Lake Campus back in school
CELINA — Wright State University – Lake Campus students went back to campus on Monday, something that wasn’t much of an option for them last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s so great to see people back on campus again,” said Lake Campus Interim Dean Dan Krane. “Everybody’s thrilled that we have some sense of normalcy again this year.”
The school was largely remote last fall as students conducted online courses, but this school year, Krane said they’re around 75% and 80% of students who are attending classes on campus.
“We’re pretty much back to where we were in the fall of 2019,” he said. “Lake Campus
has actually been something of a leader in higher education in general for offering and developing online classes. We find that our students have appreciated the flexibility that those give. People learn in different ways. Some people definitely learn better sitting down in a classroom than they do watching their computer screen. There’s no arguing that and I’m glad we can cater to what works best for everyone.”
Krane said that students that will live on campus this semester began moving in over the weekend, with more than 70 students who will live on-campus this year.
“That’s up from 32 last year,” he said.
With COVID restrictions, the university needs to have rooms set aside for quarantining male and female students which brings the capacity down to 75 students, down from 85.
An interesting thing to note is that of the 70-plus students living on campus, at least nine are from different states.
Krane said they have students living on campus from Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas.
“For a regional campus, that’s unheard of, and it’s a real testament to the fact that we have such nice housing and that we have some programs that are of such general appeal,” he said.
As of 8:01 a.m. on Monday, the headcount for the Lake Campus was 1,432 students, with Krane estimating that number to go up.
We’re still waiting on those numbers to finalize,” he said. “We expect those numbers to trend up a fair bit between now and when the official reporting goes in. For now, it would certainly be safe to say that [we have] more than 1,400 students.”
“It’s such a night and day difference between first day of classes this
fall and first day of classes last fall,” said Krane. “The 1,400 students we have right now look like 10,000 comparing this year to last year.”
The university still has a policy in place where faculty, administration and students must wear masks while indoors, but Krane said apart from that, the campus is back to where it was in the fall of 2019.
The school year looks to continue
its success that it had last year, with a record number of on-campus students graduating at 239.
Krane said that 51 students graduated with associate’s degrees and 188 graduated with bachelor’s degrees, noting that the number of bachelor’s degree recipients has increased each year the past five years.
“That’s been an exciting number for faculty and staff to rally around,” said Krane. “That’s a celebration. Those students have crossed the finish line and that’s what we’re all about.”