Student athletes looking to dismiss negative stereotypes about their intelligence have some new ammunition.
A report by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, shows that the national graduation rate among student athletes is actually higher than that of the general student population. But those statistics might not pertain to UF.
According to the NCAA's Web site, 64 percent of Division I student athletes who entered college in 2001 graduated by 2007. The graduation rate of the general student population at all Division I schools is 62 percent during the same time period.
Keith Carodine, senior associate athletic director of student life in the University Athletic Association, said UF has seen an increase in the graduation rate of student athletes from last year, increasing from 57 percent to 61 percent. Carodine attributes this trend to an increase in the number of required college-preparatory courses for incoming student athletes.
At UF, the national trend of student athletes graduating at a higher rate than the general student body does not hold true. Eighty-one percent of UF students who enrolled in 2001 graduated, according to the NCAA Web site.
Carodine said students leaving early to play professional sports is UF's biggest problem in trying to graduate athletes.
Derrick Harvey, a former defensive end on the UF football team, illustrated this issue perfectly, he said.
Harvey was at UF for about 3.5 years but was offered a $23.8 million contract with the NFL.
"It's hard to convince a young person to hang around for another semester," Carodine said.
He said there are institutions that admit students with doubtful qualifications, but that is not the case at UF. The UAA offers tutoring services and transcript evaluations for student athletes. It also uses a formula to predict whether potential students would likely be successful academically.
Ethan Philpot, a materials science and engineering senior on the UF track team, said he plans to graduate and thinks the athletes who are lumped into the stereotype either don't care or don't try.
Carodine said the main advantage UF athletes have is the availability of academic advisers: It's a several-hundred-to-one ratio for the general student body, whereas UF athletes have a ratio closer to 70-to-1.
While Philpot said he believes this attention gives them an advantage, he attributes student athletes' success to the fact that their effort is driven by their desire to play sports.
"You can't do one without the other," he said. "If you want to do sports, you have to keep up your grades."
