Rochester, Mich. (June 4, 2007) ???C Student-athletes at Oakland University are devoting more of their time over the summer to academic pursuits in addition to the usual off-season conditioning that they already take part in as they prepare for their individual playing seasons. This summer Golden Grizzly student-athletes have turned out in record numbers for spring and summer semester classes as they work towards their degrees. ???Every semester OU???s student-athletes are working extremely hard to raise cultural expectations when it comes to academic excellences,??? said De'Andre Shepard, the athletic department???s athletic academic advisor. ???I???m proud to say that this spring semester is no different. We have 156 student-athletes registered for spring 2007. This is an increase of almost 80 athletes from spring 2006. This sends out a strong message to the Oakland University community that our athletes are just as concerned with their academics as they are with athletics.??? For the fall semester of 2006, Oakland had a record 53 student-athletes recognized as Academic All-Mid-Contintent by the conference. It was one of only three schools in the league that has as many as 50 on the list.