DAYTON, Ohio – The University of Dayton Athletics Division unveiled its new Anthony A. Riggs Academic Center today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by University President Dr. Dan Curran, UD Vice-President/Director of Athletics Tim Wabler, the Riggs family and representatives of UD’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

The Riggs Academic Center, located on the second floor of the home for Dayton Flyer athletics, the Frericks Center, contains the infrastructure needed to provide top-tier academic support services for Dayton’s more than 350 student-athletes. The renovations include expanding the capacity of the center to 54 workstations and adding two conference/tutoring rooms.

“Our current student-athletes, as well as the next generations of Flyers, will benefit from the generosity of the Riggs family,” Wabler said. “We owe a debt of gratitude to them for the gift to the University that covered the entire cost of the project.”

UD’s student-athletes have a combined cumulative GPA of 3.227. Nine different Flyer athletics teams have multi-year APR scores of 990 (out of a perfect APR of 1000). UD’s GSR of 97.38 is the best in the Atlantic 10 Conference and remains in the top 25 in the country. Dayton had 104 student-athletes named to the Atlantic 10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll this spring, and had 113 named in the fall. Another 56 football players were on the Pioneer Football League Honor Roll. 

And all six Flyer head coaches surveyed in the NCAA’s first-ever head coach APR analyses were well above the national average in each of their sports.

“By any yardstick you use – Academic Progress Rates, Graduation Success Rates, the combined GPA of our student-athletes, the number of Flyers on conference academic honor rolls or the individual coach APR database just released last week by the NCAA – the University of Dayton is one of the nation's leaders in the academic performance of its student-athletes,” said Wabler.

“Thanks to the generosity of Tony and Sheila Riggs, we will be able to maintain our high standards of academic success, and as difficult as it will be to do in some cases, improve upon them,” Wabler added. “The Anthony A. Riggs Academic Center sends a clear message about the commitment the University of Dayton has made to its student-athletes, and the commitment the Riggs family has made to them.”

The 2010-11 academic year for the University will begin on Wednesday, August 25.