Ashley Duckett and Ashley Wilson helped the
freshman class hit record numbers this year

Erskine College And Seminary Year-In-Review

In a year when giving to Erskine College and Seminary soared to record heights, the school also registered record enrollment numbers and embarked on a five-year strategic plan that will include more than $41 million in campus improvements.

The largest freshman class in more than 30 years helped push the college and seminary’s total enrollment to 954, the most students ever enrolled in one year at the Due West Christian liberal arts college and theological seminary.

The college had 593 students — the highest mark in 20 years — and the seminary 361 students, the fourth largest enrollment in its history.

Erskine Admissions Director Jeff Craft said the freshman class is remarkable not only for its size but for its strengths, with 67 of 218 entering freshmen scoring over 1200 on the SAT, and 23 scoring over 1300. Thirteen members of the class are either valedictorians or salutatorians of their high school schools.

"The students of Erskine are truly our household, our reward. God has blessed us exceedingly this year," said Erskine president Dr. John L. Carson.

Fifty-two of the entering freshmen received free laptop computers in the culmination of the school's Early Action program. To be considered for the Early Action program, students were required to apply for 2001 freshman admission, meet the admissions requirements at Erskine, and be accepted for admission before Dec. 15, 2000.

Outgoing Alumni Association president Sarah Brice of Greenville said, "Renovations are being planned, curriculum changes are being considered, and an enrollment boom is taking place – and all are electrifying the Erskine campus atmosphere."

More than $3.4 million was contributed to Erskine during the past year, including a record $835,287 for the annual funds campaign, shattering last year's total by more than $100,000.

"We had hoped to we could set a record, and we did," said Sharon Huffstetler, a 1995 Erskine graduate who served as co-chair of the Living Endowment Campaign. "That's one of the great things about Erskine – alumni stay in touch and know what's going on. They want to give and be involved, and that does not happen at a lot of schools."

In accordance with its strategic plan, Erskine moved ahead with extensive dormitory renovations this summer, gutting and remodeling the interior of Bonner Hall for upper class women and completing extensive renovations on Grier Hall for freshman men.

With a 17 percent increase in overall enrollment and a 55 percent increase in the freshman class alone, Erskine continued its traditional emphasis on high-quality teaching, hiring seven new faculty members in the college and two in the seminary.

"All our new faculty members this year were our first choices in the search process, as were the new faculty members last year," said Vice President and Dean of the College Dr. Donald Weatherman. "Especially exciting this year is the opportunity to welcome two international faculty members."

Erskine's Athletic Training program was accredited this year by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), making Erskine the only private school in South Carolina to have an accredited athletic training program. "We got accreditation with no citations," said Erskine instructor Jerry Shadbolt, Athletic Training Curriculum Director at Erskine. "That means we were compliant in every area. We maintain a good program and keep finding good places for our graduates to go."

Erskine College advanced to tier three in the 2001 U.S. News Best Colleges rankings in the category of liberal arts colleges. "Reaching tier three in the U.S. News rankings by 2005 was a goal of the strategic plan, and we met it a little early," said Carson. Colleges are ranked in 12 categories, and Erskine ranked in the top half of its tier in nine, and in the middle in two others. "I sincerely believe we have the academics to advance to tier two," Carson said.

The formal opening of Erskine College and Seminary on Sept. 11 coincided with the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. Two Erskine students and an alumnus were among those for whom the attacks had special personal significance.

Jason Jurand, a 1996 Erskine graduate who works in the Pentagon, was vacationing in Paris on the day of the attacks. "We were in line to go up the elevator in the Eiffel tower when we heard from American tourists that a bomb had gone off in the World Trade Center," Jurand said. "I probably would not have gone up if I had known more. Only when we returned to our room did we realize the enormity of the attacks."

Erskine baseball player Cory Smith of Long Island, N.Y., said his father, who was in a helicopter shooting film for WABC-TV Channel 7 in New York when the second plane crashed into the World Trade Center, was only a couple of hundred feet away when the crash occurred. "It was a very helpless feeling for him to sit there and watch that," Smith said.

Anthony Passalacqua, also from Long Island and a member of the Erskine baseball team, was a frequent visitor to the World Trade Center this summer when he had visited a Yankee team doctor two days a week following shoulder surgery. He learned that his cousin, caught near the crash site, had walked all the way home to Queens, and an uncle spent most of the day trapped in the subway.