December 6, 2021
Dear William Paterson Faculty and Staff,
It’s been an amazing and challenging semester here at William Paterson. I know we’ve all been so busy that it can be hard to believe that it’s already coming to a close. As we head into finals week, I want to encourage everyone to, in turn, strongly encourage the students you interact with to register right now for the Spring semester, if they haven’t already done so. If they tell you they are on the fence or otherwise still deciding, please let them know that we will be canceling some low enrolled classes at the end of this semester, so their best option for the spring is to choose their classes and register now.
Staying on the subject of enrollment, as of Nov. 30, we are currently at 62.1% of our Spring goal of 9,749 students. This year’s wider registration window gives us the opportunity to register as many students as possible before the winter break, so let’s take full advantage. We are lagging in the areas of University Continuing (-235), University Main Campus overall (-502), and Winter Session (-137). However, we are outpacing goal in University Headcount (+208), new students (+54), one-semester retention (+15.8%) and WP Online (+710). Our Back on Track initiative to bring back students who have stopped out has registered 16% of qualifying students. The goal is 30%, so we will need to ramp up in this area, particularly for freshmen and sophomores.
Another welcome acknowledgement of the good work you are all doing to help our students and alumni succeed came recently in the form of CollegeNet’s latest Social Mobility Index, where WP climbed 33 spots to #43 of 1,549 schools. This puts us in the top 3 percent of colleges nationally for enrolling students from low-income backgrounds and graduating them into good-paying jobs. We have made a strong showing on both the CollegeNet and U.S. News & World Report social mobility rankings for some time now. That we have been able to make such a large jump during a particularly challenging period, marked by the pandemic and long-term demographic declines in the number of New Jersey high school graduates, is a testament to our success in delivering on our mission. We should all be proud of this meaningful distinction.
Congratulations to Vice President Pam Ferguson and the entire Institutional Advancement team on the success of last week’s “Giving Tuesday,” and thank you to everyone who participated in this important initiative, which raised more than $38,000 from across the WP community to support our students through several key projects: the College of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences’ Last Mile Fund; the Cotsakos College of Business’ General Scholarship Fund; the College of Education’s Head of the Class fund; the College of Science and Health’s General Scholarship Fund; the Pioneer Food Pantry; and Provost Powers’ Emergency Grant. There is still time to participate by supporting one or more of these campaigns, which make a real difference in the lives of our students.
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This week’s WP: We are Proud – Congratulations to the Pioneer Bowling Team, who I had the pleasure of watching compete recently, on all their success this season. Under coach and WP alumnus Greg Hatzisavvas, the team has stormed through its fall schedule, rising to #8 in the nation in the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) college rankings, as of last week, and #9 in the National Collegiate Bowling Coaches Association (NCBCA) poll. The varsity team has three tournament victories and two runner-up finishes, including a second-place finish at the tier 1 “Bowlero Southern Collegiate Classic” in Georgia. The JV side has also been strong, earning a division win at all four tournaments they attended. Individually, team members have also earned recognition, with Hunter Machin, Hunter Kempton, Ryan Dimaggio, Derek Lewandoski, Tiler Levesque, Jason Wichnovitz, and Brandon Whitney all having been named to at least one All-Tournament team.
Thank you all for making this a great fall at William Paterson. Have a good final week of the semester.
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Sincerely,
Richard J. Helldobler, Ph.D.
President
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