ATHLETES AND ACADEMICS YSU honored for strong graduation rate

The Penguins graduated at a 31-percent higher rate than the general student-body.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Youngstown State University placed third in the Division I-AA rankings of colleges and universities nationwide as having the highest student-athlete graduation rate above the student-body average. The information was announced by the NCAA and was presented in Tuesday's editions of USA Today.
For student-athletes who entered Youngstown State during the 1996-97 academic year and have earned degrees within six years, YSU student-athletes graduated at a 31-percent higher rate than the general student-body.
The rankings from this survey were determined by federal graduation-rate forms used by schools and were for freshmen who entered school in the fall of 1996 and had six years to graduate.
The academic achievement awards were established to recognize colleges and universities in three categories: institutions graduating the highest percentage of student-athletes, institutions with the highest student-athlete graduation rates above the average of the student body, and institutions with the greatest increase in percentage of student-athletes graduating over the previous cohort.
The latest NCAA graduation-rates research indicates student-athletes matriculating in 1996 graduated at a rate of 62 percent, which not only is two percentage points higher than last year's all-time high, but three percentage points higher than the overall student body -- the largest separation between the two groups in more than a decade.
Texas Southern had the highest percentage difference between graduation rates of student-athletes and the student-body at 44 percent in I-AA. Southern was second at 39 percent.