This year’s freshman class is the biggest class that Adrian College has ever had with over 650 students in attendance.
Junior Danyelle Greene, a Welcome Week leader for this year’s freshmen, said that this class “is a lot more lively,” than previous classes she has worked with before, and according to Danyelle, it’s bound to keep growing.
“The incoming classes will keep getting bigger and bigger each year,” Greene said.
In fact, this year’s freshman class was so big that Adrian College had to place some of them at a hotel until their rooms were ready. Gianpiero Comuzzi, a freshman football player from Florida, said AC’s size contributed to his choice of school.
“A small school sounded more comfortable [for] me,” Comuzzi said.
Many students here find comfort in smaller class size, as well as diversity in a smaller setting.
“I love how Adrian College brought in so many different students from all over the United States this year. I’m from Florida, and many freshmen here this year are from Florida also. It’s like having a piece of home here with me,” Comuzzi said.
Jeffrey Docking, president of AC, said, “This is one of the most diverse classes, geographically and ethnicity-wise, that we’ve ever had here at Adrian College. We make a push to bring in students from other states.”
According to Docking, there are multiple factors involved in bringing in such a large class.
“On the positive side, we have seen this as an exciting new addition to a vibrant campus. Students are choosing Adrian College as their school of choice, and its great!” Docking said.
“On the other hand, we want to be careful that we don’t grow so big that students lose the personal feel of this campus.”
Docking also discussed his desire to keep AC living conditions to the same standard they are now.
“One of the things that I love is that we are able to offer to students [a] choice of living in single rooms, and I want to be able to still offer that to students. I worry about things like that–living space becoming too crowded for students, and even lines in Ritchie being too long for students,” Docking said.
The AC campus has seen tremendous growth since 2006. In 2006, the number of students attending Adrian College was a little over 800. Now, the student population is around 1,650.
“Anywhere from 500 to 550 students is normally the amount of new freshmen we get each year. 655 new students came as a big surprise to us this year,” said Docking “I’m starting to wonder if this is the new ‘normal’ for enrollment, because if so, we will need to start planning around it. We do plan on limiting the number of students we bring in next year a bit.”
Docking has high regard for the incoming freshman class.
He said, “I’m very impressed with this class. They are very verbal, pleasant, and mature. They’re a great class.”
Recent Comments