Oct. 28, 2004
Siena College again placed well above the national average in graduating its student-athletes according to the most recent report released this week by the NCAA office. The data, which covers all Division I student-athletes who entered college in 1997, indicated that the national graduation rate increased to 62 percent. Siena's graduation rate over the same time period was 79 percent.
The NCAA report, also listed a four-class average, which considers the graduation rates the school has amassed for the class years of 1997-98, 96-97, 95-96 and 94-95. Siena boasted a 79% four-class average graduation rate during this time period. The report yielded a 98 percent graduation rate among Siena student-athletes who exhausted their eligibility. Athletes exhausting their eligibility are those who participated as scholarship athletes at Siena for a total of four years. Of the 131 athletes who qualified for exhausted eligibility, 129 graduated.
"We take pride in the performance of our student-athletes at Siena," said Athletic Academic Advisor Susan Yund. "The success of our student-athletes in the classroom, however, is most important. For our student-athletes to again perform among the best in the nation academically is impressive."
The 79% rate for those student-athletes who entered school during the 1997-98 academic year ranked two percentage points higher that the 77% figure obtained for the general Siena College student body. This marked the seventh consecutive year that Siena's student-athletes have graduated at a higher rate than the general student population.
The women's basketball team graduated 100% of the scholarship student-athletes who entered the program in 1997-98, tying for the national high for the second straight season. The men's basketball team boasts a four-class average of 85% compared to the Division I national cohort rate of 44% for male basketball players.
"The success is a direct credit to the hard work of Siena's student-athletes and the coaches' commitment to bringing well rounded students to their programs," Director of Athletics John D'Argenio said. "Siena remains committed to developing its athletes on the playing field and in the classroom."
The NCAA study considers student-athletes that received athletic aid while at Siena. The NCAA announced last year a plan to collect the graduation rate data from member colleges and universities. This data collection allows the NCAA to release graduation rate information for specific sports, information that was previously suppressed by the federal government. Next year, the NCAA will provide an alternative graduation-rate measure in addition to the report compiled using the federally mandated methodology. The new rate, called the Graduation Success Rate, will take transfers into account and is designed to provide a more accurate and real-time assessment of graduation success for all athletics programs.
The report gives graduation information about students and student-athletes entering in 1997. This is the most recent graduating class for which the required six years of information is available. The report provides information about student-athletes who received athletics aid in one or more of eight sports categories: football, men's basketball, baseball, men's track/cross country, men's other sports and mixed sports, women's basketball, women's track/cross country, and other women's sports. For each of those sports categories, it includes information in six self-reported racial or ethnic groups: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic, Non-Resident Alien, White, and Other (not included in one of the other six groups or not available) and the total (all seven groups combined).
A graduation rate (percent) is based on a comparison of the number of students who entered a college or university and the number of those who graduated within six years. For example, if 100 students entered and 60 graduated within six years, the graduation rate is 60 percent. It is important to note that graduation rates are affected by a number of factors: some students may work part-time and need more than six years to graduate, some may leave school for a year or two to work or travel, some may transfer to another college or university, or some may be dismissed for academic deficiencies.
Three different measures of graduation rates are presented in the report: (1) freshman-cohort rate, (2) transfer-cohort rate and (3) exhausted-eligibility rate. The freshman-cohort rate indicates the percentage of freshmen who entered during a given academic year and graduated within six years. The transfer-cohort graduation rate is calculated only for those student-athletes who transferred to Siena, and indicates the percentage of transfer student-athletes who graduated within six years of the entering class to which they were assigned. The exhausted-eligibility rate indicates the percentage of student-athletes who used all of their athletics eligibility at Siena and who graduated by August 2003.
Note: The majority of the information furnished in this report was generated by data found on the NCAA Official 2004 Division I Graduation-Rates Report. Additional Information is available at the NCAA website--www.ncaa.org.
