(35 years ago) Rockhurst Goes Coed! - Rockhurst University

ROCK REPORT The Mighty Class of 2009Group 2 was one of 13 groups of freshmen that bondedthroughout Freshman Orientation for games, service projectsand academic preparation activities.Rockhurst welcomed the largest freshman classin more than 10 years when classes beganAug. 24. Nearly 370 students from 18 statescomprise this year’s class, up 20 percent fromlast year and more than 50 percent from 2003.Not only is the class size up, so are the new students’academic profiles. The average ACT score for the class isone of the highest in the last 15 years, and the overallgrade-point average has increased as well. What are thesebrains studying? The hot majors this year are business,nursing and pre-physical therapy.A variety of efforts led to enrollment increases, saysPhil Gebauer, director of admission. These include morethan $30 million worth of recent campus improvementsand stronger recruitment efforts.“The entire Rockhurst community supported theefforts of the Office of Admission, and this year’s classreflects that campuswide support,” he says.Students Connect With TechnologyRockhurst students are more connected with technologythan ever. And with Rockhurst’s new wirelessnetwork and free USB flash drives, it’s gettingeasier to take it with them wherever they go.When they started the fall semester, all full-timeundergraduates received a free USB flash drive providedby the Student Senate. Small enough to fit on a keychain,the drive provides 128MB of portable storage space theycan use to store, transfer and carry their files with them.The university’s new wireless network provides Internetand network access from anywhere on campus,including university buildings, the Quad, residence hallsand townhouses, even the athletic fields.Students are thrilled with the opportunity to checktheir e-mail, write a paper and conduct research — tasksnormally restricted to computer labs or dorm rooms —in the grassy comfort of the quad or among friends in thebleachers at a soccer game.“It’s great being able to pick up and go anywhere oncampus to study in between classes,” said Eric Clarkson,a third-year medical student in the DO/MBA program.According to MattHeinrich, associate vicepresident of administration,demand amongstudents for campustechnology is becomingan expectation.“Students look attechnological capabilitieswhen making theirdecisions on whatschool to attend,”said Heinrich. “Thiscampus-wide wirelessStudents received a free flash driveto transport computer files.network gives us the ability to provide access to a widerange of resources in a very flexible manner with norestrictions of time or place. If you have a laptop, youhave a computer lab.”Those who won’t find a laptop under the Christmastree this year can use their flash drives to transfer filesbetween any of the hundreds of state-of-the-art personalcomputers throughout campus, many of which remainavailable 24 hours a day.2 ROCKHURSTFALL 2005