INDIANAPOLIS – Maryville University, alongside three other Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) member institutions, has earned the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence, awarded to Division II schools that have achieved an Academic Success Rate of 90% or higher. For the second consecutive year, 44 member schools have earned this honor.
Maryville arrived at 90%, marking the third straight year in which the institution has found itself upon the prestigious list.
"Throughout our time in Division II, Maryville Athletics has shown that we value academics and graduating our athletes above all else," Director of Athletics Brittany Fennell said. "It's the foundation of our department and our university. It's a true testament to the type of athletes that we try to recruit and retain here at the University.
Rockhurst, Illinois Springfield and Rockhurst joined the Saints as the GLVC honorees.
The Division II ASR includes transfers into a school in the calculation and removes those who transferred out of the school while academically eligible. The ASR also includes over 30,000 non-scholarship student-athletes who were enrolled in the four years covered in the most recent data.
"It takes a village to support student-athletes and create the balanced environment for them to thrive academically and athletically," said Jason Jones, associate athletics director for compliance at Catawba and chair of the Division II Academic Requirements Committee. "This prestigious honor recognizes 44 schools that have achieved academic excellence, and I'm thrilled to congratulate them."
Even when using the less-inclusive federal graduation rate, student-athletes are outperforming their peers in the general student population by 6 percentage points. For Division II student-athletes, the federal rate is 59%, while the general student body federal rate is 53%.
This past spring was historic in terms of Academic achievements for Maryville student-athletes. The University saw a school-record 317 student-athletes garner the Academic All-Great Lakes Valley Conference honor for the 2023-24 academic calendar, with 31 Saints earning the James Gaffney/FSC Distinguished Scholar Award and three Saints earning GLVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors.
