Rockhurst receives DII Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence

Rockhurst University is one of 24 NCAA Division II schools to be recognized as a recipient of the first Division II Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence honoring athletics programs with four-year Academic Success Rates of 90 percent or more. Rockhurst achieved the highest four-year Academic Success Rate in the Great Lakes Valley Conference and ranked 10th nationally, graduating 93 percent of its student-athletes within six years of original enrollment. A total of three GLVC athletics programs made the list.

The Division II Academic Requirements Committee established the Division II Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence to recognize programs achieving long-term academic success. The honor is intended to call attention to those programs and is not intended as a ranking. The Division II Academic Success Rate measures graduation rates for virtually all Division II student-athletes, including transfers and those not receiving athletically related financial aid. Active and provisional member institutions when the data were submitted for 2010-11 were eligible for the Division II Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence. The four-year ASR measured the entering cohorts from 2001 to 2004, inclusive.

"The Presidents Council commends all of these programs for this outstanding accomplishment," said Pat O’Brien, president of West Texas A&M University and chair of the Division II Presidents Council. "Achieving a 90 percent graduation rate over even one year is an impressive accomplishment. To do it over four years says so much about the commitment that these schools have to the academic success of their student-athletes."

The Division II Academic Success Rate captures about two-third more student-athletes than the federal graduation rate, which does not count incoming transfers, counts outgoing transfers as having not graduated and counts only student-athletes receiving athletically related financial aid. The national four-year ASR average is 72 percent. Regardless of the measure, Division II student-athletes graduate at a higher rate than the general student body. The federal rate for the 2004 entering class of student-athletes was 55 percent, compared to 49 percent for the general student body.