To: Campus Community
From: Char Burgess, Dean of Student Life
Date: August 13, 2002
Subject: The 2002 New Student Class

I wanted to report to you the exciting news that another record class of new students will arrive on campus shortly for the beginning of the academic year in the College of Arts & Sciences. By our best estimates, the full complement of CAS students will be only 15-20 more than last year. Still, I'd like to make you aware of the provisions we have made to ensure the quality educational experience our students all share. We're working hard and are ready to welcome one and all!

The good news is that Admissions, through all their hard work, recruited more students who want to come to Redlands. As of this date, 617 first-year students and 112 transfers are in the new student class. Interestingly, of these 729 new students more than 100 are somehow related to an alum. Normally, some students change their minds over the summer and decide not to come. The simple fact is fewer are doing that this summer and so we end up with a few more students than we planned to accommodate.

In Housing, we have leased 20 apartments at the Parkview Terrace on Barton Road at Alabama. Yes, it's 5 ½ miles from campus, so we have been on the phone for several days recruiting returnees at the junior and senior level to move to that location. These apartments come with many amenities, so for those students with a car it is quite a "perk"! We also have added beds in 28 rooms, creating some new triples and doubles, and 3 rooms, which were very large, have been converted to quads. We have only added beds in rooms large enough to accommodate this change. As all these rooms and apartments are filled, we juggle the new student class to keep all first-year students and the vast majority of transfers on campus. We make every effort to house younger students with others of the same age. Today all of the room assignment letters were mailed.

We are aware that a number of students will start returning soon to join athletic teams. Not everyone, for a variety of reasons, will be able to make the team of their choice. So, we have a group of spring coaches and staff from Tony Mueller's office who will create activities for these students so they are not "without purpose" for a period of time.

On the academic side, additional preparations have also been made. Three additional first-year seminars have been added to the 35 already planned. The majority of those 38 seminars have been increased to 18 students from the traditional 16. Admissions reports that the academic quality of the students is "as good if not better" than last year with an unofficial average GPA of 3.53, average SAT scores of 1130, and average ACT scores of 24. There are 18 more students of color and a few less women and a few more men than last year. There are 38 more students from California with a decline of only 12 from western states and 14 from other states.

So, those are all the pertinent facts available and I hope it allows everyone to focus on being more welcoming and less frantic! Athletes begin arriving on Tuesday, August 20 and it continues from there, with all other new students arriving on September 2 & 3 and returnees on September 8. Thanks for joining in giving them that traditional Redlands' welcome!