The old days of its hard to get out of gt are over.
97% of freshman return for soph year.
Regular students get tutoring.
We graduate football players at a rate of almost 90%
Collins has continued our academic support for athletes but has changed it from a program to a culture.
The era of making fun of the "just got off of his job at WALMART type uga fan" is over.
I think this is true, but I'd add these points.
True, like almost every other post-secondary institution, graduation and retention rates at Tech have gone up. That doesn't mean it has gotten easier to get into and out of Tech. If experience elsewhere is any gage, this is probably (I don't know for sure) due to several things:
• My guess is that Tech is a lot more careful about how they let in these days. Schools try really, really hard to, as our admissions guy said once, "… not let in problems." The idea is that if you work at it you will recruit and admit students who want to learn and live at a place like yours. Hence, they will be happy in their work and stick around. The last is goal number 1 for all colleges.
• My guess is that Tech is using advising extensively. Better then half the battle in retaining students is to get them into courses and majors where they succeed. This has been the rule for football programs everywhere for awhile, even before the new NCAA regs. Now it extends to as many students as can be dragged, kicking and screaming, into advising sessions.
• My guess is that Tech is doing research on a regular basis to identify courses that have a high "D/F/WF" rate and work to change them or provide extra aid to their students.
And all that leads to a school where it is easier to stick, even if the standards don't take any sort of hit at all. That Collins has embraced this is a good thing, but my guess is that his major job was to integrate his efforts with the ones the school already had in place and to promote them to the hilt. That isn't easy.
