Student-athletes at the University of New Mexico are graduating at a much higher rate than the general student body, according to a report released Thursday by the NCAA.

And athletes in the university’s two marquee programs — football and men’s basketball — have seen steady improvement in their graduation rates over the past several years while the national graduation rates for those two sports are at an all-time high.

UNM women’s basketball has seen a 100 percent graduation rate for three straight years.

“It’s a departmentwide commitment to supporting our student-athletes,” said Henry Villegas, UNM’s associate athletic director in charge of student development. “It’s a contribution of our coaches, our faculty, our academic counselors and our staff here at the Lobo Center for Student Athlete Success, the academic support program. It’s all those pieces. And of course the student-athletes themselves are putting in the work, too.”

According to the NCAA report, 60 percent of student-athletes competing in UNM’s 17 sponsored sports who enrolled in the 2005-06 school year earned their bachelor’s degree by the completion of the 2011-12 academic year. That is a 1 percentage point drop from last year’s record-high 61 percent. Prior to last year, UNM’s student-athlete graduation rate was never higher than 55 percent.

The report also shows a Graduation Success Rate, a metric that takes into account student-athletes who transfer in or out of a school — not penalizing a school for student-athletes who transfer out in good standing and helping a school for transfers who come in and graduate on time. UNM’s student-athlete GSR last year was at 75 percent, 5 points lower than the national Division I GSR of 80 percent.

UNM’s general student body had a 45 percent graduation rate over the same six-year period.

“Typically the goal of most institutions is to have the student-athletes’ graduation rate match the institution’s (overall) graduation rate, so we’re very pleased with the numbers we’re seeing here,” Villegas said.

UNM’s basketball team had a GSR of 50 percent, which marked the first time UNM’s men’s basketball GSR has been at or above 50 percent for three consecutive years.

Steve Alford was hired as the men’s basketball coach prior to the 2007-08 season, meaning the NCAA’s GSR numbers released Thursday do not yet reflect on one of his recruiting classes, but as Villegas pointed out the coaching staffs universitywide play a large role in the graduation numbers of the student-athletes whether they recruited them or inherited them from a previous coaching staff.

The NCAA shows UNM’s men’s basketball GSR was 7 percent for student-athletes who enrolled in the 1999-2000 season, 23 percent for 2001-02, 27 percent for 2001-02, 43 percent for 2002-03, 56 percent for 2003-04 and 57 percent for 2004-05.

The national GSR for men’s Division I basketball is 74 percent.

UNM’s football team had a GSR of 61 percent in Thursday’s report, the highest ever for the program and a number Villegas said is particularly impressive because of the transition that has happened in that sport during the six-year window the GSR measures. Football student-athletes who enrolled in the 2005-06 school year came to play for Rocky Long, who was replaced by Mike Locksley, who was replaced by Bob Davie.

New Mexico State’s student-athletes had a 70 percent GSR in Thursday’s report, 4 percentage points higher than last year. NMSU’s men’s basketball team’s GSR is just 29 percent, while the NMSU football team matched UNM’s 61 percent clip.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal