Accomplished Class of 2010 To Campus
 The class of 2010 walks toward the Campus Seal during their first day of orientation. |
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — On Thursday, Aug. 17, Wittenberg University rolled out the welcome mat for one of the most impressive freshman classes in school history.
In an era of intense competition among institutions of higher education, Wittenberg stood out in the crowd in 2006. The class of 2010 numbers 643, including 25 high school class valedictorians, six salutatorians and a phenomenal 113 students who posted a 4.0 grade point average during their academic careers.
More than 100 Wittenberg faculty and staff members, in addition to nearly 100 orientation assistants – students hired to lead New Student Days activities to help first-year students become acclimated to campus – were on hand to greet the students and their parents upon their arrival. It is the latest personal touch applied by Wittenberg’s administration and one that played a significant role in securing a class that exceeded goals by almost every conceivable measure.
“Our entire campus became fully engaged in the recruitment process this year,” said Brad Pochard, Wittenberg director of admission, “and we couldn’t be happier with the results.”
Students who had been admitted to the university and were still considering both Wittenberg and other schools were contacted by faculty members, alumni and students. It was a project, spearheaded by the university’s department of admission, that displayed qualities that make the university special – a close-knit community of dedicated professionals who constantly find innovative ways to get the most out of their students.
The results were tremendous. More than 58 percent of the 113 students contacted by faculty members eventually decided that Wittenberg was the right place for them. Similarly, 30 percent of the 780 prospectives contacted by a current student and an amazing 51 of the 53 prospectives contacted by an alumna or alumnus of the university made the same decision.
“It really takes a campus to recruit a student, and we found new ways to work across office boundaries to increase our enrollment by a significant percentage in 2006,” Pochard said.
 Orientation Assistants Brian Walters and Reid Lockwood welcome first-year students in Commencement Hollow. |
Overall, the class boasts an average high school grade point average of 3.44 with outstanding standardized test scores. A total of 30 states and another 14 countries, spanning from Asia to Africa to Europe, are represented, with more than 28 percent of the incoming class hailing from outside Ohio.
The class of 2010 offers great diversity, including 33 international students, 39 non-African American minorities and 28 African-American students. In each case, that figure is at least twice that of a year ago.
Also of interest, 88 students who list their religious affiliation as Lutheran and 94 students who are from Clark County or a contiguous county are among the new enrollees.
All were welcomed much as they were recruited – with a typical Wittenberg personal touch. As part of a new tradition started by President Mark H. Erickson in 2005, less than two months after he took over as the university’s 13th president, members of the Wittenberg community not only shared breakfast pastries with their weary travelers upon their arrival, but they also carried luggage and helped students gain familiarity with their new surroundings.
“Few people outside the Wittenberg community will ever know the heart and effort that went into bringing in this class,” Erickson said. “I am enormously proud of our faculty and staff’s commitment to our students, and we look forward to learning and growing with the great class of 2010.”
Classes are scheduled to start bright and early Monday, Aug. 21, but first things first, which means the new students will spend several days getting to know one another and the campus that they will call home for the next four years. New Student Days, a series of activities organized by the Office of Student Development and the orientation assistants, will open with a march from Commencement Hollow, the site of these students’ future graduation, to the HPER Center for a welcoming convocation led by Erickson.
New Student Days continues throughout the weekend with meetings with professors, parties, activities and presentations on campus living. On Saturday, new students will also sign the Honor Roll, a formal document that Wittenberg students sign to attest that they will abide by the university’s honor code, a policy of academic integrity.
- Ryan Maurer
084-06
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