About 820 new undergrads start at CLU

Growing number of freshmen come from outside state

Download photo

New students will move into residence halls on Aug. 30.

 

Photo: Brian Stethem

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Aug. 27, 2013) More than 2,800 undergraduate students will begin classes at California Lutheran University next week.

The freshman class includes more than 550 students. One-third of them are the first members of their families to attend college, and 42 percent are in ethnic groups that are traditionally underrepresented on college campuses. The number of freshmen coming from outside California increased 10 percent from last year. Included in that group are students from 13 countries including Ethiopia, Japan, Myanmar, Norway, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the Palestine region.

Undergraduate transfer students continue to account for a significant portion of the new students, with more than 270 this year. Since CLU increased programs and recruitment for them five years ago, there has been a 61 percent growth in transfer students. Many are coming from Pierce, Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura colleges.

Combined with about 1,400 graduate students, CLU’s total enrollment will be about the same as it was last year, stabilizing after many years of growth.

International students make up a significant portion of the graduate student population, numbering more than 370 this year. Most of these students come from China, India, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and Thailand.

The revitalized Master of Arts in Educational Leadership program continues to grow with 30 students in cohorts in Thousand Oaks and Santa Maria. The Doctor of Psychology program, which began in Oxnard three years ago, has about 55 students.

More than half of CLU’s undergraduate students will live on campus. New students will move into residence halls on Aug. 30. This is the first time residential students will move in a day before all new students check in. They will celebrate that evening with a family luau.

The five-day new student orientation will continue with long-standing traditions such as painting the CLU rocks on Mount Clef Ridge. For the first time, alumni will gather to cheer on the students when they climb to the rocks at 10 a.m. Sept. 2. On Sept. 3, nearly 700 freshmen and new transfer students will converge on the Santa Clara Riverbed to remove trash left behind by homeless people. This is the first time the annual You Got Served tradition will take place at this location.

Classes in the Bachelor’s Degree for Professionals program begin Sept. 3 and traditional undergraduate courses begin Sept. 4. As the students walk through the Thousand Oaks campus, they will pass the site where the Ullman Dining Commons is under construction. Slated for completion in 2014, the $15 million building will have glass curtain walls looking out over the academic corridor and Kingsmen Park.

©