The news is in, and it's good.
More Div. I athletes are graduating than ever before, according to an NCAA release last Wednesday.
The most recent Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for Div. I athletes stands at 77 percent, up a point from last year's figure and one step closer to the goal of 80 percent put forth by NCAA President Myles Brand.
The GSR is the average percentage of student-athletes who graduated within six years, and the data released last week include Div. I athletes who matriculated between 1996 and 1999. A student must receive an athletic scholarship to be considered as a student-athlete.
Tufts Assistant Director of Athletics Branwen Smith-King credited the NCAA with stiffening regulations on athletes to encourage stronger performance in the classroom.
"It means a lot more rules and regulations," Smith-King said. "If you're working in higher education, you have to be committed to helping young people achieve their academic goals, no matter where they are."
The NCAA's figure stands in sharp contrast to the 62 percent graduation rate calculated in the most recent federal government report. However, federal methodology does not include athletes who transfer out of a school with a good academic record, or those who transfer in and subsequently graduate.
The GSR accounts for both of these subsets and thus incorporates 35 percent more students into the calculation process that are omitted in the government's calculation schema, yielding the 15 percent disparity between the two bodies' calculations.
And while the government's 62 percent figure is far below the GSR calculated by the NCAA, and nowhere near that of elite Div. III schools like NESCAC members, it is slightly above that of the general student body at Div. I schools, which the federal government placed at 60 percent in the same survey.
Wesleyan athletic director John Biddiscombe sees action on the institutional level as the best medium to raising graduation rates.
"I think that primarily what the NCAA needs to do, or continue to do, is to work with presidents of [Div. I] schools and have them set standards at their own institution that are going to demand better results in terms of the graduation rate," he said.
Athletes at Tufts and other Div. III institutions do not fall under the NCAA's and the government's data collection umbrella because they do not receive financial aid based on athletic ability. In line with its commitment to academics, the NESCAC does not give athletic scholarships, a fact that is largely linked to its unparalleled academic reputation.
"We have a lot of rules, and ours are more restrictive than the NCAA," Smith-King said. "They are there for a reason. You can't be a successful athlete if you're not successful in the classroom."
But this very commitment to athletics makes comparable GSR statistics among NESCAC and similarly elite Div. III schools difficult. Because the designation of "student-athlete" is not linked to financial aid and can vary from year to year as athletes join and leave varsity rosters, pinning down exactly who is a student-athlete and who is not makes finding concrete data difficult.
Tufts Director of Athletics Bill Gehling said he thought the rate at Tufts was "around 95 percent or higher," and that graduation rate of student-athletes is actually higher than theUniversity-wide average. According to the 2002 NCAA Membership Report, Tufts had the second-best overall scholar-athlete graduation rate within all of Div. III at 95 percent, behind Regis College in Massachusetts (current enrollment 621) which
graduated 100 percent of its athletes.
"In my experience, our athletes graduate," Smith-King said. "That's not a topic we talk about [within the Athletics Department] because it's not an issue. It correlates with our emphasis on high achievement. I've been here 24 years, and it's never been an issue."
While the stigma of men's basketball players leaving early for NBA contracts or Div. I-A football players failing to complete graduation requirements may fuel much of the debate, the evidence suggests that the graduation rates of student-athletes are similar to, if not higher than, that of the student body in general.
If this holds true, Tufts and the other NESCAC schools are likely well above the national average, as calculated by either the NCAA or the federal government.
"I think the fact that we have such a high standard of admission for students is the driving factor in why we also have among the best graduation rates in the country," Biddiscombe said. "That's where it all starts, with the standards you set to admit students."
Based on data from students who matriculated in 1998 and 1999, Tufts boasted a 91 percent six-year graduation rate among the student body in general, according to the federal guidelines. Amherst and Williams tied with a 96 percent rate to lead the conference, while Bates has the lowest at 84 percent. The NESCAC average across all eleven schools is an 89.7 graduation rate.
"Our rules are more restrictive than other schools, but look at our success," Smith-King said. "Our athletes are awesome; they absolutely epitomize wonderful examples of student-athletes, and they have to be exceptionally smart to get into this place and balance
schoolwork.
"Those kids [in Div. I] on scholarship, it's like a job for them; they are getting paid to perform," she continued. "Our kids are not on scholarship, but they are just as committed and work just as hard."
Smith-King coached cross country, indoor track and outdoor track for 18 years at Tufts and said she remembered only one student having trouble meeting graduation requirements. She attributed that to a change of major late in her academic career.
"We're proud of what we do, and it says a lot about Tufts and the NESCAC," Smith-King said. "Ask any coaches and they'll tell you the same thing: our kids graduate."
