The University Athletic Association held a board meeting Wednesday to discuss a variety of issues, including athlete academics, student tickets and facility expansions. Despite a recent NCAA study showing the Georgia football and men’s basketball programs at the bottom of the SEC in graduation success rate, both Athletic Director Damon Evans and University President Michael Adams said improvements are being made.

“When you start talking about the football and basketball programs, which get a lot of the criticism when it comes to academics, right now our football program is in the top-10 of all BCS schools with regard to APR,” Evans said. “That’s something we should be proud of. Our men’s basketball APR in the SEC is second, only to Vanderbilt.”

APR, or academic progress rate, includes eligibility, retention, and graduation as factors in determining the progress of every athlete, according to ncaa.org. GSR measures the percentage of an entering class that graduates within six years.

Adams stressed APR as the more accurate “snapshot” compared to the GSR’s “movie”.

“We are making substantial progress in the APR, which is the current snapshot, and over time that should lead to an improvement in GSR,” he said.

“Don’t expect next year that all of a sudden the graduation rates are going to jump,” Evans said, adding the current academic policy has garnered positive attention from across the country and the NCAA. “It takes time for these things to turn around.”

Evans also pointed to newly-released GPA studies from the fall 2006 and spring 2007 semesters. The overall student-athlete GPA from those semesters was 2.93, one of the best in the school’s history, Evans said.

There were also 200 athletes with GPAs over 3.5, with almost half having GPAs over 3.0.

Women’s sports had a cumulative GPA of 3.09, men 2.78.

Football and men’s basketball were the University sports with the lowest average.