The Yellow Jacket 9.14.17

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INSIDE: WILE Y RESTORED A FTER FLOOD. SEE A2

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017 | VOL. 95 NO. 1 | EST. 1924

THEYELLOWJACKET.ORG

@WUYELLOWJACKET

University welcomes Class of 2021

Record-breaking class exceeds admissions goal by one student

By TEGHAN SIMONTON Managing Editor

Waynesburg University welcomed its largest freshman class to date with the class of 2021 this fall. According to Dr. Shari Payne, vice president for enrollment, 451 new students were enrolled, barely surpassing the Admission Office's “very

MIchelle Keith, Yellow Jacket

ambitious” goal of 450. “We’re so pleased,” said Payne. “It’s a combination of freshman and transfer students, and it’s our largest freshman class ever.” This year’s enrollment goal was a significant increase from last year’s target of 420 students, said Payne, but the admissions staff never doubted their ability to reach it. By monitoring trends in key high school markets, noting graduation statistics and popular majors of study and accounting for the university’s own capacity for housing students, they were able to calculate the figure. “It’s a little bit of art and a little bit of science, coming up with a goal,” said Payne. Payne said that, to effectively recruit new students, the Office of Admissions must plan months ahead of time. In order to reach this year’s record-breaking enrollment numbers, significant adjustments were made to their game plan. According to Payne, there was a noticeable increase in Waynesburg’s inquiry

pool, which can be attributed to a combination of marketing strategies that have been employed over the years, said Payne. “A lot more digital marketing,” she said. “We’ve changed the recruitment territories where our admissions counselors travel; and we’ve really been working hard to develop relationships with guidance counselors in our primary market areas. So, it didn’t just increase on its own – we had a strategy.” Once a student inquires about Waynesburg, said Payne, the Admissions staff changes their programming and communication plan, to get the student to fully commit to attending. Most significantly, said Payne, Waynesburg’s admitted-student program has received added resources in the past two years, which has helped bolster the recruiting process. The program designates time for admitted students to be invited back to campus to receive awards, after they have received financial aid packages. It is meant to show prospective students that not only can they afford to attend Waynesburg, but they can become a part of the community as well.

“We really beefed up that program and it’s been really, very successful as a conversion event,” she said. “Bringing someone from the ‘admitted’ status to committed to the university.” Although the class of 2021 is the largest class Waynesburg has ever had, Payne said that no real strain has been placed on the university’s housing capacity or studentto-faculty ratio. “So, we’re pretty tight right now, but we haven’t exceeded our capacity yet,” said Payne, explaining that this year’s class essentially took the place of the class of 2017— Waynesburg’s most recent graduating class—which was also exceptionally large. "There is even room for growth," she said. In fact, Payne said the Office of Admissions has already begun working toward its enrollment goal for next year: 450, again. Staff members are scheduled to start visiting high schools as early as next week, and are working Saturdays and evenings in preparation. “This is a real team effort, there’s a team of people that work really hard…” she said. “It takes a whole campus to recruit, and we really appreciate all the work they put it.”

WU-Fi: Campus now wirelessly connected Waynesburg listed as one of 'best colleges' in national ranking By MATTIE WINOWITCH Executive Editor

After months of waiting, Waynesburg University students and faculty were finally given what they have asked for: campuswide Wi-Fi. According to Bill Dumire, vice president of In for m at i on Te c h n o l ogy Ser vices (ITS) and chief information officer, “WU-Fi” was four years in the making. “When I first started over four years ago, part of what I was charged with was to come in and evaluate all of our IT resources,” Dumire said. “That was an area where we as an institution had not made any investments for a period of time. We had a lot outdated equipment across campus.” In order to get a stable, secure and usable wireless environment on campus, the entire ITS department needed to strengthen the backbone of the network. After bringing in various outside consultants to evaluate the systems that were already in place, they ended up going with Sysco,

By MATTIE WINOWITCH Executive Editor

Mitch Kendra, Yellow Jacket

While it was a long wait for the promised campus-wide Wi-Fi, ITS said the results are fast, functional and secure for all registered users. which is the leader on the networking side of equipment. The analysis? The buildings on campus were (and still are) rather old. While Dumire said the old buildings are admirable from a historic standpoint, from an ITS standpoint, they can be a nightmare. “When the buildings on this campus were con-

structed, the thought of networking never occurred to those folks in the process,” Dumire said. “We had to go back and ‘retrofit’ a number of the buildings with wiring closets that complied with the appropriate standards. We had to re-cable every building, every floor on campus, every office on campus.” After going from hav-

ing 30 Wi-Fi access points on campus to 250 access points, they then had to make sure we had a stablewired network. They then mapped out each area and estimated bandwidth, tested everything and ensured the onboarding process for faculty, staff and students would WIRELESS >> A3

Waynesburg University recently ranked in the top seven percent of MONEY Magazine’s 2017-18 “Best Colleges for your Money” ranking list. Out of 2,400 colleges that were originally considered, 711 made it to the final rankingWaynesburg came in at number 170, making it the tenth highest ranking university in Pennsylvania. “This award speaks volumes on the excellence of the entire university overall,” said Waynesburg Un i v e r s i t y P r e s i d e nt Douglas G. Lee. “Our programs have great reputations, but that is thanks to the achievements of ever y member of this institution.” For judging purposes, 27 data points were ex-

amined, including quality of education, graduates’ earnings, estimated market value of alumni’s average job skills, affordability and outcomes. For L e e, t hes e dat a points are components of an honest institution. As a Christian university, he believes it’s clear why Waynesburg University ranked so highly. “You hear stories out there about huge debt loads that students have, but when we look at what we’re doing here, we are doing extremely well in RANKING >> A3

CONSTRUCTION COMPLETE AT FREEDOM BRIDGE

HURRICANE IRMA WRECKS FLORIDA

After four years, PennDot has finished the $15.1 million dollar project to improve traffic flow at Freedom Bridge.

As cleanup efforts begin in Florida, some experts ponder if such dangerous storms will become more common place in the immediate future because of climate change.

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CREWS LEADS OFFENSE IN FIRST GAME

ROMANIAN ORPHAN CHOIR PERFORMS

Sophomore running back Jarves Crews never played at the collegiate level until last Saturday. In his first game for the Yellow Jackets he led all running backs in total yards.

A touring Romanian Orphan Choir recently gave a performance in the Goodwin Performing Arts Center (GPAC).

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INSIDE Campus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A1–A4 Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1, B4 Editorial/Op-ed . . . . . . . B2 News Digest. . . . . . . . . . . B3 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C1–C4 Arts & Life . . . . . . . . . . . . D1–D2 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . D3–D4 Copyright © 2017 Waynesburg University 51 W. College St.Waynesburg, Pa. 15370


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