May 12, 2006
WACO, Texas - The Baylor University athletic department is pleased to announce that 40 student-athletes are expected to graduate during commencement ceremonies in the Ferrell Center on Saturday, May 13. In the 10 years since the inception of the Big 12 Conference, Baylor has graduated 689 student-athletes.
Baylor prides itself on its student-athlete graduation rate. Since the beginning of the Big 12 Conference in 1996, Baylor has led the Big 12 in graduation rates five times and ranked second on three other occasions. Five Baylor teams recorded perfect scores for their graduation rates and 12 of its 13 intercollegiate athletic programs registered marks above the national average in a report released Dec. 19 by the NCAA. Baylor had a Big 12-best five programs report perfect graduation success rate (GSR) scores and each of its programs scored 80 or higher in the national survey of Division I institutions.
The 2005 NCAA champion Lady Bear basketball team had a perfect GSR score of 100 percent, as did Baylor's women's golf, women's tennis, women's track & cross country and women's volleyball teams. All 13 of Baylor's programs scored at or above the Division I national GSR average and seven--women's basketball (100 percent), women's golf (100), women's tennis (100), women's track and cross country (100), women's volleyball (100), football (88) and baseball (85) led the Big 12 Conference, while the Bears' men's basketball (79), women's softball (94) and men's track & cross country (82) programs both finished No. 2 in the league.
The GSR is a new NCAA measurement that improves the federally mandated graduation rate by including transfer data in the calculation. The average success rate for all of Division I athletics is 76 percent, while it also stands at 76 percent among Division I-A schools, 73 percent among Division I-AA institutions and 79 percent among Division I-AAA programs. The recent NCAA study is based on the graduation rates of student-athletes who entered college from the fall of 1995 through the fall of 1998, allowing for a six-year window in which to earn a degree. Unlike the federally mandated graduation rates, the NCAA's GSR accounts for transfers in good academic standing and provides a more accurate and real-time assessment of graduation success for all athletics programs.
"We are very proud that our student-athletes exhibit dedication and a strong work ethic in their academic endeavors and are also stellar performers in their respective sports," said athletic director Ian McCaw.
May 2006 Graduates
Baseball (3)
Seth Fortenberry
Mike Pankratz
Kevin Sevigny
Women's Basketball (6)
Jordan Davis
Melanie Hamerly
Sheila Lambert
Chameka Scott
Abiola Wabara
Sophia Young
Equestrian (1)
Kimberly Crook
Football (10)
Shawn Bell
Michael Boyd
Travis Farst
Jamaal Harper
Greg Hawthorne
Ryan Jeffrey
Anthony Kreig
Montez Murphy
James Todd
Marcus Venus
Men's Golf (2)
Ryan Baca
Will McDonald
Soccer (6)
Bethany Vick DuBose
Ginny Rosario-Tull
Kristin Ruef
Tanya Sena
Kristin Weegar
Brittani Zonker
Softball (4)
Carrie Leerberg
Tessa Lynam
Stephanie Pomes
Cristin Vitek
Track & Field (3)
Danielle Myricks
Mercy Wagner
Elizabeth Wilson
Volleyball (5)
Desiree Guillard-Young
Emily Huston
Adeline Meira
Stella Odion
Kelly Spriggs
