LWC Community Prepares for Opening of 'Huge' School Year

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- The 2012-13 school year will be one of the biggest in the 109-year history of Lindsey Wilson College.

The college will go through its decennial reaccreditation process with Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and three LWC academic divisions will also be reviewed by their profession's accrediting bodies.

"This is a huge year for this college," LWC President William T. Luckey Jr. told the college's faculty Wednesday morning at an opening-year meeting in the Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center. "Any time a college is going through that many different accreditation  cycles, it is a very important year and one that will put more demands on all of us."

Before accreditation groups review the college in 2012-13, the LWC community will first welcome a record number of students this weekend. The academic year officially begins Aug. 22; college officials expect enrollment to break the 2,700-student mark for the first time. Close to 1,100 students will live on the LWC A.P. White Campus.

Beginning in early August, about 300 residential LWC students have trickled back into Columbia-Adair County. But on Saturday morning, most of the remaining 800 residential students will flood the community for the start of LWC's opening week activities.

LWC Director of Student Activities Jayne Hopkins said the weeklong activities that begin Saturday morning are especially designed to help new students ease into college life and also reassure students' family members.

"We have designed a smooth process for students to transition into Lindsey Wilson and make the college their home," said Hopkins, who oversees the college's opening week events. "We want students to feel part of the Lindsey Wilson family right away, and we also want their family members to see that this is a place that cares about students."

In addition to welcoming new students, opening week is also a time to rekindle relationships between LWC faculty, staff and students.

"It's been a great summer here at LWC, but I am looking forward to seeing our students return because they are the lifeblood of the college, and they create a vibrant and exciting atmosphere," said LWC Assistant Dean of Students Andy McAllister, who has experienced every LWC opening week since 1999, both as a student and staff member. "I am looking forward to catching up on the summer adventures of our returning students, and getting to meet and greet the new students that have chosen to attend LWC."

New students are entering LWC during an exciting time, Luckey said.

"If they held an Olympic event for colleges, we would have won a gold medal for how this college has performed during the last decade," he told the college's faculty on Wednesday morning.

In the last decade, LWC's enrollment has grown from 1,248 to more than 2,700, and the number of faculty has expanded from 58 to its current record level of 114. A total of 80 LWC faculty hold a terminal degree.

"Today we see a much different Lindsey Wilson College than we did 10 years ago," said Luckey, who has been the college's eighth president since 1998-99. "I don't know of another college in the entire United States that had a better decade than Lindsey Wilson College had over the last 10 years -- especially when you pause and think about what's happened across this country … and what's been happening at other institutions."

LWC's success over the last decade is cause for celebration, Luckey said.

"I think we should be celebrating and singing the doxology," he said. "We have a far stronger college today than we did 10 years ago; a far stronger faculty and staff than 10 years ago; a much improved physical facility; a stronger student body; and a stronger academic reputation."

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Click here for a scheudle of opening week activities.