went into effect in 1986, freshman athletes had to meet minimum academic standards to play their first year. The first two classes affected by Proposition 48 showed slightly improved graduation rates for almost all groups of athletes.