The graduation rate’s at an all-time high at the University of Northern Iowa. Student Services V.P. Renee Romano says 33-and-a-half percent of the students are graduating within four years. That graduating rate is the percent of 1999 freshmen who got diplomas last spring. 60-percent of students managed to graduate in five years, surpassing the national rate of 44-percent. Romano attributes the numbers to a university-wide effort to make sure students don’t fall through the cracks. Romano says student services and faculty all help work with students, and their counseling as well as the classroom experience all help move them along. Nationally, 31-percent of students leave a college or university within their first year, but at U-N-I that figure last year was just 19-point-four percent.