PORTLAND, Ore. – Another record total of student-athletes earned the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Faculty Athletic Representative Scholar Athlete award presented by Barnes & Noble College, as 394 individuals were named when the conference announced the 2023-24 winners on Tuesday.
 
The complete listing of 2023-24 GNAC FAR Scholar Athlete award winners can be viewed here.
 
The figure is 30 more student-athletes than the 2022-23 record-breaking number of 364, as the conference’s schools continued to maintain a high level of academic excellence. The GNAC FAR Scholar Athlete Award recognizes all student-athletes listed on any squad at a GNAC institution, regardless of whether the sport is a GNAC championship sport, who have compiled a cumulative grade point average of 3.85 or greater. Conference affiliate members could nominate only student-athletes from the sport in which they compete within the GNAC.
 
The 2023-24 academic year marks the fourth consecutive year that more than 300 student-athletes were honored. The latest list of recipients included 262 female student-athletes and 132 male student-athletes with representation from all 10 GNAC full members as well as women’s rowing affiliates Cal Poly Humboldt and University of Central Oklahoma.
 
Central Washington had the most total GNAC FAR Scholar Athletes with 67, including 41 females and 26 males which were the highest figures in each gender. Alaska Anchorage followed with 53 recipients and Western Washington had the third-most honorees with 49 total.
A faculty athletic representative (FAR) is a member of the faculty at an NCAA member institution who has been designated to serve as a liaison between the institution’s faculty and the athletic department. The FAR serves as a representative of the institution in conference and NCAA affairs.
The role of the FAR is “to ensure that the academic institution establishes and maintains the appropriate balance between academics and athletics.”