UMC Recognized for Gains in Student-Athlete Graduation Rates
The University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC) is one of ten colleges participating in Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to be recognized by for the “Highest Student-Athlete Graduation Rate Improvement.” The recognition came with the recent announcement of the 2002 USA Today/NCAA Academic Achievement Awards.
UMC improved its graduation rate for student-athletes by 44 percentage points when comparing freshmen entering in 1994 with freshmen entering in 1995. According to USA Today, rankings in this survey are determined by federal graduation-rate forms used by schools in Divisions I and II. They are for freshmen who entered in the fall of 1995 and had six years to graduate. Each school offering athletic scholarships is required to complete these forms annually. There are 270 NCAA Division II schools.
See the rankings for NCAA Division II.
In addition to the recognition, UMC received a plaque, which is on display in its Athletics Department. Lon Boike, UMC’s Director of Athletics, stated, “We are very proud of the success that our student-athletes achieve in the classroom and in our improved graduation rates. The UMC coaches, faculty, and staff do an outstanding job of working with all student-athletes. They are to be commended! Our student-athletes do a tremendous job on the playing field and in the classroom, and they represent the University of Minnesota, Crookston with the utmost class.”
For the past four years UMC had been a provisional member of NCAA Division II within the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). On September 1 of this year, the NCAA approved UMC full-fledged, active membership.
Posted 11/27/2002
Contact: Andrew Svec,
218-281-8435