By Adam Hinton
Even as the U of L Athletic Department increases spending on new facilities and coaches in the hopes of creating a premier athletic program, another initiative is taking place behind the scenes to improve the athletes themselves.
The Olga Peers Academic Center for Student Athletes has been working for the past few years to improve the GPA of the varsity athletes here at U of L. Their work to produce students first and athletes second has thus far provided quick and positive results.
During the 2001-2002 school year, eight of U of L’s varsity athletic teams achieved their highest GPA since the university began keeping the records in the 1988-1989 school year. Six more teams achieved their second highest GPA ever.
Perhaps the most promising statistic presented by the center is the steadily increasing GPA of the athletic teams since 1996. During the ’96-’97 school year, the cumulative GPA for the U of L varsity athletic programs was 2.517. By last year, that number had climbed to 2.82.
Also promising is the steady decrease of the number of athletes with a GPA of less than 2.0. In the Spring of 2000, 17.6% of U of L’s athletes boasted GPAs of less than 2.0. By the Spring of 2002, the center had brought that number down to 7.5%.
While the center is proud of its accomplishments thus far, it plans to continue to work towards bigger and better goals. One of the goals is to bring the number of athletes with GPAs under 2.0 to 0%.
The five teams with the highest GPA during the 2001-2002 school year were, in order, the women’s tennis team, the women’s golf team, the women’s swimming team, the women’s track team, and the field hockey team. Bringing up the rear with the two worst team GPAs was the men’s basketball team, followed closely by the football team.
