EBiTi
The Pendul
ELON, NORTH CAROLINA 1 FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2010 | VOLUME 36, EDITION 1
www.elon.edu/pendulum
Moving in aliead of tlie game
Early student arrivals prepare campus for incoming class
Marlena Chertock
Design Editor
Smith Hall is empty, except one lone, early resident:
junior Brandon Marshall. He moved to The Oaks on
June 14 for jobs with Admissions as a summer tour
guide and with the School of Communications as a
student engineer. He is also the Resident Assistant
Coordinator for East Area, and his responsibilities
as RAC required him to move in early. On Aug. 13, he
made Smith his on-campus home.
While Marshall might be the only resident in
Smith, there are about 500 other students who have
also moved in early. The number of students who
move in early is about the same every year, according
to Assistant Director of Residence Life Operations
and Information Management MarQuita Barker.
“The earliest a student could move in this year
was Aug. 9,” Barker said, “and it just depends on
when they need to, according to the adviser.”
Barker said it is not difficult to organize the influx
of students before move-in day in August because
the advisers provide a roster of names, and staff put
the room keys at the early arrival desk in Moseley.
“Moving in early is great," Marshall said. “The
dormitory is quiet, and 1 enjoy the quietness before
all the residents arrive. However, with that said, the
dorms are a little scary at night. It's only scary when
you know you’re the only one there."
Students are only allowed to move in early if
they participate in an organization. Barker said,
including athletes, band members, student workers,
resident assistants, orientation leaders and leaders
of other organizations. These students prepare for
the athletic season, have teambuilding activities,
fundraise for WSOE and plan activities for incoming
freshmen.
Though they are on campus well before classes
begin, students have already begun to work. Marshall
said the days and nights are hectic. He worked 8-5
p.m. and has RAC training.
“For the most part, all the days seem to blend
together,” he said.
Marshall said Residence Life staff move in two
weeks before school starts in order to train and to
prepare the dormitories for residents.
“The sooner RAs/RACs
move in to their dorms, the better, because (we)
need all the rest we can get before training begins,”
he said. “Our training schedule continues up to
move-in day. Our schedule usually consists of day
long guest speakers from departments such as the
counseling or judicial affairs informing us how to
cater to residents.”
Marshall said the RAs get acquainted with one
another and learn how to conduct hall meetings,
be there for residents and resolve conflicts.
The RAs also conduct room checks before
residents arrive. They make sure each room has
desks, beds and dresser drawers and bathrooms
and closets are clean, according to Marshall.
“We make a lot of work orders within
the first two weeks prior to move-in day,”
Marshall said.
Sophomore Cat Valero moved in Aug.
23 becuase of her responsibilities as ■
music promotions manager for WSOE.
She said moving in early is convenient
and less chaotic than moving in at
the same time as everyone else.
Students on WSOE’s executive
staff and those who participated
in semester activities with the
organization were asked to move
in early during the week of Aug. 23 “to
help collect sponsorship, set up booths
around campus and be present as
one of the four locations on campus
during (move-in day),” Valero said.
On move-in day WSOE student DJs play
music outside dorms and give away prizes on-air to
freshmen, said Marshall, who is also a WSOE DJ.
Valero said they aren’t just trying to sell WSOE to
freshmen.
“Our job isn’t to get members to join WSOE and
come to our first general meeting, but to make them
feel like this is a place they can call home,” she
said.
These students who move in early prepare campus
in various ways, from practicing for the first band
performance to planning activities for incoming
freshmen. They try to form a community that
incoming and returning students can depend on,
Valero said.
B at a residence
Freshman class most diverse, biggest in Elon history
Jack Dodson
News Editor
Elon University’s newest class is the
most diverse in the school’s history,
ethnically as well as geographically,
according to Dean of Admissions
Greg Zaiser. And for the first time, the
second most represented state is in New
England.
Ten percent of the newest class
is from Massachusetts, making it
second to North Carolina in student
representation. With 1,365 students,
it’s the biggest class in Elon’s history
and includes students from New Jersey,
Maryland and Virginia.
“The northeast as a whole has
consistently made up the top ten
states represented in our class over the
past five years,” said Assistant Dean
of Admissions Melinda Wood. “Last
year. New Jersey was the largest state
outside of North Carolina and now
Massachusetts is on top.”
The admissions office had so many
applicants that Zaiser said some students
were admitted for spring enrollment,
and 36 of those students have already
committed to coming then.
This year the admissions office saw a
7 percent increase in the applicant pool,
Zaiser said, which meant the university
had to enroll more students in order to
keep its admittance rate at 49 percent,
the same as the last few years.
“It puts us in a selective category,
for sure,” Zaiser said. “(The admittance
rate) has gone up over the last few years
between the increase in the size of the
applicant pool and the marginal increase
in the size of the freshman class.”
The new class also changes the male-
female ratio at Elon. With 42 percent
males, the class has 2 percent more men
than the school-wide average — and
that number was harder to achieve than
it seems, Zaiser said.
Wood said the class has some of the
most geographic diversity ever seen at
Elon with 44 states and 39 countries
represented.
“There is one thing that comes to
mind when I think about this class —
diversity,” Wood said.
She said 20 percent of students are
from multicultural or international
backgrounds, which is a 5 percent
increase from last year. Religious
diversity, too, visibly increased this year
as 7 percent of the class reports being
Jewish — twice what it was with the
class of 2013.
Coming as the first class since
the university-wide adoption of the
most recent strategic plan, The Elon
Commitment, Wood said the class
represents the goals of that plan. While
the strategic plan was just adopted this
year. Wood said admissions has already
been working to increase diversity at
Elon with an admissions plan called
Goals and Objectives.
“This document is meant to stretch
our office to be the best and achieve goals
we didn’t think were possible,” Wood
said. “The focus of our yearly plan is not
limited to the best freshman class, but
a broader focus on topics like training
and education initiates, communication,
and process improvement.”
WithTheElon Commitmentunder way,
though. Wood said the university-wide
strategic plan will draw more attention
and support to the diversity admissions
hopes to bring to Elon.
“The good news is that Elon is going
to get more and more diverse, which
is so important for education," Zaiser
said.
More than anything, though, Zaiser
said he’s happy with the incoming
class. It’s much like the last few classes
that have come to Elon, he said — the
group is strong academically and a
good representation of the typical Elon
student.
“We feel strongly that the Elon student
is a smart student with a good heart,”
Zaiser said. “We build a community
here of students who are academically
strong and who want to do something.”
BY THE NUMBERS
1,365 students projected
in the incoming freshman
class
3.94 average GPA of
incoming freshmen
>1800 average score on
the SAT
42 percent male
58 percent female
20 percent minority or
international students
36 students committed to
attend the spring semester
FOR T
EDU/PE