Jan. 19, 2006
NORMAL, Ill. -
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Director of Athletics Dr. Sheahon Zenger announced on Thursday that all athletic programs at Illinois State have exceeded the NCAA's threshold for Academic Progress Rate (APR) compliance, and also released the NCAA's newest measure of student-athlete performance in the classroom - the Graduation Success Rate (GSR). The APR and the GSR are part of the NCAA's new efforts to measure the academic performance of student-athletes.
"We are proud that every one of our athletic teams at Illinois State University has exceeded the NCAA's threshold of 925 for the APR, and I'm equally as proud that none of our programs are subject to any penalties," Zenger said.
The intent of the APR rating is to provide a real-time snapshot of an institution's current academic progress, while the GSR measures more long-term performance. Illinois State's team GSR scores, which were released by the NCAA in December, are based upon student-athletes that were enrolled at the institution from 1995-99, and are not reflective of any current student-athletes.
"Overall our GSR scores are very high," said Cindy Harris, assistant athletics director for compliance. "We do have a noticeable drop in football and men's basketball, but those are mostly due to previous coaching changes and the transferring of student-athletes that goes along with those coaching transitions."
The GSR was created in response to significant national criticism of the methods used previously to compile the federal graduation rates for student-athletes. The federal measure counted transfer students and athletes who entered professional drafts (including those in good academic standing) as failures. The newly created GSR no longer counts those departing students against the graduation rate.
Zenger underlined the need for all coaches and staff at Illinois State to focus on the pursuit of a degree for its student-athletes.
"We are fully dedicated to the mission of educating our student-athletes and preparing them to become tomorrow's leaders," said Zenger.
