INDIANAPOLIS – Southern New Hampshire University was one of 44 athletic departments across the country to earn the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence on Monday. The honor is bestowed upon institutions that achieved an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 90 percent or higher in the most recent set of data that was released Nov. 15.
Southern New Hampshire registered a department-best ASR of 91 percent, which tied for 27th best in the country out of 310 institutions. The award, in its 12th year of being given, was collected by a division-high seven NE10 schools. It is the second consecutive year SNHU earned the honor.
SNHU totaled an ASR of 91 percent, which tied for 27th best in the country out of 310 institutions and also established a new department-record for the fourth straight year by toppling the 90 percent from last year when the 2011-14 cohort was announced. The 91 percent is also well ahead of the national four-year ASR average, which held steady at 76 percent overall.
Eight Penmen programs posted an ASR of 100 percent, with three others checking in above 90 percent. Women's cross country/track & field garnered an ASR of 100 percent for the 13th time and ninth straight year, while women's basketball recorded its 11th overall and matched women's cross country with its ninth straight. Men's cross country and women's tennis each garnered an ASR of 100 percent for the eighth straight year, while women's lacrosse earned its fourth straight perfect ASR, and women's golf and softball both posted their third straight. Field hockey also tallied a perfect 100 for the second straight year. Women's soccer (97), men's lacrosse (95) and women's volleyball (90) were the other three programs to achieve an ASR of at least 90 percent.
SNHU was one of 12 Northeast-10 institutions to rank inside the top 100 and one of six in the top 25. The NE10, which posted the best mark among all DII conferences by equaling its own personal mark of 89 percent, also had three schools in the top 10, including Bentley University and Saint Michael's College, which tied for the top spot with an ASR of 99.
This is the 17th year the NCAA has released the ASR, which is the percentage of student-athletes who graduate within six years of initial enrollment at a college. The NCAA developed the Division II ASR at the request of college and university presidents who believed the federal graduation rate was flawed. Division II's ASR data takes transfer students into account and removes students who left the institution in good academic standing. In addition, given the partial-scholarship financial aid model of Division II, the ASR data includes student-athletes not on athletically related financial aid. The result is that ASR captures approximately 32,000 non-scholarship student-athletes who enrolled from 2012 through 2015, the four years covered in the most recent data.
Even when using the less-inclusive federal graduation rates, student-athletes are outperforming their peers in the general student population by eight percent. For Division II athletes, the federal rate held steady at 60 percent, as did the general student body at 52 percent.
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