This year marked a milestone for the College of Wooster.† In its 141st academic year, the College has enrolled the largest incoming class to date.† With over 600 first-years, the College had to make quite a few changes for the beginning of the year.

In addition to the reopening of Kittredge Dining Hall and the addition of two new lunch options as well as the renovation and reopening of various residential areas, the new student orientation was also altered significantly.

In her third year on summer orientation committee, Sandy MacKay ’11 said, “overall, orientation has gotten to be more accommodating to incoming freshmen over the years.”

One of the first major changes for summer orientation was ARCH summer registration.† The purpose of the summer ARCH program was† to help first-years “develop a thoughtful educational plan in conjuction with a faculty adviser.” MacKay stated, “ARCH explained the Liberal Arts agenda for a well rounded education to students, which hasn’t happened in the past with class registration.

The faculty and staff mentors explained how Wooster wants its students to be educated.” First-years were able to sign up for one of four different sessions occurring throughout the summer.

The second major change in orientation was the Moove-In event. For Moove-In, upperclassmen were asked to apply for† volunteer positions.† In exchange for being able to arrive on campus early free of charge and receive a new Moove-In t-shirt, volunteers had to help with a variety of tasks.† According to Associate Dean of Students, Christie Kracker the goal of Moove-In was to “keep things mooving.”

On Moove-In day as portions of Beall Ave. and Wayne Ave. were closed off to traffic, first- year parents were asked to drive to their child’s designated dorm and volunteers would then unload the car and move the students’ belongings into their rooms as the parents and student parked their cars in designated areas around campus.

At the end† of the Moove-In event, first year students and families were treated to free pizza, Chic-fil-A, and free ice cream.†† Moove-In was a success according to MacKay, “Moove-In was the biggest change for summer orientation, it was a huge help for the first year class.”

Not only is this incoming class the largest Wooster has ever seen, but it also has the most international students.

MacKay, who worked specifically with International students during First-Year Orientation, said she got to know a lot of the International students well, “there were only six committee members for the 70 international students so I got to know a lot of them well, it was very cool to meet people from all over the world; there are students this year from Eastern Europe and there are a lot more students from Korea.”

MacKay believes that although the incoming international class is large, Orientation Committee still did a great job at helping the students overcome the hurdles of a new country and a new school.

Although having such a large class may seem like a burden at first, Brandon Jacobs ’11, Admissions Intern stated, “having a† big class is never a bad thing for admissions.† We didn’t just accept students to accept students, this is the most impressive class Wooster has ever seen academically. It’s a great class from top to bottom.”

Admissions looked for students that would better the school and they are excited to see what this class can accomplish.