Stephen Farmer, vice provost for enrollment and undergraduate admissions, said student-athletes are subject to the same admissions processes as other students and are also subject to additional scrutiny.
“The Advisory Committee on Undergraduate Admissions is not in charge of that responsibility, neither is the Committee on Special Talent, neither is any other faculty or any other administrator,” he said. “By University policy, the admissions office makes admissions decisions, and that’s true for student-athletes, no less for any other student.”
Farmer said there has been a significant decrease in the number of student-athletes admitted with predicted grade point averages of less than a 2.3 from 2006 to 2015. According to Farmer’s data, 29 out of 157 students in 2006 had predicted GPAs below 2.3, compared to only nine out of 152 in 2015.
“Different people can have different opinions about this change, of course, but these are the facts,” he said. “They’re apples to apples comparisons from year to year.”
He said these trends mean the framework for predicted GPA has higher standards than in the past.
“If you look at the trend lines of all these and you stack them up one to the other, they tell a story,” Farmer said. “And I think what they tell is that there is a story here of progress over the long haul, not over the last year, not over the last two years, but for a long time.”
Faculty Athletics Committee chairperson Joy Renner said she is pleased with the trends in admission.
“I think we like the structure and process that’s in place. We’re holistically evaluating individuals for success at Carolina, so I think everybody feels strongly that that’s a move forward,” Renner said.
