Hendrix Alumni Blogazine

Hendrix attracts largest incoming class in its history
Enrollment climbs above 1,300

By JAMIE FOTIOO
Enrollment Communications Manager

Hendrix College was full of energy and excitement as it welcomed a record-breaking 447 new students to its campus this August.

“You are making history today, as you are the largest class to enroll at Hendrix in the history of the College,” Karen Foust, vice president for enrollment, said during the opening convocation for new students on Aug. 19. “The Hendrix community is excited to welcome you to this wonderful place that you will call home for the next four years.”

The class of 2012, consisting of 433 first-year students and 14 transfer students, also represents one of the most geographically diverse classes to join the Hendrix community. Making the relatively short drive to Conway on Move-In Day were 178 Arkansas students. The rest of their new classmates traveled farther distances from 32 different states—from Maine to Washington—and eight countries, including Bangladesh, China, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Rwanda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. In all, 60 percent of Hendrix’s new students arrived from places other than Arkansas.

Hendrix’s newest class brought with it an outstanding academic profile. More than 75 percent of new students scored 26 or higher on the ACT, with more than a third scoring 30 or higher. In addition to Hendrix, members of the new class were accepted to other nationally ranked institutions such as Carleton College in Northfield, Minn.; Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.; Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa; Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.; and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

When choosing among colleges and universities each with an equally impressive list of academic and post-graduate statistics, many students selected Hendrix based on factors unique to the College.

“I spent a lot of time debating between Swarthmore College [in Swarthmore, Pa.], Johns Hopkins University [in Baltimore], University of Chicago and Millsaps College [in Jackson, Miss.], each a renowned institution and full of qualified students and teachers,” said Sarah Thompson, a freshman from Picayune, Miss. “In the end, I found a spirit and honest excitement on the Hendrix campus that couldn’t be encapsulated by ACT/SAT scores or graduate-school acceptance rates. Teachers and students were sincerely friendly, the opportunities available through the Odyssey program floored me, and the financial aid was phenomenal.”

In high school, Thompson founded Girls Excelling in Mathematics and Science (G.E.M.S.), a program that engages fifth- and sixth-grade girls in monthly experiments that aim to prevent the erosion of interest in mathematics and science that girls often experience during this transitional period in their lives. Currently trying to organize a G.E.M.S. chapter in Conway, she ultimately hopes to secure Odyssey funding to help establish chapters throughout Arkansas and her home state of Mississippi.

Expanding G.E.M.S. is only one of numerous projects Thompson plans to complete during her Hendrix Odyssey. A pre-med student who’s interested in studying chemical physics and bioethics, she also aspires to study abroad at the Regenerative Medicine Institute and the Centre of Bioethical Research and Analysis at the National University of Ireland in Galway.

“It is rare to find a college that not only encourages participation, but provides enormous financial support for these kinds of [Odyssey] experiences,” Thompson said. “And the opportunities available aren’t simply limited to a handful of prescribed programs—any passion can be explored and expanded.”

Freshman Adam Stewart of San Diego, Calif., was also impressed by Hendrix’s Odyssey program.

“The Odyssey program was one of the biggest factors that led me to choose Hendrix,” he said. “It provides so many opportunities for cultural immersion and academic growth, and Hendrix makes it unbelievably easy to participate in these opportunities.”

Interested in African aid and awareness activities, Stewart led the Invisible Children club at his high school. Invisible Children is a San Diego-based non-profit organization with the mission to improve the quality of life for the war-affected children of Uganda by providing access to quality education, enhanced learning environments, and innovative economic opportunities for the African community.

Stewart, who plans to create his own African Development major, intends to further pursue his passions through the Odyssey program. He hopes to study abroad at the University of Ghana, conducting in-field research on rural development, and is currently working on obtaining a summer internship at Justice Africa in London. A talented double bass player, Stewart is also already an active member of the Hendrix Chamber Orchestra and Hendrix Quartet.

“It amazes me that I have the ability to design my own major, study abroad in Africa, travel with the Hendrix Orchestra, and conduct my own research, all at the undergraduate level,” he said. “I cannot imagine doing all of this at any other college.”

The class of 2012 joins three returning classes to create the largest enrollment in the College’s history, with 1,342 undergraduate students enrolled.

 

A professionally prepared CD recording of the 2007 Candlelight Carol Service is available for $15. The recording includes the complete service and features choral music by C. Hubert H. Parry, Felix Mendelssohn, Richard Dering, Bob Chilcott, Harold Darke, René Clausen, and others, as well as the beloved processional, “Once in Royal David’s City.” The choir is under the direction of Dr. Nancy Fleming; Wayne Clark, Hendrix Chaplain, is the liturgist; and Ansley Fleming, College Organist, is the organist for the service.

