THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 1, 1995 TAG: 9507010612
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Old Dominion's graduation rate for athletes took a dramatic jump from the previous year, according to the NCAA Graduation Rates Summary report released Thursday.
But despite the improvement from 38 percent last year to 57 percent in this year's report - which tracks athletes who entered school during the 1988-89 school year - ODU athletic director Jim Jarrett still regards it as a flawed measurement. He said the better barometer of how a university is serving the academic needs of athletes is the graduation rate for athletes who have exhausted their eligibility.
The Monarchs have been well above the national average in that regard each of the past three years. ODU's exhausted eligibility graduation rate is 88 percent, compared to the national average of 77 percent.
``I don't have any different position than last year, I don't like the graduation rate measurement,'' Jarrett said. ``I think the exhausted graduation rate measurement is a lot better. We feel real good about that.''
The difference between them is the graduation rate is the percentage of all athletes who entered school in 1988-89 who graduated from the institution within the allotted six years. A student who transfers or leaves school because of academic difficulties or for other reasons - such as the opportunity to play professionally - counts against the graduation rate.
For example, ODU brought in four men's basketball recruits in 1988-89. Three transferred and one is still working sporadically toward a degree. Thus the graduation rate that year for men's basketball was 0 percent.
``I believe that one is a measure of attrition,'' Jarrett said.
Thirty-one of the 54 athletes who entered Old Dominion for the 1988-89 school year graduated from ODU.
The exhausted eligibility graduation rate is the percentage of athletes who graduated while completing their eligibility at the institution. ODU's number has been consistently high throughout the six years the NCAA has published the survey.
As for the athletic graduation rate, the Monarchs were last in both the Colonial Athletic Association and the state each of the previous two years. In the latest report, the Monarchs are sixth of nine CAA schools and eighth of 11 Division I schools in Virginia. ILLUSTRATION: Chart
Graduation rates...in 1988-89
by CNB