BOULDER, Colo.

      The University of Colorado in Boulder has done a better job of graduating minority students than other public colleges in the state, according to data released last week by the school.

      The information was released in a report to be presented in January to CU's Blue Ribbon Commission on Diversity.

      CU President Hank Brown created the commission earlier this year to study campus diversity programs after a rash of racist incidents occurred on the university's Boulder campus, including a hate e-mail mailed to a Black student leader in November.

Several days after that incident, more than 500 students protested on campus, asking CU administrators to do more to diversify the campus.

      Information from a Department of Education Graduation Rate Survey said that by 2004, CU had graduated about 60 percent of its minority freshman who entered the school in the fall of 1998 — the highest of any public university in Colorado.

      The report said 66 percent of CU's total population graduated within those six years, including 68 percent of White students, 54 percent of Black students, 58 percent of Hispanics and 63 percent of Asian and American Indian students.

      Colorado State University in Fort Collins graduated more Black students in that six-year period, at 58 percent, but trailed in graduating other minority students. The University of Northern Colorado had minority graduation rates ranging from 30 percent of American Indians to 53 percent of Asian students.

      Christine Yoshinaga-Itano, CU-Boulder's vice provost and associate vice chancellor for diversity and equity, said the graduation rate for students of color rose from 50 percent in 1993.

      However, the gap between minority students and White students remains.