INDIANAPOLIS – Southern New Hampshire University was one of 43 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. 19.
Southern New Hampshire registered an ASR of 91 percent, which is the second best in the department's history and tied for 28th in the country out of 312 institutions. The award, in its 15th year of being given, was collected by a division-high seven Northeast 10 schools. It is the fifth consecutive year SNHU earned the honor.
SNHU, which produced its best ASR of 92 percent last year, had either established or matched a department record in ASR for six consecutive years and had also either increased its ASR or held steady for 11 straight years. Still, the 91 percent is well ahead of the national four-year ASR average, which held steady at 77 percent overall.
Five Penmen programs posted an ASR of 100 percent, with four others checking in at 90 percent or better. Women's basketball garnered an ASR of 100 percent for the 14th time and 12th straight year, while women's tennis earned an ASR of 100 percent for the 11th straight year. Women's lacrosse earned its seventh straight perfect ASR, softball posted its sixth straight and field hockey tallied a perfect 100 for the fifth consecutive year. Women's cross country/track & field (94), women's soccer (94), women's volleyball (94) and baseball (90) were the other four programs to achieve an ASR of at least 90 percent, while men's basketball narrowly missed out with an 88.
SNHU was one of seven NE10 institutions to rank inside the top 42 and one of five in the top 30. 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 11, including Bentley University (98) and Saint Michael's College (95).
This is the 20th 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 2015 through 2018, 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 dipped one point to 58 percent, while the general student body held steady 53 percent.
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