The rate of graduation among African-American students is relatively low compared to their white counterparts, statistics say. Officials at MSU report that African-American male graduation rates are consistently 20 percent lower than the graduation rates of white males, according to an article in The Dispatch.

To address this issue, Mississippi State University conducted a conference Friday titled, "Human Capital: Enhancing the Academic Achievement of Men of Color" at Colvard Student Union.

The conference featured several speakers which included U.S. Air Force brigadier General Samuel Nichols and author Fred Bonner, both of whom spoke of their personal experiences with success, failure and the process of dealing and persevering, The Dispatch reported.

Lorenzo Esters, vice president for Student Success and Enrolment Management at Kentucky State University, addressed data related to 'men of color,' which mostly consisted of African-American and Hispanics.

The statistics stated by him showed that about 65 percent of all incarcerated males in the U.S. are either Hispanic or African-American, and in Mississippi, 68 percent of all males incarcerated are African-American.

He also pointed out that the percentages stated correlate with the low graduation rates, as a majority of the incarcerated are between the ages of 18 and 24, ages usually associated with college enrolment.

Apart from giving out the empirical data and facts, he also suggested that the universities must have a solid partnership with the industries they are training their students for, because if there is a bigger connection, universities wouldn't be as quick to lose students between their sophomore and junior year, a time that has repeatedly shown a high drop-out rate among MSU's black male students, The Dispatch reports.

MSU Provost and Executive vice president Jerry Gilbert said losing black males after their sophomore year has been one of the most baffling statistics he has faced, especially because the retention rates for black males is identical to white males from freshman to sophomore year.

The statistics might be unnerving, but the university's effort to find out the cause behind the low graduation rate is commendable.