January 22, 2024

Dear William Paterson Faculty and Staff,

Welcome to the Spring semester, which begins with the start of classes this Thursday, January 25. I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday season and that your 2024 is off to a great start. As a reminder, we shift this week from the Orange and Black back to our regular work schedule for the semester as we gear up for the first day of classes. Also, the following day, Friday, Jan. 26, is the MLK Day of Service, when there will be several opportunities to volunteer and give back while honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King , Jr.

I am pleased that Dr. Jeanne Arnold began her role as our new Chief Diversity Officer last week. Please plan to join us Thursday of next week, on Feb. 1, for First Thursday, from 4:00-5:30 p.m. upstairs in Hobart Manor, where you can meet Dr. Arnold and help welcome her to our campus community. Also scheduled for Feb. 1 is my State of the University address. Please join us at 12:30 p.m. in the Shea Center, where I will share updates and highlights of our work building a stronger William Paterson University. 

As of Friday, Spring 2024 new student enrollment is up 2.6% over last year. New transfer student enrollments are up 11.3% and new graduate student enrollments are up 16.9%. New students will continue to be added through the start of the semester as well as Session II of WP Online, in late March. Looking ahead to Fall 2024, first time student applications are up 11.6% over this time last year and first-time student acceptances are up 20.8%. While it’s still early, deposits are also trending ahead of this time period last year. Overall, new student applications for fall 2024 are up 14.1% and acceptances are up 21.3%. 

Congratulations to everyone involved in the successful transition of our payroll functions to Workday, an important milestone in the deployment of the platform, with more to come. The Workday team is continuing to focus on configuring the system to fit the needs of the University. We value your continued patience during this process, and we're grateful to everyone who has helped by creating tickets at wpunj.edu/help to alert us of issues. Workday Prep sessions in the finance area have been postponed until configurations are complete, at which time new dates will be announced. There has been a lot of positive feedback on the Workday time-entry and absence modules. We are confident that this positive feedback will increase as we open up more modules to the community.

Have a good week and a great start to the semester.