The numbers will not be final until the second week in October, but we are expecting to have our largest freshmen class in EWU history with over 1,700 first year students! The previous record was 1,610. Transfer numbers are expected to be slightly lower than last year, based on lower CC enrollments. Graduate enrollments grew, and international enrollments also saw a nice boost.
Orientation: Increases in the first-year class translated into record numbers of students and parents attending summer firstSTEP sessions, up 20%. Over eight orientation sessions, we welcomed over 3,000 students and family members. The program continues to improve through collaboration with colleagues on campus. This year, all students were pre-registered by academic advisors with assistance from the Registrar’s Office, ensuring full-time status that leads toward fulfillment of GE and major requirements and making efficient use of the course offerings throughout the summer. At this moment, Welcome Week is in full swing, with our usual week-long slate of student integration and community-building activities. Again this year, students will be able to access the WW schedule online and via an app on their compatible mobile devices: creating a customized schedule, accessing web-based resources, and viewing the campus map for real-time directions.
Following our successful 2014 pilot of the “Think About It” web-based sexual assault training, we have re-launched the program for all incoming students this fall and have improved the online course with a specific offering tailored for older, non-traditional students and graduate students. In context with sexual assault education, the course covers healthy relationships, sexual assault prevention, high-risk drinking, and marijuana use.
Record enrollment, the 2nd year of the live-on requirement and continued improvements to residential life led to another landmark year for housing occupancy, opening with over 2,100 residents. Housing and Residential Life will have academic success coaches in the halls this year as a new initiative to continue supporting students with their academics.
Fall brings the ASEWU Student Leadership Mentor Program into its seventh year, the Career/Alumni Mentoring program into its third year, and the official launch of the Faculty Mentoring Program for First Gen through Housing and Residential Life after a successful pilot last year. These programs are several of the successful mentoring programs that EWU is cultivating (others offered through Academic Affairs and Athletics).
Eagle Spirit Week (EWU’s combined Homecoming and Parent/Family Weekend celebration) kicks off October 30 and will feature campus traditions including the football game pep rally, bonfire and bed races, Fall Family Festival, and Family Sunday Brunch.
The EWU Veterans Resource Center established a new Student Veterans Endowment to create a student veteran scholarship in perpetuity. Work continues on fundraising for a veterans monument on campus.
We dove into our Small Towns Initiative this summer with the EWU Summer Service Plunge, designed to develop meaningful connections between current students, staff, and alumni and members of three local communities that many of our students call home. On July 18, EWU community members plunged into service work with three local towns: Colfax, Walla Walla, and Colville.
A new contract with the YMCA for the Childcare Center provides for a stronger child development program with regularized schedules, improved staff training, and a best-practices curriculum. The Center continues to provide student rates significantly below market rate thanks to the investment of EWU students through the S&A fees.
Records and Registration, in collaboration with campus partners, implemented a Schedule Planner which allows students to create a “shopping cart” of needed classes that will automatically feed into Banner, making registration more effective and efficient for students.
