For the second straight season Point Loma Sea Lion student-athletes were honored with the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Excellence. This year Point Loma Nazarene University moved up to second place in the country with an Academic Success Rate of 98 percent.
"I'm proud of the strong academic achievements of PLNU student-athletes and the support they receive from coaches, faculty, and staff," said Point Loma President Dr. Bob Brower. "The discipline of excelling in sports and academics will prepare students well for their future, and I'm pleased to offer my congratulations."
This was the second consecutive year that Point Loma has posted an Academic Success Rate of 98 percent. In the previous, report PLNU tied for third on the Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence. Only 27 institutions in the country earned this prestigious honor.
"All the accolades go to the student-athletes," said Point Loma's seventh-year Athletic Director Ethan Hamilton. "This is a mark that recognizes multiple years in a row of our student-athletes developing a reputation of having success in the classroom. I am extremely thankful to the coaches, staff and the faculty that have made this work."
Point Loma was the lone representative from the PacWest Conference to earn the Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence, and one of just three teams in the West Region. UC San Diego and Seattle Pacific tied for seventh in the standings with a 94 percent Academic Success Rate.
"This award is a culmination of everything," continued Hamilton. "You talk about our student-athletes graduating and that is why college athletics was initially formed; to create an avenue for people to come to college, compete in a sport, and graduate. It is great to see the well-roundedness of our entire athletic program this year."
The University of the Sciences in Philadelphia led all of NCAA Division II with an Academic Success Rate of 99 percent. PLNU's 98 percent Academic Success Rate tied it for second in all of NCAA Division II with Saint Michael's College and Bentley University.
"Our student-athletes have figured out the good of PLNU's mission as a whole," explained Point Loma Faculty Athletic Representative John Wright. "Such data witnesses to the thriving environment that PLNU's athletic department and its staff have provided. It shows what we can do when we commit to embody PLNU's mission together.
The Academic Success Rate is the percentage of student-athletes who graduate within six years of initial enrollment in college and includes virtually all Division II student-athletes, including transfers and those not receiving athletics scholarships.
The Division II ASR also captures about 51 percent more college athletes than the federal graduation rate. Unlike the federal graduation rate, the ASR also counts student-athletes who transfer to a school after initial enrollment elsewhere and removes from the rate student-athletes who leave school while academically eligible. The national ASR is 71 percent for student-athletes who entered college from 2005 through 2008.
Regardless of which measure is used, Division II college athletes graduate at a higher rate than the general student body. The federal rate for the 2008 entering class of student-athletes was 55 percent, compared to 49 percent for the general student body.
To see the NCAA release on the 2015 Presidents' Awards for Academic Excellence click here.
