The number of full-time undergraduate students has increased slightly for fall semester 2006 at Eastern Mennonite University.
Traditional undergraduate enrollment totals 916 students, compared to 902 last year. Of that total, 878 are full-time students, up 11 over last fall.
Stephanie C. Shafer, director of undergraduate admissions, said that EMU’s first-year class of 207 students represents 23 states, with Virginia heading the list with 48 percent of the class. Multi-ethnic students make up 23 percent of the first-year class, she noted.
Last year’s first-year class had an 81 percent retention rate, which is “very good,” Shafer reported, along with a retention rate of 87 percent for transfer students, both figures above the national average.
“This new group of students represents exactly what EMU wants – diverse, adventurous, well-rounded, high-achieving students both in and outside the classroom,” Shafer said. “They bring a lot to the campus community and seem eager to take advantage of all the opportunities at EMU.”
Eastern Mennonite Seminary, a graduate program of theological studies on the EMU campus, has 114 students enrolled this fall compared to 141 last fall. There are 54 students enrolled full time at EMS, nine fewer than this time last year.
The Adult Degree Completion Program (ADCP), an accelerated, non-traditional baccalaureate degree program, has 103 students enrolled this fall on the Harrisonburg campus, seven more than last fall, while EMU’s Lancaster, Pa., ADCP program has 34 students compared to 36 last fall.
The Intensive English Program (IEP), which prepares international students for undergraduate collegiate work, has 37 full- and part-time students this fall, up four over last year. The IEP students come from Benin, Congo, Kenya, Madagascar, Costa Rica, Haiti, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Bosnia, Iran and Nepal.
Modest Growth in Grad Programs
The M.A. in counseling program has a total enrollment of 42 students compared to 38 a year ago; the master of business administration program has 42 students compared to 31 last fall. Of this group, eight persons are enrolled in the new health services administration track in the MBA program.
The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (Conflict Transformation) program has 58 students compared to 62 last fall, while the M.A. in education program has 98 students enrolled compared to 172 last fall.
EMU’s total enrollment of 1,593 students – undergraduate, seminary and graduate – compares to 1,660 last fall, according to figures released by David A. Detrow, university registrar.
EMU President Loren Swartzendruber attributed a lower total headcount than last fall “largely to having graduated a larger than usual seminary class of 33 students” and to the fact that last fall “we enrolled the first class of part-time elementary and high school teachers in our MA in Education program. This is a special arrangement with Mennonite schools across the country.
“We’re very pleased with the increase in undergraduate enrollment at EMU this fall,” Swartzentruber added. “EMU’s distinctive mission as a Christian university, to prepare graduates to serve in a global society, is one that attracts students.”