While problems with UNC athletics persist, recent statistics regarding athletes’ graduation rates have proven to be a bright spot.
The report outlined at the Faculty Athletics Committee meeting on Tuesday underscores that the idea of “scholar-athlete” is not entirely compromised at UNC.
Graduation rates among athletes stand at 87 percent — the second highest in the University’s peer group, in spite of being sixth in the ACC in another recent report.
The University continues to deal with the fallout from academic and agent-related improprieties committed by athletes on the football team. This, plus the recent dismissal of Will Graves from the basketball team, have hardly helped how fellow Tar Heels feel toward their athletic peers.
It is easy to forget among all of the recent sour news that UNC has historically been a leader in graduating athletes. The school’s emphasis on academic success relative to peers has been exceptional, in spite of the fact that the football program appears to have forsaken that goal in recent years.
Emphasizing the success that UNC has in graduating athletes is therefore critical.
If high graduation rates are indicative of academic commitment, then they demonstrate that this fall’s very public and very damning details about UNC athletics constitute the exception rather than the rule.
High-revenue sports seem to have a tendency toward controversy. Money has a tendency to alter standards.
Having said that, we believe that the vast majority of athletes at UNC — across all of the sports that are offered — understand the significance of both their academic and athletic commitment. Reports of high graduation rates among athletes would seem to support that belief.
