University of Montana Athletes are doing more than just achieving success on the field or on the court, they're also setting records in the classroom.

Director of Athletics Kent Haslam said student athletes set a new benchmark in their grades in the most recent semester.

"The students set a new record for the highest ever cumulative GPA for fall of 2015 of 3.19, and it's an amazing accomplishment for these young people," Haslam said. "The days of just coming to school and being an athlete are long gone, The restrictions that are in place and the progress towards a degree that a student athlete must show are very strict. You can't just show up and take a bunch of credits, they have to result in a degree. They must be full-time students with at least 12 credits per semester."

Haslam was proud to say that student athletes regularly out-perform the general student population in the classroom.

"From credits to GPA, to graduation rates to retention, all those things that are so measured in today's higher education field, our student athletes really do set the bar and are required to make sure they are on track to graduate," he said. "You look at what they're doing in the classroom and the community and in the classroom, I really am proud of their hard work."

The university recently completed a new $2.5 million academics center inside the Adams Center on campus, where students can gather to study, use the computer labs and meet with academic counselors.

 

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