Four Trojan athletic programs achieved a perfect Graduation Success Rate score of 100, and the Trojans’ department GSR score was the highest among any Division I institution in Arkansas for the sixth time in the last seven years. 

The Little Rock men’s basketball team, the men’s and women’s golf teams, and the volleyball program all posted perfect scores.

“We often talk about graduating champions, and the recent Graduation Success Rate confirms that our coaches and staff are committed to the academic success of our young people,” UALR Athletics Director Chasse Conque said. “Supporters of Little Rock’s Team can take great pride in the success of the Little Rock Trojans both in the classroom and on the court and fields of play.”

As a department, Little Rock posted a Graduation Success Rate of 81 percent, higher than any other Division I school in the state. The Trojans also topped the state in GSR scores for men’s basketball and tied for first in men’s and women’s golf.

The basketball team’s 100 percent Graduation Success Rate is 24 percent better than the 2012-15 national average. Men’s golf’s perfect score is 14 percent above the national average, and women’s golf is seven percent above the national average. Volleyball’s perfect Graduation Success Rate is eight points higher than the national average.

Besides the perfect scores from men’s basketball, volleyball and both golf teams, two other Trojan programs finished above 80 percent. The women’s cross country and track and field teams earned a GSR of 86 percent, and the swimming and diving team also had a GSR of 86 percent.

The NCAA Graduation Success Rate is designed to show the proportion of student-athletes on any given team who earn a college degree. The NCAA has imposed a new set of academic standards that seeks to hold teams and institutions accountable for how well a student-athlete progresses toward a degree.

The Graduation Success Rate was developed in response to colleges and universities who asked for an alternative rate that more accurately reflects the movement among college student-athletes. The GSR takes into account incoming transfers who graduate from a different institution than the one in which they started and transfers who leave an institution in good standing.

The Graduation Success Rate starts with all freshmen who enter college in a given year. It excludes from the denominator those athletes who leave the institution in good academic standing and includes in the numerator those who transfer into the institution and go on to graduate. The GSR better accounts for the high mobility of student-athletes.