University of Tennessee Athletics
Five Student-Athletes Earn 1A FAR Academic Awards
December 17, 2015 | General
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The University of Tennessee was well represented at the 1A FAR 2015 Annual Meeting in Grapevine, Texas, as five student-athletes were honored with Academic Excellence Awards.
UT’s honorees included Kaitlan Aries of the rowing team, Cierra Burdick of the women’s basketball team, Michael Cantwell of the football team, Lizzie Cornell of the women’s cross country and track & field team and Allie Sirna of the soccer team. This marked the fourth time in five years that Tennessee had at least five student-athletes earn recognition.
“It is important that we recognize and celebrate the outstanding academic accomplishments of our student-athletes,” Tennessee Faculty Athletics Representative Donald Bruce said. “These five individuals have represented our university so well over the years, and we are very proud of each one of them.”
The 1A FAR (Faculty Athletics Representatives) is an organization of faculty athletics representatives at NCAA Division I institutions in the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly known as Division 1A. The mission of the 1A FAR is to advocate for effective interaction and academic and fiscal balance between an institution's academic mission and its intercollegiate program.
Academic Excellence Award recipients must have graduated during the past academic year (2014-15) with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.80, and they must have participated in at least two years of intercollegiate athletics at an FBS institution in a sport sponsored by an FBS conference.
Tennessee has now produced 27 1A FAR Academic Excellence Award recipients in the past five years. Six student-athletes were honored in 2014, three were honored in 2013, six were honored in 2012 and seven in the award's inaugural event in 2011.
The faculty athletics representative is a designation created and mandated by the NCAA. FARs must be members of an institution's faculty and may not hold an administrative or coaching position in the athletics department. Duties vary by institution, but typically a FAR serves as a liaison to the athletics department. The 1A FAR is an advocate for the appropriate balance and effective interaction between an institution's academic mission and its intercollegiate athletics program.
All FARs who serve at NCAA Division IA institutions are members of 1A FAR.
