Report shows Saint Mary’s athletes excel in classroom

WINONA, Minn. — For any student-athlete, statistics help tell the story of their individual or team successes.

Goals, assists, attack percentage, field goals made, split times, service aces, batting average … the list goes on and on.

For members of the 21 varsity intercollegiate sports at Saint Mary’s University, however, one statistic stands out above all the rest — 3.11. That’s the overall SMU student-athlete grade-point-average for Fall 2009 semester, as calculated by Saint Mary’s institutional research.

“I am very proud of the accomplishments of our student-athletes on and off the field of competition,” said SMU athletic director Nikki Fennern, noting that 16 of the 21 varsity teams boasted a team GPA of 3.00 or higher, with the women’s track and field (3.53) and the men’s cross country (3.43) leading the charge. “Academic success is the main goal of all of our students. To achieve this while committing many hours per week to their sport, work, and other campus activities is even more impressive.”

Of the 325 current student-athletes — who make up 25 percent of SMU’s full-time undergraduate population — 15 had perfect 4.0 GPAs, while 73 were named to the Dean’s List with GPAs of 3.60 or above, and 182 finished the fall semester at 3.00 or higher.

Along with their successes in competition and in the classroom, several Cardinal teams have also been busy volunteering their time around the Winona community. Over half of SMU’s teams have spent time volunteering in the community or for special events such as cancer awareness and Gifts for Winona. More community service opportunities are scheduled for second semester.

“It is important for our student-athletes to give back to the community,” Fennern said. “These young men and women show great generosity with their time and energy.”