At one point during the most recent faculty athletics committee meeting at UNC-Chapel Hill, Christopher Faison, the coordinator of the university’s Men of Color Engagement program, spoke with passion about the relatively low graduation rate for UNC’s black male athletes.
“It’s the culture at this institution,” said Faison, explaining a report released recently by the University of Southern California’s Race and Equity Center that concluded UNC’s black male athletes graduate at the lowest rate among any ACC school. “And it’s not one office, it’s not one department, but it is the fact that, as the author goes on to say, the caricature, over-stereotyping of black male athletes … is the issue.