UNLV graduation rates for athletes on the rise

Steve Addy

Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 | 9:41 a.m.

At least temporarily, UNLV's student-athlete graduation rate has climbed to 46 percent, its highest in recent years.

And the Rebels have their female athletes to thank.

Sparked by a dramatic increase to 76 percent of female scholarship athletes who enrolled in UNLV in 1994, the athletic program's 2000 graduation rate showed a 14 percent overall improvement, according to the NCAA Graduation Rates Report released Monday.

The report details the raw percentage of student-athletes who enroll as freshmen on scholarship and graduate within six years. The percentages issued Monday were for athletes who enrolled in Fall 1994, and a four-year average for athletes enrolling from Fall '91 to Fall '94 (graduating 1997-00).

In the latter category, UNLV climbed to 39 percent, up two percent from 1996-99, but 19 percent below the four-year Division I average of 58 percent. The 2000 Division I average was also 58 percent.

Nevertheless, UNLV's overall 46 percent for student-athletes was twice the 2000 rate for its general student body (23) and the Rebels' first time over 40 percent since they graduated 43 percent in 1995. UNLV was at 32 percent in 1999 and had languished in the 30s for years.

University president Dr. Carol Harter has long been vocal about permanently boosting student-athlete graduation, and she hailed the increase.

"I am thrilled that the graduation rate for our student-athletes is on the rise," she said. "It's a testament to (their) hard work, our academic advisors and our entire athletic department.

"I haven't had a chance to study the report thoroughly, (but) I am very pleased with the progress. We have made graduation rates a priority."

However, a leading expert on sports sociology said broad judgements shouldn't be based on one year. Richard Lapchick, head of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University in Boston, told the Associated Press that graduation rates must be interpreted with caution.

"The problem with graduation rates always is that it's a snapshot of a single year," he said. "That may be a distorted year."

Nationally, the Graduation Rates Report showed that Division I student-athlete graduation held steady at 58 percent for the third year, still two percent better than graduation rates in the general student population.

However, Division I men's basketball graduation rates fell from 42 percent to 40, the second-lowest since 1984. White men's basketball players who enrolled in 1994 showed a four-percent drop to 52 percent, while black players climbed one percent to 35.

At UNLV, where the men's basketball graduation rate checked in at zero percent for the sixth year in a row, male athletes showed a two-percent gain to 32 percent in 2000. Rebels football made a seven-percent gain to 30, though its four-year average dipped from 28 percent to 26.

Clearly, it was the women who drove the Rebels' overall increase. Female athletes enrolling on scholarship in 1993 graduated at 37 percent, but 1994 enrollees improved to 76 percent, topping the national Division I women's rate by seven percent.

Lady Rebels basketball climbed from zero percent in 1999 to 50 percent, women's track and field improved from 40 percent to 80, and UNLV's other women's sports showed a combined increase from 42 percent to 88.

The NCAA began compiling graduation rates in 1984, using a formula that counts all transfer student-athletes -- even if they graduate elsewhere -- against the rates of their original school. It allows six years to complete a degree. Thus, rates for the 1995 freshman class will be compiled and announced next year.