Arleth Arana
Staff Writer
To kick off the new school year, this semester Dominican officially welcomed the largest freshman class in history consisting of more than 600 students.
While the official number won’t be confirmed until the September census report, an estimated 630 students made their deposits; surpassing 2016’s class made of 497 students.
Mark Carbonara, Director of Advising and First Year Experience, said, “It’s a very exciting time to be at Dominican. Dominican is already great, and I think there is continued greatness on the horizon.”
With an overall decline in student enrollment among US colleges, Dominican University is excited for its rise in enrollment.
Carbonara credits small classes, individualized care, great location, financial aid, athletics, and the overall small school qualities to its rise in the student body.
“I think it’s sort of a perfect storm of how we got to get a whole lot of students to be here and be welcomed into the DU community… (It) says a lot about how exciting of a time it is at Dominican.”
What does this welcoming of such a large class mean to the future of Dominican and prospective students?
“It means we have to find ways to support our current students,” said Carbonara, whether that means “if our students want to get more involved and they want more programs, then we’ll do more programs. If our students are looking for something more specific…faculty, staff, and as the University, we will be responsive to that”
Despite this spike in students, Dominican still maintains its 15-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio and is consistently working through its Academic Success Center to ensure all students receive any needed support in order to succeed.
“(We needed to) make sure we had enough faculty to teach students, we obviously hired a good amount of faculty to be able to handle all of the students,” Carbonara said.
Ultimately, Carbonara assures that relationship is at the heart of everything that is done at DU, and it will continue to be so as the school moves onto a new stage of innovation and an eager student body.
