CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Eastern Illinois University Department of Athletics is graduating over 80 percent of its student athletes according to the 2016 NCAA Graduation Success Rate.
The NCAA released its most recent GSR data Tuesday and it shows Panthers student-athletes who entered school on athletic aid from 2006-09 posted an 84 percent GSR with 12 of 16 measured programs generating a GSR of at least 80 percent. Cross Country, indoor and outdoor track and field count as one sport in the measurement.
Complete details of the GSR report are
available here.
The Panthers had four teams; men's golf, men's soccer, women's basketball and women's soccer, achieve a 100% rate over the period covering 2006-09.
The Division I Board of Directors created the GSR in response to Division I college and university presidents who wanted data that more accurately reflected the mobility of college students than the federal graduation rate. The federal rate counts any student who leaves a school as an academic failure, no matter whether he or she enrolls at another school. Also, the federal rate does not recognize students who enter school as transfer students.
The GSR formula removes from the rate student-athletes who leave school while academically eligible and includes student-athletes who transfer to a school after initially enrolling elsewhere. This calculation makes it a more complete and accurate look at student-athlete success.
The rate also allows for a deeper understanding of graduation success in individual sports than the federal metric, which provides only broad groupings.
The overall Division I men's GSR is up 13 percentage points since 2002 and sits at 81, while the women's GSR is 93, up eight percentage points in the last 14 years.
