Six in 10 UA athletes who enrolled as freshmen in the 1999-2000 school year did not graduate from the school, bucking a national trend cited in a new NCAA graduation rate report.
The NCAA released graduation rate information Thursday comparing athletes to the general student body.
Sixty-three percent of freshmen athletes who enrolled at Division I-A schools in the 1999-2000 school year graduated within six years, compared to 61 percent of students overall.
The UA's graduation rate — 40 percent for athletes, 59 percent for the student body — "jumps off the page," said senior associate athletic director Kathleen "Rocky" LaRose.
"We have a challenge overall, not just with our athletic programs, but with our student body," said UA president Robert Shelton, who said he had not seen the figures as of Thursday afternoon.
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The figure used is the federal graduation rate, which differs from the graduation success rate (GSR), a system the NCAA uses to account for transfers and students who leave in good academic standing.
The UA's GSR for students who enrolled between 1996-99 was 65 percent, the lowest in the Pac-10 and well below the NCAA's 77-percent average. Last year the UA registered a 66-percent score.
"We knew we had this rough patch six years ago, and we knew this was coming," LaRose said.
The latest data marks only the second time in 15 years the graduation rate for UA student-athletes has been worse than that of the student body, LaRose said.
"We have to mirror ourselves with our own undergraduate students because they have the same experience," LaRose said. "Our student-athletes don't have the same experience that student-athletes at Stanford have."
The UA's four-class federal total is considerably better for athletes.
Among freshmen who enrolled from 1996-99, 56 percent of students and 57 percent of student-athletes graduated. LaRose has looked at the 1999-2000 school year to try to identify why that number was worse than in years past.
"There were a handful of students we could have done a better job academically with," she said. "The majority of them left for other reasons.
"We have to look at this in context. We can't hang our hat just on football and on coaching changes. I can't give you one answer to it — these are individual students making individual choices."
The report is linked to the NCAA's Academic Progress Report (APR), a semester-by-semester look at each program's grades that comes with penalties. In the spring, poor APR scores cost the football team four scholarships and the baseball team 1.7 scholarships.
LaRose, who is preparing the UA's next APR filing, said the school is "still going to hit a bit of a speed bump."
A September report broke down the UA's GSR by sport, with the football team graduating a conference-worst 39 percent and the men's basketball team 42 percent.
The UA has had four football coaches since the 2000 season — Dick Tomey, John Mackovic, Mike Hankwitz and Mike Stoops. Player attrition is attributed somewhat to the coaching upheaval.
Wednesday, Stoops said the statistics — which pre-date his hire at the UA — are somewhat misleading. He said he believes every senior on the team will graduate either in May or at the end of the summer session.
"We got in here at a very tumultuous time in this program," he said. "You've got to inherit some inherited problems."
The UA has taken steps to improve its athletes' grades.
On March 1, C.A.T.S. (Commitment for Athletes' Total Success) — the athletic department's academic services wing — began reporting to the University College as part of the student services side of the UA. The college's expertise has helped UA athletes, LaRose said.
Stoops said he spends more time in academic meetings than football meetings, but players are ultimately responsible for their academic success.
"It happens. Kids just quit," he said. "And then they stop going to class and then quit. What are you supposed to do about that? I don't have an answer for that.
"Through seven evaluations — or whatever you have throughout the course of a year-and-a-half or two years — you try to get kids in programs that are going to be successful. When somebody fails, it's not a good feeling.
"There's nobody here that feels worse when a kid doesn't do well than I do."
Thursday, NCAA president Myles Brand praised the new report, saying it disproves a common perception that athletes are worse in the classroom than the general student population.
The NCAA claims that the average incoming freshman athlete has a 1090 SAT score, compared with 1040 for the general student population.
"There's myth out there that student-athletes are coming in underprepared to universities and colleges," he said. "They're coming in better prepared.
"Student-athletes are highly motivated individuals. They know how to manage their time."
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