Tulsa Recognized With USA TODAY/NCAA Academic Achievement Award
9/26/2002 12:00:00 AM | Tulsa Hurricane
Sept. 26, 2002
Indianapolis, Ind. - In the USA TODAY/NCAA Academic Achievement Awards, The University of Tulsa was a big winner. Tulsa finished among the top-10 in the three categories used to measure student-athletes success in the classroom for the 1995 freshman class.
Tulsa is the only school to be ranked among the top-10 in all three categories -- overall 1995 freshman student-athlete graduation rate; percentage-point difference between graduation rate of athletes and student body, and percentage-point improvement from the freshman entering in 1994.
For Division I-A schools, Tulsa was 10th in overall graduation rate, with 80-percent, according to the NCAA Official Division I Graduation Rates Report; second in improvement from the year before (1994), a 23-percent increase; and ninth in the difference between athletes and the overall student enrollment, a difference of 19-percent.
Among the top-10 Division 1-A schools list for the best graduation rates, Tulsa is joined by Rice (91%), Stanford (90%), Notre Dame (90%), Duke (90%), Vanderbilt (88%), Northwestern (86&), SMU (83%), Virginia (82%) and Penn State (82%).
Tulsa's 23-percent increase from the freshman class of 1994 was one point below first-place Eastern Michigan's +24 improvement. The student-athletes' graduation rate at Tulsa is 19-percent better than that of the overall student population's 61-percent.
Last year, 17 of Tulsa's 18 intercollegiate teams maintained at least a 2.7 grade point average, including 11 teams over a cumulative 3.0 GPA.
"We're excited that our student-athletes' academic achievements have been recognized by the NCAA and USA Today," said TU Athletics Director Judy MacLeod. "The high graduation rate is something we've worked for, and are extremely proud of.
"It is our mission in athletics to provide our student-athletes with the opportunity to compete at the highest level while making progress toward completion of a degree in an environment with high academic standards, a commitment to equity and diversity, sportsmanship, personal growth and development and ethical conduct. This award signifies that we are accomplishing our goal of graduating student-athletes of a prestigious academic institution at a very high level."
