Rider Student-Athletes Record Highest Collective GPA Ever
Rider’s varsity athletics programs didn’t only enjoy competitive success in their respective sports during the fall semester. According to the Fall 2007 report issued by NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative Dr. Jonathan Husch, the Broncs collectively registered a 3.05 grade point average for the semester, marking the highest collective GPA ever produced by Rider student-athletes. The figure also surpasses the 2.9 average set by non-student-athletes at Rider.
In his report, Husch, the chair of the Department of Geological, Environmental and Marine Sciences, listed a number of additional new standards set by the student-athletes this fall. Among them were 14 of 18 teams having greater than 50 percent of their players achieve a 3.0 GPA, 52 percent of male student-athletes compiling GPAs in excess of 3.0, and the 2.93 overall semester average achieved by male student-athletes, as compared to 2.76 for non-athletes.
Field hockey produced the highest average team GPA, at 3.44, while women’s soccer (3.27) and women’s tennis (3.41) recorded their best semester team GPAs ever.
“I am very proud of the academic achievements of our student-athletes,” said Don Harnum, director of Athletics. “I think these results are a tribute to the recruiting efforts of our coaches, the hard work of our student-athletes and the diligence of our academic support services.”
The 3.05 collective average continues a trend that saw Rider student-athletes produce what were then historical high GPAs in the Spring 2007 and Spring 2006 semesters, a development that pleases Husch. “As before, I believe that the overall academic performance of our student-athletes is a testament to the ongoing efforts of all Department of Athletics academic support personnel in assisting our academically at-risk student-athletes,” he said. “As I have emphasized many times, we can safely say that, in general, our student-athletes are truly representative of our general student population and, as far as this past semester is concerned, they are performing better academically than our general, full-time, day-student population on the Lawrenceville campus. This is a story not often heard in Division I athletics, and we should all be extremely proud. These academic results allow us, once again, to say with all honesty, ‘we do Division I right.’”
Submitted on March 13, 2008
