Eastern Michigan athletics department receives NCAA certification

NCAA Division I institutions must be certified every 10 years. The certification follows a year-long self-study that involved more than 50 people and focused on five areas: governance and commitment to rules and compliance, academic integrity, gender equity, diversity and student athlete well-being.

“We are gratified and proud to receive this certification from the NCAA,” said Eastern Michigan president Susan Martin. “The process was extremely rigorous, and spotlighted the many strengths of Eastern's athletics program, including our attention to rules compliance, academics and the well-being of our athletes.”

The university also announced that its 21 varsity teams had a cumulative grade point average of 3.201 during the fall 2012 semester, the highest in school history.

Eastern’s certification process was the final one initiated before the NCAA placed a moratorium on the certification process.

The certification process is separate from the NCAA enforcement process. The EMU women’s basketball program is currently on NCAA probation for four major violations.

EMU recently highlighted one of its new compliance initiatives: having interns observe practices and games to help maintain compliance.