According to SIUC athletic department records, men’s sports teams lag behind women’s sports teams in regards to the cumulative grade point averages of their athletes.

After the 1995 spring semester, the women’s sports cumulative GPA is 2.96 and the men’s is 2.75.

In addition, five of the top six cumulative GPAs belonged to women’s sports teams. The women’s tennis team led the field with a 3.30 GPA, followed by women’s golf and volleyball. The highest men’s finish was men’s tennis in fifth place.

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Nancy Bandy, SIUC assistant athletic director, said the reason why women student athletes do better in the classroom is hard to single out.

I don’t think there is one reason as to why women do better than men, Bandy said.

Brian Bartolini, academic advisor in the SIUC athletic department, said he sees no difference in the ratio of women-to-men athletes that seek help in his office because of their classes.

You could say that more males come in because there are more male athletes, Bartolini said. But based on some kind of percentage, there’s no difference at all.

Bartolini did say the lack of professional sports for women could play a role in pushing women to do their best in school.

Women know that competing at this level ends for them after college, he said. Graduating then means everything to them.

Bartolini said SIUC’s difference in men’s and women’s GPAs is not anything that should not be

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see GPA, page 11