Numbers up across board for WSULC

Regional campus to graduate record number of students in spring

NEW BREMEN — Of the 24 regional campuses in Ohio, there’s one that’s doing better than the rest.

Dan Krane, the interim dean for Wright State University – Lake Campus, was the guest speaker at the New Bremen New Knoxville Rotary meeting on Tuesday morning and he shared the success the regional campus has been having as of late.

He said that the Lake Campus will have 242 students graduate this spring during its in-person commencement which was recently announced, and that’s a record-breaking number.

“There’s a lot of things exciting about commencement, but here’s a point of particular pride: we’re going to have 242 individuals who are graduating in this ceremony,” said Krane. “That’s a staggering record for the Lake Campus. The last commencement, we had 195 graduates. That was a record in its own right.”

He explained that in 2016, 124 students graduated, and that was a record as well.

“In the span of just five years, the number of graduates is just barely come short of double. That’s great for our graduates, it’s great for the area,” said Krane. “It’s a great testament how well things are going at the Lake Campus. That’s the single most important product that we’ve got.”

When compared to other regional campuses in the state, the Lake Campus is No. 1 in increased percent enrollment over the last 10 years.

“We’re up about 40% over the last 10 years,” said Krane. “That’s at a time when across those regional campuses, there has been an average decrease of about 5%. While others have been backing off their enrollment a little bit, the Lake Campus has been going full throttle.”

Krane shared day-14 head counts which is the number of students enrolled during the fall semester after two weeks of classes.

He said the head count in 2018 was 1,520 and in 2019 it was 1,662.

“For 2020, this last fall, it was 1,751. Again, pretty cool to see the upward trajectory there,” he said.

One final statistic he highlighted was the number of applications the school has received for the Fall 2021

semester.

“At the end of February in 2019, we had 576 applications for Fall 2020. At the end of February last year, we had 631, a nice upward trend,” said Krane. “At the end of February this year, we had 819. That’s a 30% increase this year relative to the year before.”

Being able to understand the wants and needs of students and companies in the area has allowed the Lake Campus to see this recent type of success, said Krane.

“I can’t help but think it’s a testament to how well the Lake Campus is recognizing the needs of the community and the interests of prospective students,” he said. “Just the opportunity — especially with the pandemic and working itself out — I think we have an awful lot of students that are recognizing that they can get as good an education at a lower cost and much closer to home without the risks of travel and closures where they have to make emergency trips back home and such. I think all those things together are really working to help us continue to see the Lake Campus grow.”

Having accepted the position of interim dean in July and beginning in August of 2019, Krane joked that he hasn’t had anything to do with the recent success.

“These increases I’m sharing with you, I had nothing to do with any of that. I’m interim dean and been on the job since August of 2019. I’m responsible for nothing. I think the most I could say, if I wanted to take some credit, is that I didn’t mess things up,” he said with a laugh.

“My predecessors in this dean’s role had done a phenomenal job of having the community meetings, summits, where they’ve determined what it is that people in this area are interested in studying and what it is the local economy and local industries need,” he said. “It was they who set up our three biggest degree programs.”

The three biggest degree programs that the Lake Campus offers is education, nursing and engineering, which make up for about 70% of courses that WSULC students enroll in.

“One of the things that’s happened over my being with the Lake Campus, is I’ve recognized the wisdom associated with that and I’ve helped with the development of a new associate’s degree in electrical engineering,” said Krane. “Starting next fall, students will be able to earn a two-year degree in electrical engineering then feeds in very directly to a fouryear degree.”

Krane also said there’s potential for an associate’s degree in mechanical engineering and computer science in the future.

“That would be very appealing to not just the students, but also the companies in Mercer, Auglaize and West Central Ohio in general,” Krane said about the computer science degree.