NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 7, 2004 - 5A
Largest freshman class ever settles onto campus
By Anne Joling counteracting this decline, but the number didn't apply because they didn't want to
Daily Staff Reporter of freshmen minority students that enrolled write all the essays. Some of them didn't About 6,571 freshmen are enrolled this term
With the beginning of classes today, stu-
dents welcome a new semester, new classes,
and the largest freshman class in University
history.
University spokeswoman Julie Peterson
said about 6,571 freshmen are enrolled this
term - about 510 more than last year.
"The official enrollment data won't be
available until October, but we can say with
certainty that this is the largest freshman
class we've ever had," Peterson said.
The number of enrolled freshmen
increased even though the number of appli-
cations submitted to the University was
down by 18 percent compared with last year,
according to an admissions analysis released
in May.
In addition, applications from underrepre-
sented minority students dropped by 21 per-
cent from last year. This year the University
accepted more minority applicants, partly
still fell by 37 students from last year.
This year approximately 454 black fresh-
men, 281 Hispanic, 805 Asian Americans
and 49 Native Americans are enrolled.
That's a total of 1,589. There are also 293
international freshmen.
Administrators said the additional work
required for the recently revised application
process might have caused the drop in appli-
cations.
The University's application for admis-
sion was altered for the incoming 2004 class
because of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling
on the University's admissions lawsuits
which, in part, required that the University
not grant points for race in admissions in the
College of LSA.
Some students said they agreed with the
University's decision to add more essays on
the application.
"The new application didn't affect my
decision to apply, but I have friends who
apply because they felt with the harder
application process they wouldn't get in,"
LSA freshman Darnell Cleary said.
Other students gave different reasons why
they thought the number of applications is
down.
"The Supreme Court ruling is part of it,
but tuition is also very high and a lot of
minority students are probably from inner-
city neighborhoods and might not be able to
afford the high cost of this University," LSA
freshman Jarrett Smith said.
Despite the controversy surrounding the
drop in applicants as well as the problems
created by the large influx of freshman,
many said move-in went well for them.
"It wasn't as bad as people said it would
be, it was pretty well organized. I came
really early so I was moved in pretty quick,"
said Engineering freshman Ryan Kurkul, a
resident of Bursley Residence Hall on North
Campus.
- about 510 more than last year. But the number of
applications submitted dropped by 18 percent.
Matt Rodriguez, another Engineering
freshman living in Bursley, was pleased with
his new room, but expressed some concerns
about another issue - having a roommate.
"I'm going to do my best to get along with
him - he's an alright guy, but there will
definitely be some personality conflicts,"
Rodriguez said.
This past week, freshman participated in
the many welcome week activities planned
by the University, such as Maize Craze, an
outdoor pep rally and picnic, as well as Sat-
urday's football game.
"I appreciate all the activities the school
has done for the freshman," LSA freshman
Alyse Dunn said.
"Everyone at the football game had an
amazing amount of school spirit. There
were a lot of fun traditions that I didn't know
about, I had a great time."
"I'm looking forward to being able to be
challenged in new ways, being competitive
and proving myself," Dunn said.
LSA freshman Sara Anderson said she is
ready to meet new people.
"I'm really excited about classes starting
because I'm looking forward to meeting the
people in my classes and the experiences
that come with learning knew things. I'm
just really excited."
Students dodge balls to become
mentors for elementary schools
An artistic introduction
By Ian Herbert
Daily Sports Writer
It's pretty typical to walk through the Diag and
be bombarded with loud music, games, fliers and
students trying to get you to sign up for something.
What isn't typical is being greeted by five-foot
posters of a man's sweaty face being smashed by a
dodgeball, or the opportunity to be hit in the face
just like that man.
As part of welcome week activities, K-Grams, an
organization that mentors local elementary school
students, teamed up with Comcast and The Game
Show Network to bring an inflatable dodgeball arena
to the Diag on Thursday - and to Elbel field on Sat-
urday morning before the football game - giving
students a chance to play the team sport.
Students could play anything from games of
three players against three to 10 against 10 and win
prizes. All they had to do was sign a liability waiver
first.
"We've gotten mostly lots of frat guys to do it, but
our goal is to get just anyone who comes through
the Diag," event organizer and LSA senior Heather
McManus said. "It's something fun and it's also to
get the word out about K-Grams because we are
recruiting 750 pen pals within the next week."
McManus and fellow organizer Andria Hoffman
helped to bring the welcome week activity to cam-
pus to promote K-Grams, a student group that pairs
University students with local elementary school
students in mentorship and pen pal activities.
The organizers wanted to use recess-like activ-
ities to gain support for K-Grams because their
work is primarily with kids. Dodgeball stood out
because of its recent popularity - due in part
to this summer's movie Dodgeball starring Ben
Stiller.
"It's been really successful," said Hoffman, an
LSA senior. "We're out here to play dodgeball, but
really we're out here for the kids. We're trying to get
our program off the ground. We also just wanted to
give everyone a fun day in the sun. And it's been a
great day."
McManus said there was also
an opportunity for students who " r o
lived in the residence halls to We're out
sign up to be a pen pal. Every top lay do
year, K-Grams recruits hundreds
of University students to write but really
monthly letters to elementary
students. Since the program is here for tf
run through the residence halls,
a large number of its recruits are
freshmen.
K-Grams has other programs, LSA senior and
such as mentoring children.
Signup for those activities will be available in Octo-
ber.
Engineering freshman Anthony DeFilippo, one of
300 dodgeball participants, came out of the dodge-
ball arena sweating and smiling. He had Game
Show Network wristbands on both of his wrists, an
Extreme Dodgeball T-shirt slung over his shoulder
and an X Box game in his hand.
He said that even though he had not yet signed
up to be a pen pal, he was considering it and
thought the event was a great idea - especially
the dodgeball.
K-Grams and the dodgeball players weren't the only
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groups that benefited from the welcome week event.
Marc Lindenman, a manager for The Game Show
Network, which runs a show called "Extreme Dodge-
ball," helped to bring the event to campus. Last week
he went to Michigan State with the inflatable dodge-
ball arena, and he is planning on taking the activity to
Boston University next week as well.
"Basically, we're working with Comcast," Linden-
man said. "We thought that, since students are just
moving in, it would be a great
time to see if they wanted any of
here the Comcast services. And it's to
: eball, promote our network, The Game
Show Network, and also our
we're dodgeball show, Extreme Dodge-
9 ball. We also wanted to promote
e kids." K-Grams as well."
It was the first year that The
Game Show Network has come
ndrea Hoffman to the University, and the orga-
event organizer nizers said that it was a success
for all parties involved.
K-Grams got 80 students to commit to being
pen pals this school year. McManus said that they
didn't know what to expect coming into welcome
week, but were very pleased with the number of
commitments that they got.
"We didn't have any goals coming in," McManus
said. "We've never done this before. Usually the first
time students have a chance to sign up is when they
are being bombarded by student groups. We came
in with the attitude that if we got five people to sign
up to be pen pals or got five people to learn about K-
Grams, that would be better than we had done in the
past. So we're really happy."
Students gather at the University of Michigan Museum of
Art Thursday at Artscapade, a welcome week activity.
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