[IMG]http://libn.com/libizblog/files/2008/01/john-belushi-college-poster-c10000320.jpg[/IMG]
[B]The athletes at the University of Kentucky have posted their highest combined GPA average during the Mitch Barnhart era.[/B]
UK’s 22 varsity sports averaged a [B]cumulative department GPA of 3.04[/B] in the spring for competing scholarship student-athletes. The 3.04 average eclipses Barnhart’s original academic goal of obtaining at least a 3.0 during the semester.
Here is an excerpt from [URL=”http://www.ukathletics.com/blog/2010/05/departments-team-gpa-highest-of-barnhart-era-mens-basketball-improves.html”]UKAthletics.com[/URL]:
[I]The 3.0 is also the highest semester mark since Barnhart took over the program in 2002. In fall 2003, a year after Barnhart’s arrival, the collective GPA of the department was 2.84. UK is only required to keep annual graduation rates and did not begin recording the cumulative GPA of the department prior to the Barnhart hire (the school recorded only the GPAs of each team prior to 2003). [/I]
[I]”We’ve been trying for eight years to get to a consistent academic level and we felt like if all of our student-athletes could get to a 3.0 collectively, it would be a great benchmark for us considering when we came here the number was lower than that,” Barnhart said. “Our coaches have done a good job of changing the expectation level and our athletes have responded. We finally have crested that goal and now the challenge is to stay there and to not back off the effort that it took to get there.”[/I]
[I]Among the highest team GPAs for the spring semester were the women’s cross country team (3.49), the softball team (3.48) and the women’s soccer team (3.42). Thirteen of UK’s 22 sports averaged a 3.0 GPA or better. [/I]
[I]Overall, the department’s team GPA of 3.04 is above the average for all undergraduate students (2.95) at the University of Kentucky for the spring semester despite the added responsibilities, obligations and time it requires for a student-athlete to balance academics with athletics.[/I]
Congratulations to the UK student-athletes for their academic success during the last semester!
