Grand Canyon University Athletics
Photo by: Ralph Freso
Best-ever grad rate upholds decade of academic rise
11/20/2024 11:00:00 AM | General, S-A Development
GCU's latest 4-year GSR average improves to 92% for student-athletes
As much as Grand Canyon increasingly lifts trophies in athletic competition, GCU also steadily raises levels of academic achievement.
GCU posted its highest-ever Graduation Success Rate at 92% in the latest NCAA report, reflecting a more remarkable improvement over a dedicated decade of student-athlete development on the Phoenix campus.
The Lopes' latest GSR is a 35-point jump since 2014, when it received its first GSR report after moving from Division II to Division I. It exceeds the national single-cohort rate of 91%.
GSR is a four-year average of annual cohorts that calculate the percentage of athletic scholarship student-athletes who graduate within six years of their first semester of full-time enrollment.
GCU's latest GSR of 92%, breaking last year's record high of 89%, reflects the average of the annual rates reported from 2021 to this year. Those reports start with the six-year span that includes student-athletes who entered GCU for the 2017-18 academic year.
"GCU has invested over $1.8 billion into campus expansion over the last 14 years, including new classrooms, labs, libraries and student support services," GCU Vice President of Athletics Jamie Boggs said. "We are thankful for our university's commitment to academics, and we are proud of our student-athletes, coaches and our student-athlete support services team for their dedication to achieving our highest-ever graduation success rate."
This is the 10th consecutive year that GCU has improved its GSR, with this year's 92% rate also exceeding the national average. (CONFIRM) After two years of tying for the second-highest rate in the WAC, Lopes student-athletes' GSR placed an outright second this year in a conference where it ranked last for its first three years of GSR participation (2014-16).
GCU recorded a GSR of 100% this year in men's golf, women's golf, softball, men's swimming and diving, women's swimming and diving, women's tennis and men's volleyball.
The growth is reflective of the university's increasing commitment to academic success for all students, particularly under the leadership of President Brian Mueller. Since GCU Vice President of Athletics Jamie Boggs took the department helm in 2019, the GSR began exceeding 80% for the first time.
Aligning with the GCU mission, the Lopes' athletic department has been enabled to allocate resources for enhancing student-athlete success with increased staffing in the areas of academic and student-athlete development.
GCU's offerings of Academic and Career Excellence Centers for day-and-night, in-person academic support are helpful to student-athletes, as well as how the provost office has provided campus areas for studies to thrive.
The annual GSR improvement shows the coaches' mindfulness and dedication in recruiting to identify student-athletes who desire GCU's emphasis on academics, a message that the coaches continue to push through their student-athletes' tenure.
GCU Athletics' six academic coordinators, which include GCU graduates and former student-athletes, build relationships with coaches and student-athletes to understand their individual needs in regard to schedule, sport demands, challenges and language barriers for international students. Their office's offerings of tutors, mentors, study halls and finals prep classes ensure progress toward obtaining degrees.
Student success and competition is incentivized by annual awards for the men's and women's teams with the highest cumulative GPA. Since 2017-18, the Lopes also have claimed three of the WAC's 12 Stan Bates Award winners (Track and field's Mariano Hernandez and softball's Bianca Boling and Gianna Nicoletti). The conference's top honor for male and female student-athletes is selected with consideration to academics and athletics.
GCU's GSR uptick spanned its transition from Division II to Division I athletics and was part of the program's readiness, as part of an academically rigorous university, to be invited to the Mountain West Conference. GCU would have ranked third this year among 11 Mountain West programs, only behind Boise State (96) and Air Force (93).
GCU posted its highest-ever Graduation Success Rate at 92% in the latest NCAA report, reflecting a more remarkable improvement over a dedicated decade of student-athlete development on the Phoenix campus.
The Lopes' latest GSR is a 35-point jump since 2014, when it received its first GSR report after moving from Division II to Division I. It exceeds the national single-cohort rate of 91%.GSR is a four-year average of annual cohorts that calculate the percentage of athletic scholarship student-athletes who graduate within six years of their first semester of full-time enrollment.
GCU's latest GSR of 92%, breaking last year's record high of 89%, reflects the average of the annual rates reported from 2021 to this year. Those reports start with the six-year span that includes student-athletes who entered GCU for the 2017-18 academic year.
"GCU has invested over $1.8 billion into campus expansion over the last 14 years, including new classrooms, labs, libraries and student support services," GCU Vice President of Athletics Jamie Boggs said. "We are thankful for our university's commitment to academics, and we are proud of our student-athletes, coaches and our student-athlete support services team for their dedication to achieving our highest-ever graduation success rate."
This is the 10th consecutive year that GCU has improved its GSR, with this year's 92% rate also exceeding the national average. (CONFIRM) After two years of tying for the second-highest rate in the WAC, Lopes student-athletes' GSR placed an outright second this year in a conference where it ranked last for its first three years of GSR participation (2014-16).
GCU recorded a GSR of 100% this year in men's golf, women's golf, softball, men's swimming and diving, women's swimming and diving, women's tennis and men's volleyball.
The growth is reflective of the university's increasing commitment to academic success for all students, particularly under the leadership of President Brian Mueller. Since GCU Vice President of Athletics Jamie Boggs took the department helm in 2019, the GSR began exceeding 80% for the first time.
Aligning with the GCU mission, the Lopes' athletic department has been enabled to allocate resources for enhancing student-athlete success with increased staffing in the areas of academic and student-athlete development.GCU's offerings of Academic and Career Excellence Centers for day-and-night, in-person academic support are helpful to student-athletes, as well as how the provost office has provided campus areas for studies to thrive.
The annual GSR improvement shows the coaches' mindfulness and dedication in recruiting to identify student-athletes who desire GCU's emphasis on academics, a message that the coaches continue to push through their student-athletes' tenure.
GCU Athletics' six academic coordinators, which include GCU graduates and former student-athletes, build relationships with coaches and student-athletes to understand their individual needs in regard to schedule, sport demands, challenges and language barriers for international students. Their office's offerings of tutors, mentors, study halls and finals prep classes ensure progress toward obtaining degrees.
Student success and competition is incentivized by annual awards for the men's and women's teams with the highest cumulative GPA. Since 2017-18, the Lopes also have claimed three of the WAC's 12 Stan Bates Award winners (Track and field's Mariano Hernandez and softball's Bianca Boling and Gianna Nicoletti). The conference's top honor for male and female student-athletes is selected with consideration to academics and athletics.
GCU's GSR uptick spanned its transition from Division II to Division I athletics and was part of the program's readiness, as part of an academically rigorous university, to be invited to the Mountain West Conference. GCU would have ranked third this year among 11 Mountain West programs, only behind Boise State (96) and Air Force (93).
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