The University of New Mexico graduated 55 percent of the student-athletes who enrolled at UNM as freshmen during the 2002-03 school year - a mark 12 percent higher than the graduation mark (43 percent) for all students who enrolled at UNM as freshmen during the same period.
These numbers were released in November by the NCAA and reflect the graduation rate for the general student population of a university and also the graduation rate for student-athletes.
"We value student achievement in the classroom and on the field of play," said UNM President David J. Schmidly. "For our student-athletes, graduating is the greatest victory."
The 43 percent rate includes student-athletes, which means the graduation rate of the Lobo student-athlete helped bring up the all-student rate at UNM.
"When I came to New Mexico, it was a major concern and an immediate goal to increase those graduation numbers," said Paul Krebs, UNM Vice President for Athletics.
"Obviously, we want success in competition, but any success in athletics is tainted, if your student-athletes aren't successful in the classroom. This improvement is a testament to our athletes, to our coaches, and to the academic support system that embraces our student-athletes from Day One."
The Lobos' grades have continued to climb under Krebs' administration. He inherited a program that posted a 37 percent graduation rate in 2006, a rate based on student-athletes who enrolled at UNM in 1999-2000. It went to 51 percent in 2007 (charting 2000-01 freshmen), 50 percent in 2008 (2001-02 freshmen), and 55 percent in 2009 for the 2002-03 freshmen class.
Krebs said that five percent jump from 2008 to 2009 is significant, but Lobo athletics is shooting for another five percent leap.
"When I met with Paul Krebs about establishing a realistic graduation rate, we set our first goal at 60 percent," said Henry Villegas, assistant athletics director in charge of academics.
"We were around 50 percent (in 2007) and we thought a reasonable goal was a 10 percent jump. Once we get to there, we'll shoot higher."
The Lobos also have seen significant jumps in the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) since the pre-Krebs' days. The GSR factors in transfer athletes (coming and going), while the aforementioned federal rate (55 percent) only tracks incoming freshmen. The Lobos' overall GSR was 72 percent.
In fact, every Lobo sport tracked moved in a positive GSR direction since 2006:
Baseball: 2006 - 50 percent; 2009 - 58 percent.
Football: 2006 - 43 percent; 2009 - 53 percent.
Men's basketball: 2006 - 7 percent; 2009 - 43 percent.
Men's track: 2006 - 55 percent; 2009 - 75 percent.
Women's basketball: 2006 - 80 percent; 2009 - 92 percent.
Women's track: 2006 - 71 percent; 2009 - 85 percent.
The jump in Lobo male graduation rates (GSR) went from 48 percent in 2006 to 60 percent in 2009. The women jumped from 76 percent to 88 percent over that same period.
"Paul Krebs and Tim Cass (Senior Associate AD) are adamant about our athletes becoming honor students," said Ray Birmingham, UNM's head baseball coach. "And this isn't just talk. They do everything humanly possible to stress to the coaches and our athletes that this is an institution of higher learning. That always comes first."
A few specific sports made some drastic jumps in their Graduation Success Rates from the previous season. Men's basketball's 43 percent in 2009 was an increase of 16 percent from the 27 percent rate of 2008. Women's basketball's 92 percent Graduation Success Rate was a leap of 13 percent from the 79 percent posted in 2008.
"We're heading in the right direction," said Villegas. "We can't do what we do here (academics), if we don't have the discipline from the coaches and the expectations from the administration.
The Lobos set a school-record GPA of 3.14 in the fall of 2008 and backed that with a 3.12 GPA in the spring of 2009 - the second highest all-time for that grading period. UNM had 13 of its 17 sports registering a 3.0 or higher in the spring of 2009.
Posted by scarr at December 7, 2009 10:28 AM