TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Indiana State student-athletes closed out the spring semester with a term and cumulative grade point average above a 3.0 for the 49th-consecutive semester as 65 percent of student-athletes earned a 3.0 or better.
"I am proud of the efforts of our coaches and student-athletes. We have a strong history of performing well in the classroom and we are striving to be even better," Director of Athletics Sherard Clinkscales said. "The hard work of Michelle Stodden and
Brooke Porter have elevated the level of service to our teams. Our compliance staff of
Joel McMullen and Tonya Sawyer have done a fantastic job in keeping our student-athletes on a progressive academic track. We have been intentional in empowering our student-athletes to leverage their academic and athletic success to earn internships and full-time employment opportunities."
As an athletic department, Indiana State has seen an overall increase in grade point average over the last academic year, improving to a 3.299 cumulative GPA. As a whole, 31 student-athletes earned perfect 4.0 GPA's in the spring. Of 367 student-athletes, 140 (38%) earned Dean's List honors – 3.5 term GPA or above.
Women's soccer led the department with a 3.69 cumulative GPA with women's swimming and diving close behind with a 3.66 GPA. Women's golf also finished strong in the classroom with a 3.60 mark. For the spring semester, women's swimming and diving earned the highest term GPA with a tally of 3.75 which was an improvement from their 3.57 showing in the fall.
Men's track & field and cross country achieved the highest term GPA of all men's programs with a 3.09 spring GPA while Sycamore baseball followed just behind at 3.01. Both programs own a cumulative GPA of 3.11. In the past two years under head coach
Curt Mallory, the Sycamore football cumulative GPA has risen from a 2.692 to an impressive 2.990.
This has been a banner year for the Student-Athlete Academic Services department as they have implemented new programs including: class checks, scheduled in-house tutoring through the Center for Student Success, hosting the inaugural Sweats to Suits Student-Athlete Career Fair with over 100 attendees and Sycamore student-athletes performed over 2,000 hours of community service (with more than 60 local organizations being served). The Sycamore Leadership Academy, presented by Geico was a smashing success with 39 participants, 11 graduates and 10 workshops held.
The department also hosted five professional development sessions for coaches and staff and held seminars for student-athletes covering a wide range of topics including: mental health, purpose mapping, social media and personal branding, women in the workplace, resume & cover letters, etiquette dinner and the career fair.
The Sycamores' academic report card comes just weeks after a stellar NCAA APR report which saw the Sycamores record a mark of 985 – the highest in the history of the department. During the 2017-18 academic year, six different Sycamore sports programs earned perfect scores of 1,000 including softball, men's and women's cross country, women's swimming and diving, women's track and field and women's golf. That total is the third-highest in department history and the most since 2009-10.
In an effort to continue this level of academic success in the future, the department has created the ISU Progress Towards Degree Certification Committee, which meets periodically to review our continuing eligibility certification process. It is comprised of various professors, deans and academic staff from across the campus. This committee helps ensure the academic integrity of our certification policies and procedures as part of our obligation to maintain institutional control over this critically important area of athletics.
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