Buffalo, NY - The Canisius Athletic Department established a school record with a 98 percent Graduation Success Rate in the latest data released by the NCAA.
Canisius' 98 percent GSR, representing incoming student-athletes from 2013-17, eclipses the school record that was established in the 2020 report and equaled by the 2021 and 2022 reports. Wednesday's release also represents the sixth consecutive year that the University's athletic department has either matched or improved upon its graduation success rate from the previous report.
The data also showed that all 16 of the Canisius' varsity programs posted a GSR score of 90 or higher while a total of 12 Canisius programs recorded perfect 100 percent graduation rates: men's cross country/track, golf, hockey, men's swimming and diving, men's soccer, women's basketball, women's cross country/track, rowing, women's lacrosse, women's soccer, women's swimming and diving and volleyball.
The Graduation Success Rate measures graduation rates for student-athletes by team. The GSR considers student-athletes who are on scholarship their first year and who graduate from their respective universities or leave their programs, via transfer to other universities or for professional opportunities, while in good academic standing. A complete and searchable Graduation Rates Report is available online at NCAA.org.
"On behalf of the entire Canisius community, we are incredibly proud of our student-athletes for continuing the tradition of academic excellence at Canisius," Director of Athletics Bill Maher said. "I remain impressed at the determination and commitment our student-athletes display in their pursuit of being the best versions of themselves, both in the classroom and in their respective fields of competition. We are fortunate to have a wonderful support system within our campus community that allows our student-athletes to grow and develop into the future community leaders of tomorrow."
GSR measures the success of an athletics department in graduating its student-athletes within a six-year period. Unlike Federal Graduation Rate, which assesses only first-time, full-time freshmen, GSR also includes transfer students and mid-year enrollees in the sample. Student-athletes who leave an institution while in good academic standing before exhausting athletics eligibility are removed from the cohort of their initial institution (essentially passed to another squad's GSR cohort if they transfer and removed altogether in the case of early departures for professional careers). The GSR provides a more complete and accurate look at actual student-athlete success by taking into account the full variety of participants in Division I athletics and tracking their academic outcomes.
