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 last week. 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. 20.
Southern New Hampshire registered a department-best ASR of 92 percent, which tied for 15th best in the country out of 313 institutions. The award, in its 14th year of being given, was collected by a division-high seven NE10 schools. It is the fourth consecutive year SNHU earned the honor.
SNHU has either established or matched a department record in ASR for six consecutive years and has also now either increased its ASR or held steady for 11 straight years. The 92 percent is also well ahead of the national four-year ASR average, which improved to 77 percent overall.
Seven Penmen programs posted an ASR of 100 percent, with four others checking in above 90 percent. Women's cross country/track & field garnered an ASR of 100 percent for the 15th time and 11th straight year, while women's basketball recorded its 13th overall and matched women's cross country with its 11th straight. Men's cross country and women's tennis each garnered an ASR of 100 percent for the 10th straight year, while women's lacrosse earned its sixth straight perfect ASR, and softball posted its fifth straight. Field hockey also tallied a perfect 100 for the fourth straight year. Women's soccer (94), baseball (91), men's golf (91) and women's volleyball (90) were the other four programs to achieve an ASR of at least 90 percent, while men's lacrosse narrowly missed out with an 88.
SNHU was one of seven Northeast-10 institutions to rank inside the top 33 and one of four in the top 20. The NE10, which posted the second best mark among all DII conferences with a mark of 87 percent, also had two schools in the top four, including Bentley University (98) and Saint Michael's College (97).
This is the 19th 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 more than 30,000 non-scholarship student-athletes who enrolled from 2014 through 2017, 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 six percent. For Division II athletes, the federal rate held steady at 59 percent, while the general student body climbed one point to 53 percent.
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