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The students enrolled at UMass Lowell this fall are not only more numerous than at any time in the past, but also more accomplished, more diverse and facing a richer, more challenging on-campus life than any of their predecessors.
This year’s freshman class, the largest in the University’s history, bring with them an average high-school GPA of 3.17 (roughly the same as last year’s group), and an average SAT score of 1083, up from 1071 a year ago. Both these numbers, as well as other such indices of student performance, are as high as they’ve ever been, and trending upward – making for an increasingly accomplished, increasingly motivated student body.
And more among them are minorities than ever before – a 51 percent increase in the past two years alone – which, says Dean of Students Larry Siegel, cannot help but create a richer campus experience for everyone involved:
“The diversity we’re achieving enriches the experience here for all students, not just those from [minority] backgrounds,” says Siegel. “Our mission is to prepare our students to be productive in a global society. To do this, it’s important that they understand the uniqueness of all of us – the special needs, preferences and cultures of all those they encounter – because the world they’ll be entering is very diverse and complex.”
At least one other demographic is also showing an uptick. Nearly 2,900 students are living in University housing this fall, a 13 percent increase over last year. This has been made possible through the addition of more than 700 new beds over the past two years: roughly 400 in the newly outfitted UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center and another 119 in Fox Hall, the site of a recent multimillion-dollar renovation. More than a third of UMass Lowell students are now living on campus – bringing the University within reach of Chancellor Meehan’s stated goal of a 50-50 resident-to non-resident mix.
Commuter students, meanwhile, are hardly being overlooked. This fall marks the start of the second year of the UMass Lowell Proximity Program, which offers reduced tuition to southern New Hampshire students living within a 20-mile distance who would not otherwise be able to afford the cost. With 138 students now taking advantage of the program – as opposed to fewer than 100 last year – it seems clear that the University has uncovered a heretofore unmet need.
But perhaps the most exciting new campus initiative – launched largely through the efforts of Provost Ahmed Abdelal – has less to do with numbers than with lives. Beginning this fall, all incoming freshmen (as opposed to roughly half in 2008-09, the program’s first year) have been enrolled in cohorts of 20 to 25 students each, known as learning communities, in which they share three core courses, a faculty adviser and a major or academic theme. To further cement the bond among them, all residential freshmen in a particular cohort are assigned to the same University residence hall.
The underlying objective, as the provost explained last year, is to improve the freshman-to-sophomore retention rate (and thus the graduation rate) by helping students “bond with each other and with a faculty mentor, and [thereby] connect solidly with the campus.”
In a further extension of this concept, in place for the first time this year, designated sections of Fox Hall have been given over to cohorts of 20 or more residential freshmen, known as living-learning communities (or LLCs), joined by their interest in some distinct (usually non-academic) topic or theme. Though looser and less formal in their make-up, LLCs also are often mentored by faculty.
Both the learning communities and the LLCs, says Siegel, “give students the opportunity to come together around a shared life interest – politics, the environment, performing arts, whatever – and to explore it further, often with the people they’re living with. This is the sort of thing that builds connections, often friendships – as well as knowledge. All of which goes a long way toward making for a richer, fuller college experience.”
This is the second in a series of articles looking at enrollment. Read the first in the series. The final installment will examine the generosity that is funding some of these changes, and so enriching students’ lives.