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ucf TODAY
Dead Last
UCF FACTS* The Princeton Review and Kiplinger’s named UCF a bestvalue university, and Forbes named UCF one of the nation’s 50 most-affordable colleges. In 2010-11, UCF awarded $408 million in financial aid to students.
How Dr. Richard Lapchick made it public, President Hitt supported it and the UCF coaches and staff responded. There are lots of reasons I am proud to work at UCF for President John Hitt. I have been lucky enough to be friends with John since early in his presidency around the same time we opened a regional office of The National Consortium for Academics and Sports on campus in the early 1990s. I joined UCF in 2001 when I came on board as the chair of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program and the director for The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. We publish 20-plus reports every year that are widely publicized in the media on racial and gender hiring practices and on graduation rates of student-athletes. When I came to UCF and started the publications, I was a little relieved that UCF was not making bowl games or the NCAA basketball tournaments. They are the two areas we report on graduation rates. I knew that UCF’s record had not been great at that time. But I knew that we had hired one of the best people in the country for academic affairs and student-athletes and that things would change. When UCF made its first bowl appearance in 2005, I had to publish the graduation rates of UCF which still had not reached where we would want them to be. In fact, of all the 2005 bowl bound teams we were last in graduation rates and next to last in Academic Progress Rates (APR). Those are the two best measures of the academic success of student-athletes. Our report did not mention UCF, but they were listed in the table with all the other bowl bound teams. The Orlando Sentinel headline for the story was “UCF worst in graduation rates, next to worse in APR rates.” When I came to campus I received phone calls and emails from people across campus unhappy that I had released this information since I was a UCF employee.
• Average SAT scores of incoming freshmen increased for the seventh consecutive year
UCF President John Hitt and Richard Lapchick induct Rich DeVos into the National Consortium for Academics and Sports Hall of Fame. (L-R) Lin Dawson, Charece Williams, Rich DeVos, Richard Lapchick and John Hitt.
Coincidently, I had a meeting that afternoon with John Hitt about another matter. We talked about various things for most of the hour. As I was leaving John said, “Thank you for holding our feet to the fire. We will be better as a result.” The last time UCF was in a bowl game, the report showed that UCF was fourth in graduation rates and fifth in academic progress rates and had, indeed, gotten better. Much better. John Hitt is a president who wants a winning athletic program, but knows that the biggest value of athletics may be the fact that so many young people get an education who would not have had the chance had they not received the scholarship to play in their sport. If we do not help them to succeed academically, then we are failing in the mission. UCF athletics now has consistently high graduation rates as well as a core of student-athletes who serve endless hours in the community trying to make Central Florida a better place. Again it is one of the reasons that I most appreciate our president. Among many.
-Dr. Richard Lapchick
• Ranked second in Florida and 34th in U.S. for number of first-time-in-college National Merit Scholars • Ranked fourth “Top Up-andComing” national university by U.S. News & World Report
Top 15 Majors, Enrollment 1. Psychology 2. Nursing 3. Biomedical Sciences 4. Biology 5. General Business 6. Health Sciences: Pre-Clinical 7. Accounting 8. Elementary Education 9. Interdisciplinary Studies 10. Hospitality Management 11. Mechanical Engineering 12. Finance 13. Criminal Justice 14. Marketing 15. Management
Chair of DeVos Sport Business Management Program
REPORT CARD
Each week, UCF coaches receive academic reports from the department
of Academics Services for Student-Athletes. Staffed with 11 hard-working individuals, Academic Services ensures 450 athletes are academically successful. Here’s an example of their accomplishments for 2011-12.
Top 5 Degree Programs: Sport and Exercise Science, Business, Interdisciplinary Studies, Criminal Justice and Interpersonal/Organizational Communication.
69 4 3.37 3 50 1000 26 1 83% 2
Different majors the athletes are pursuing Consecutive years the athletic department GPA has been at least a 3.0 Highest UCF team GPA (volleyball) Years in a row, All-American Team Academic Award (volleyball) Student-athletes earned a perfect 4.0 GPA Perfect score, NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) (women’s tennis) Points above the APR multi-year national average (football) C-USA Sport Academic Award for highest GPA in the conference for its sport (football) Highest graduation success rate in UCF history, three points above national average Teams earned Academic All-American status, one of only two universities in the state to achieve this status (men’s and women’s tennis)
*Fall 2011