For more information about the CD, please contact Dr. Fleming at fleming@hendrix.edu. To order one or more copies, please mail a check made out to Hendrix College to Dr. Fleming at the following address:

Music Department

Hendrix College

1600 Washington Avenue

Conway, AR 72032

Please include $5 for shipping and handling.

 

By HELEN PLOTKIN, Editor

The Hendrix faculty is experiencing a changing of the guard. A cohort of faculty who came to Hendrix in 1970s is beginning to retire at the same time that the College is hiring additional faculty to meet the demands of growing enrollment. The Hendrix Board of Trustees has set an enrollment goal of 1,300 by 2013 and mandated that the College maintain a 12-to-1 student-faculty ratio.

To meet those goals and ensure that Hendrix can continue to boast of having a faculty that is among the nation’s best, Dr. Robert L. Entzminger, provost and dean of the College, invests a great deal of time and effort in recruiting faculty.

Over the last two years, Dr. Entzminger has overseen the hiring of 35 new faculty members. Eighteen new faculty joined the Hendrix ranks during the 2007-08 academic year, including eight in tenure-track positions. So far, the College has hired 17 new faculty for the 2008-09 year, eight of them in tenure-track positions.

Faculty are the heart of a liberal arts college dedicated to undergraduate education. As the College’s chief academic officer identifying top scholars who are right for Hendrix is a top priority for Provost Entzminger.

“I need to be confident that the person understands the kind of institution that Hendrix is and is willing to make a commitment to high-quality liberal arts education,” Dr. Entzminger said. “More than that, I want to find people who will bring something else to the table -- an interest in interdisciplinary work or a talent or specialty that will allow us to develop a new area of study that will bring real value for our students.”

The right faculty member for Hendrix is also someone who loves teaching and who puts students first.

“The faculty at Hendrix are unusually dedicated to their students,” Dr. Entzminger said.

Finding that right person involves faculty, staff and students from across campus. The search committee usually involves faculty members from inside and outside the hiring department. The Committee on Faculty, the provost and associate provosts, and the president are also part of the process. It is a time-consuming process, but a vital one, Dr. Entzminger said.

“The search process has helped us get great candidates,” he said. “In a tenure-track search, we just don’t let anybody settle. If it’s not the right person, we won’t offer them the position. Sometimes that means we have to close a search and then start it all over again until we can find someone who is right for Hendrix.”

Sometimes the right person can be found close to home

“Over the last two years, we have added four alumni to the faculty,” Dr. Entzminger said. “That speaks well of the education they received at Hendrix and of the esteem in which they hold this institution. They ‘get’ what we do here and are eager to return and help sustain that tradition.”

The new professors joining the Hendrix faculty in tenure-track positions this fall, include 2000 Hendrix graduate Courtney Mashburn Hatch as assistant professor of chemistry and 2002 graduate Megan Leonard as assistant professor of economics and business, Ph.D. from Texas A&M University

Other new tenure-track faculty for the 2008-09 year include:

• William Hacker, assistant professor of English, Ph.D. from Cornell University
• Brett Hill, assistant professor of sociology/anthropology, Ph.D. from Arizona State University.
• Kristi McKim, assistant professor of English/film studies, Ph.D. from Emory University.
• Aleksandra Pfau, assistant professor of history, A.B.D., University of Michigan.
• Andrew Scott, assistant professor of foreign languages, A.B.D., Rutgers University.
• Bobby Williamson, assistant professor of religion, A.B.D., Emory University. 

If the College continues to hire alumni as faculty members, there should be ample choices. Recently available data shows that about 10.6 percent of students graduating from Hendrix between 1995 and 1999 had earned a Ph.D. degree by 2006. Of the 1,469 colleges and universities surveyed, Hendrix ranked 28^th in the percentage of its graduates earning a doctorate within six years of graduation.

Examining the data by discipline, put Hendrix in the No. 1 position of percentage of graduates earning a Ph.D. in psychology - above Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore and Vassar. The College was eighth in chemistry; ninth in education, and 24^th in English and literature.

Analysis of the study showed that liberal arts colleges, overall, graduate a high percentage of students who earn doctoral degrees.

Learn more about recent Hendrix graduates, Dr. Lindsey C. Smith ’98 and Dr. Karen L. Steelman ’98, who earned Ph.D. degrees and returned to the classroom to teach others in our other blog entries.

Proposed by Nicholas Pippins ’07 as part of an Odyssey project, the labyrinth recently completed near the southern border of the campus provides a quiet area for prayer or reflection. Adjacent to it, Hendrix plans to construct a columbarium, a structure of vaults lined with recesses for the respectful storage of urns. Hendrix is a leader in the national trend of providing a final resting place for alumni and friends, which was the focus of a May 18 New York Times article. Hendrix’s planned columbarium is also highlighted on page 26 of the October edition of Reader’s Digest under the heading: “Be a Big Man on Campus – Forever.”