CLU hits record for new students

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - Aug. 26, 2009) A record number of new students will begin the fall semester at California Lutheran University on Wednesday, Sept. 2.

The number of new transfer students showed the biggest gain. About 200 new students have transferred to CLU from more than 70 other colleges and universities, a 20 percent jump over last year. Budget cuts at state institutions, the extension of the CLU Guarantee Scholarship: Private Education, Public Price to transfer students, and increased outreach to community colleges all contributed to the surge.

CLU, which received 30 percent more applications than last year, is also expecting its largest freshman class to date at 490 students. More than one-third of the freshmen come from traditionally underrepresented groups with large gains in African American and Latino students.

Nearly one-third of the freshmen and new transfer students are the first in their family to attend college. The new students come from throughout the United States and 16 foreign countries ranging from Austria to China to Trinidad/Tobago.

Combined with the largest number of returning students at CLU, the total number of undergraduates will be about 2,250. This includes Adult Degree Evening Program participants who begin classes in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard on Monday, Aug. 31. Another 1,300 students are enrolled in graduate programs.

The new freshmen and transfer students will arrive on campus for orientation on Saturday, Aug. 29. For the first time, a Welcome Crew of fall and spring athletes will help them move into their residence halls. The athletes, as well as Welcome Crew representatives from campus clubs, will return several times throughout the four-day orientation to join the new students in traditions such as the painting of the CLU rocks on Mt. Clef Ridge and the giant icebreaker known as Playfair. Other activities range from informal visits in faculty homes to a dynamic speaker who will use music to talk about diversity issues.

The students are arriving at CLU as it looks to the past in celebration of its 50th anniversary while ushering in a new era with program and physical growth. Upperclass students are moving into new Trinity Hall, construction has begun on the Swenson Center for Academic Excellence for social and behavioral sciences, and a team of economists is launching the CLU Center for Economic Research and Forecasting and a Master of Science in Economics program.