By Sarah Moomaw, News Staff
Athletic Director Peter Roby released the 2011-12 student-athlete cumulative GPA and highlighted the department’s successes in his semesterly update at Wednesday’s meeting of the Faculty Senate.
At 3.115 for the 2011-12 academic year, the Huskies’ cumulative GPA has been steadily rising since the 2007-08 season’s 3.041, when Roby was appointed director.
“We have serious students that are also serious athletes,” Roby said. “The fact that we have had the kind of GPA that we’ve had across all 420 athletes is really a source of pride for us and they’ve distinguished themselves on the dean’s list and in other ways, both on campus and with our peer institutions.”
The cumulative GPA includes 14 students with a 4.0, 11 with a 3.9 and 34 with a 3.8.
On the NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) report, which measures eligibility, retention and the academic culture of Division 1 athletic teams, three teams – field hockey, women’s hockey and women’s rowing – scored a perfect 1,000.
Additionally, six other teams – baseball, men’s soccer, men’s indoor and outdoor track and women’s indoor and outdoor track – placed first in their conference for APR, while men’s basketball, women’s cross country, swimming and volleyball placed in the top four of Colonial Athletic Association schools.
The main focus of Roby’s 30 minute presentation was the rising GPAs of Northeastern’s student-athletes, but he also addressed issues raised by the faculty.
Concerns were expressed about the CAA’s restructuring and resulting effect on the NCAA bids but Roby said the withdrawal of Georgia State, Old Dominion and Virginia Commonwealth Universities wouldn’t affect the conference’s bids but would have a financial benefit to the remaining CAA universities.
“Virginia Commonwealth University’s decision to leave the conference resulted in them leaving almost $5 million on the table and that now will be redistributed to the rest of the conference,” Roby said. “So as much as we felt badly about their departure … we will benefit from that and we hope we can use that money to reinforce what we are trying do here.”
He also reassured members that if a situation similar to Boston University’s athlete entitlement incidents arose, the university would deal with it promptly.
“I wish I could tell you that we won’t have instances where our students will make bad choices but I can reassure you that we have every intent to deal with it as swiftly and as specifically as possible,” Roby said.
Aside from the harder hitting subjects surrounding student-athletes, Roby also boasted about their physical abilities. Northeastern’s athletic teams have been successful on the field, compiling a collective 58-24-7 record through this past weekend and a 32-8-4 standing at home.
“Sometimes when people read off the academic stuff, the assumption is that he must not have been able to talk too much about the success on the field or the court or the ice,” Roby said. “Well that’s not the case and I’m happy about that as well.”
