INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence is awarded to Division II schools that have achieved a four year (2012-15) Academic Success Rate of 90% or higher. Lewis is one of 44 schools to earn this award. The NCAA and the federal government measure time to graduate within a six-year window from first-time enrollment. The graduation rates for the 2012-2015 are reported from 2019 to 2022.

Lewis has a four-year ASR of 92 percent and is one of five schools in the Great Lakes Valley Conference to receive the award. 

The Division II ASR includes transfers into a school in the calculation and removes those who transferred out while academically eligible. The ASR also includes the more than 30,000 non-scholarship student-athletes who were enrolled in the four years covered in the most recent data.

Even when using the less-inclusive federal graduation rate, student-athletes are outperforming their peers in the general student population by 8 percentage points. For Division II student-athletes, the federal rate is 60%, while the general student body federal rate is 52%.