BATON ROUGE – For the second straight year, LSU’s numbers in the Graduation Success Rate as reported by the NCAA remained at an all-time high for the university with a score of 81.
LSU’s score of 81 continues with the trend that has seen the school’s GSR score improve, or remain same, since the inception of the report in 2005.
Since taking over at LSU in 2008, vice chancellor and director of athletics Joe Alleva has put a premium on success in the classroom for LSU student-athletes and the results have been impressive. LSU’s 12 percent improvement in the GSR since 2008 ranks as the third-best jump in the Southeastern Conference, trailing only Alabama and Georgia, who each have advanced 14 percent during that time.
Under Alleva, LSU has seen its GSR scores rise from 69 percent in 2008 to 81 percent in 2014. LSU’s first GSR score in 2005 was 67 percent.
“Our focus is to prepare our student-athletes for the rest of their lives and graduation is critical in that process,” Alleva said. “Our mission is to inspire academic and athletic excellence in student-athletes. It’s our goal that every student-athlete who comes to LSU leave with a degree and be given every opportunity to have success in the classroom, in competition and be contributors in the community.
“The work that our student-athletes continue to do in the classroom and in competition is both impressive and inspiring.”
Two sports led LSU with perfect scores of 100 – women’s golf and women’s tennis, while volleyball (92), women’s basketball (92), gymnastics (92), women’s swimming (92), men’s golf (92) and men’s swimming (92) all recorded scores of at least 90 percent.
Other LSU sports with scores in the 80-89 percent range include: women’s track (88) and women’s soccer (83).
“Since 2008, our overall student-athlete graduation success rate has steadily increased by 12 percent from 69 to 81 percent in 2014,” LSU assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs and executive director of the Cox Communications Academic Center Kenneth Miles said. “This margin of growth is among the greatest of any University in the Southeastern Conference.
“We, in the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes are proud to change the course of history through educational attainment. This vision is 100 percent emphatically by design. “
The NCAA developed the Graduation Success Rate to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes. The rate holds institutions accountable for transfer students, unlike the federal graduation rate. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for every sport.
Under the calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing. The outgoing transfers are included in the receiving institution’s GSR cohort.
The most recent Division I Graduation Success Rates are based on the four entering classes from 2003-2004 through 200-07. The NCAA began compiling these figures with the entering freshmen class of 1995.