Eastern Michigan University athletes are graduating at all-time high rates but are below the NCAA Division One average.
According to an EMU press release Wednesday, Eagle athletes had a GSR, or graduation success rate, of 81 percent, six percent higher than last year. The NCAA website says the Division One average is 86 percent.
“Academic success and degree completion are high-priority items for this department ,” Vice President/Director of Athletics Heather Lyke said in a press release from EMU Athletics. "I want to commend our student-athletes for their efforts and ability to balance all of the academic and athletic demands, our coaches for their focus on education first and recruiting talented students to our teams, our staff for their ongoing support of our student-athletes' academic endeavors and our faculty for their commitment to helping us create champions in the classroom.”
Nine teams improved their GSR: baseball, men's basketball, football, men's swimming & diving, wrestling, women's cross country/track, rowing, women's swimming & diving and women's tennis. Seven teams had an 100 percent GSR: women's basketball, women's gymnastics, rowing, softball, women's swimming & diving, women's tennis and volleyball each boasted a 100 percent rate.
EMU’s GSR tied for seventh-best out of the 12 full-member schools in the Mid-American Conference.
