Student-athlete grad rates go up

By Justin Ng     11/11/10 6:00pm

While the football team might be struggling on the field, Rice athletics retains its dominance in the classroom with the release of the most recent student- athlete graduation success rates. The annual study of student-athlete graduation rates by the National Collegiate Athlete Association placed Rice sixth of 120 NCAA Division I-A schools in the nation, according to both the NCAA's graduation success rate and the federal graduation rate released in an online NCAA report two weeks ago.

At 95 percent, Rice student-athletes' graduation success rate improved two points over last year, while the federal rate improved four points to 83 percent.

Rice's student body as a whole ranks fifth nationally with a graduation rate of 93 percent, 1 percent higher than last year, when measured according to the same criteria used in the federal rate used for studentathletes.

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Both metrics take the latest fouryear average of collected data on graduation rates, which for this year included the matriculating classes of 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003.

However, the federal rate discounts midyear enrollees, transfer students on athletic scholarship and students transferring away in good academic standing, all of whom NCAA's graduation success rate includes.

"It's a more accurate system," Associate Director for Academic Advising for Athletics Julie Griswold said of NCAA's graduation rate. "Under the federal rate, only students who graduate in four years are counted, while the GSR allows for graduation within six years [of matriculation]."

The differences between the two metrics can be stark. Although Rice baseball garnered a 92 percent graduation rate according to the NCAA, down five points from last year, the federal rate remains unchanged at 37 percent.

"The better the [baseball] program, the more people sign [with professional teams] at the end of their junior year," baseball Head Coach Wayne Graham said. "Many players eventually graduate ... the reason behind the extremely high [NCAA graduation success] rate is because a Rice degree is so valuable. But some people are coming back quicker than others."

More commonly in recent years, juniors are learning to leverage the pros, who offer hundreds of thousands of dollars in signing bonuses, for ways to come back to school and finish their degrees at a normal pace, Graham said.

"In the long run, the degree's more important," Graham said.

Football Head Coach David Bailiff agreed.

"The purpose of college is to prepare you for life," he said. "That's why we're open to players missing a practice for tutorial or for extra sessions."

Rice football placed fifth nationally in the federal rate with an 11-point increase to 84 percent and fourth in the graduation success rate with a nine-point increase to 93 percent.

Football's graduation rate remains number one in Texas, as Southern Methodist University trails in second place with a 76 percent graduation success rate.

"At Rice, there's a sensitivity to grades that hasn't necessarily been present at other places I've been at," Bailiff said. "A lot of students are engineering majors, or pre-law or pre-med, and grades are so important to go forward in life."

The football team includes at least 11 engineers, four pre-med students and around five pre-law students.

"Students come to Rice not for athletics, but because they understand what a Rice degree can do for them in the future," Soccer Interim Head Coach Nicky Adams said.

She credited the consistently high graduation rate of Rice's soccer players - a graduation success rate of 100 percent and a federal rate of 96 percent - to the type of students recruited by the soccer program.

"Women soccer players are pretty darn smart girls, and the people within the athletic department do what they can to get the best out of their kids academically and athletically," Adams said.

Bailiff was quick to point out the efforts of the Office of Academic Advising for Athletics in their support of athletes' academics.

"Julie and her phenomenal staff meet with our freshmen once a week and give us academic updates," he said.

Besides regular advisory meetings with athletes, the office provides tutors and hosts study halls for student-athletes.

Other Rice programs that have maintained 100 percent graduation success rates are both men and women's cross country and track, men's golf, women's tennis and volleyball.

Men's basketball was unchanged at 83 percent, although its federal rate rose seven points to 71 percent.

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