The Northwestern athletic department prides itself on an academics-before-athletics philosophy, so it comes as no surprise that the university doles out diplomas to its athletes at a higher rate than any other Division I school in the country.

What is a surprise, however, is that NU has staved off the most glaring trend in college sports: an astonishingly lower graduation rate among black athletes compared with their white counterparts.

According to an NCAA report released in November, NU is fifth in the nation in graduation rate among its black male athletes, sending 88 percent of them off with a degree, compared with 92 percent of the school’s entire student-athlete population.

Of the four schools ahead of NU, only Stanford has fielded more than 11 black male athletes total in the four classes examined by the NCAA (freshmen entering school from 1990-91 to 1993-94).

NU, which had 41 black male athletes in that span, trails only Duke in graduating black football players, and is one of only seven schools to graduate all of the black basketball players in the four classes.

By contrast, 47 Division I schools failed to graduate any of their black basketball players during that time.

“Being a minority, most of us didn’t come from anything,” said guard Collier Drayton, a Weinberg junior and one of eight black NU men’s basketball players. “We’re not rich like most students here. To come in and have the same opportunities as they do, as far as graduating and playing basketball and being able to make a life when you graduate – I think it’s great.”

Said forward Tavaras Hardy, a Weinberg junior: “That’s what made this university very attractive to me. They care about the athlete’s education and not just using them for sports.”

Indeed, nationwide graduation aggregates suggest that black athletes are being exploited. Only 38 percent of all black athletes graduate, compared with 58 percent of white athletes. And the Big Ten boasts some particularly wide discrepancies.

Michigan’s overall student body, for example, graduated at a rate nearly four times that of its black athletes.

And Ohio State, a traditional Big Ten football powerhouse that has gone to eight bowl games in nine years, graduated just 17 percent of its black athletes.

In this landscape, NU provides a truly unusual opportunity for its black athletes to both compete at the highest level of collegiate competition and still earn a diploma.

To that end, the school works hard to both recruit academically inclined athletes and hang on to them once they arrive, said Margaret Akerstrom, assistant athletic director for Academic Services, which offers help to NU athletes with their studies.

“(Coaches) know they need to be careful. They know they need to get young men and women who understand the academic challenge here,” Akerstrom said. “Coaches understand because it’s the athletic department message and the faculty message and the president’s message – don’t come if you don’t intend to get a degree. Once you walk in a door here, we’re very tenacious about hanging on to our students.”

Academic Services strives to ensure that NU’s black athletes are comfortable, Akerstrom said, whether it’s referring them to the Black House or hiring minority tutors and advisers.

“We consciously make an effort to make sure that everyone graduates,” she said.

And that’s something of special significance for Hardy and Drayton. Both said they’re part of the first generation of their families to go to college.

Hardy, along with his brother and sister, was encouraged to use sports to improve his chances of success off the court. While basketball helped his family afford NU, his brother, Greg, used basketball to get an education at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., and his sister, Monica, rode her volleyball career to a degree from Purdue.

“Education has been a big thing with my mom,” Hardy said. “She was realistic about it. It would have been hard for her to pay for all three of us to go to school, so she wanted us to use our sports to get us to where we need to go.”

Drayton’s parents impressed upon him a similar ethic.

“It was stressed ever since I was little to try and make something of my life – and this is the way to do it,” he said.

As a result, Drayton has given himself opportunities he’s confident he never would’ve seen without basketball.

“I think it’s more exciting for my parents because they don’t have to pay the $35,000 that it costs to go here,” he said. “I wouldn’t have been able to go to college without a scholarship – I probably would have ended up at a junior college. But to come to a university, that made them very proud.”

Hardy and Drayton know that a free education at one of the top schools in the country – and one of the costliest – is not a gift to be taken lightly.

“I don’t think any student-athlete comes here just to play a sport,” Hardy said. “They also want to take advantage of the degree that they can get.”

No one illustrates that more than men’s basketball player Jitim Young, a Weinberg freshman.

Young was recruited to play basketball for national power Michigan State, but he instead chose to play for the Wildcats – a decision he said he doesn’t regret, despite NU’s winless conference record and the Spartans’ top-10 ranking.

The crucial factor in Young’s choice is easy to pinpoint.

“Being at Northwestern, you know your degree means something,” Young said. “It’s awfully tough to get into this school just being a regular student. So to get here and play basketball and get the same opportunities as all the other students, it’s a great advantage.”

Young was raised in Chicago by his grandmother, and, like the parents of his two teammates, Ruthie Young harped on the importance – particularly for a minority – of using athletics to get an education.

When he learned that Michigan State graduated only 38 percent of its black male athletes – less than half NU’s rate – Young let loose a quiet smile.

It just confirmed that he had chosen the right school.

“She was happy (with NU), but she always told me never to be satisfied about anything,” Young said of his grandmother. “You’re here, but continue to stay humble. She told me, ‘OK, you go to Northwestern. That’s good, but now get in there and wash the dishes.'”