LACEY, Wash. – For the first time in department history, Saint Martin's was honored with the The President's Award for Academic Excellence on Wednesday.
 
To receive the award, a D-II school must have achieved an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 90% or higher. Saint Martin's was one of 43 schools in all of D-II to earn the award, finishing with a 90%.
 
"I am very proud of our staff, coaches, and student athletes in receiving this recognition for academic excellence," said Athletic Director Bob Grisham. "The shared goal of academic success for our student athletes takes place at the university due to the outstanding collaborative effort we have with our faculty and support services."
 
From the D-II President's Award Release, "The Division II ASR includes transfers into a school in the calculation and removes transfers out who left school while academically eligible. The ASR also includes the more than 31,000 non-scholarship student-athletes who were enrolled in the four years covered in the most recent data."
 
"Even when using the less-inclusive federal graduation rates, student-athletes are outperforming their peers in the general student population by 8%. For Division II athletes, the federal rate increased 1 percentage point to 60%, and the general student body increased 1 point to 52%."
 
Saint Martin's was one of three GNAC schools honored, along with Western Washington, and Seattle Pacific.