WELCOME FAMILY WEEKEND VISITORS – WE’RE GLAD YOU’RE HERE! (PAGE 12)
T he C ollegian Central Methodist University • Fayette, Mo.
Vol. 141 • No. 1
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Wednesday, September 12, 2012
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www.centralmethodist.edu
Major increases seen in enrollment, retention Numbers are in for fall term enrollment at Central Methodist University, and the news is good. After the first week of class, 3,382 students were enrolled at CMU either on campus, off campus, or online. A year ago officials reported the university had eclipsed the 3,000 student mark for the first time ever; this year’s count reflects a 10.9 percent increase. “We’re pleased to report significant enrollment growth again this year,” CMU President Marianne Inman said. “This demonstration of student demand for CMU’s programs surely reflects an appreciation for our outstanding academic quality as well as our focus on personal attention for each student.” For the first time in its 158year history, CMU last May awarded more than a 1,000 diplomas statewide. That accomplishment is a double-edged sword; just to maintain enrollment levels, each of those graduates had to be replaced with a new student. On-campus enrollment clocked in at 1,173, second-most in CMU history and just three students shy of matching the all-time mark set
two years ago. A total of 681 students are living in residence halls, 4.3 percent more than last year. As has been the case in recent years, the greatest growth came by way of the College of Graduate and Extended Studies (CGES). Incorporating off-campus programs, graduate programs, and online students, CGES enrolled 2,209 - a 17.7 percent gain from the same time a year ago. Officials also point to a lesserknown but vitally important category as equally significant: CMU’s freshman retention rate. That figure calculates how many freshmen from fall 2011 returned this fall. Inman reports a retention rate of 71.5 percent, nearly 10 percentage points above the fall 2011 rate, and nearly seven points higher than CMU’s threeyear average. “Never in the last 25 years, and probably longer, have we exceeded 69 percent until now,” she notes “This accomplishment is the result of everyone’s efforts to serve our students in the best ways possible.” Still to come before CMU determines its final fall figures are
Keith Abernathy Jacqueline Anson
Four full-time faculty members began their new careers at Central with the start of a new academic year, according to CMU Dean Rita Gulstad. • Keith Abernathy, assistant professor of criminal justice, may be new to CMU but he is hardly a newcomer to the area. He’s been with either Moberly Area Community College or with Columbia College since the late 1990s, in a variety of capacities. Most recently he was program coordinator for the Serving the Public Servants program at Columbia College, as well as teaching criminal justice part time for both Moberly Area Community College and Columbia. Abernathy was director of MACC’s Law Enforcement Training Center for two years, and spent seven years as a public safety officer at Southeast
Preliminary numbers are in for fall term enrollment at Central Methodist University, and the news is good - very good. The challenge may be deciding which part of it is the best news, according to CMU President Marianne E. Inman.
Fall class work at Central Methodist University started Aug. 21. Here, students leave CMU’s opening convocation held Aug. 23 at Linn Memorial United Methodist Church. high school dual enrollment program counts. If those figures hold
steady from last fall, total enrollment for the fall semester may
exceed last year’s all-time record of 5,225 students.
Missouri State University. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Southeast Missouri State and a master’s in criminal justice administration from Columbia College. • Jacqueline Anson, the new assistant professor of psychology, just received her doctorate in social psychology from the University of Rochester (N.Y.). She has master’s degrees from the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and from the University of Rochester, and a bachelor’s of science degree from Illinois State University. Anson has been teaching and working at the University of Rochester since 2007 while she pursued her Ph.D. there. Previously she was a teaching assistant, and lab instruction and graduate research assistant at the University of Colorado from 2004-2007. She also spent 20022003 as a teaching and research
assistant with the University of Missouri-St. Louis. • Jennifer Muniz has joined CMU’s Swinney Conservatory as assistant professor of music. She comes to Fayette from Indiana University-South Bend, where she was visiting assistant professor of music last year and assistant professor of music the previous five years.Muniz also served as staff accompanist for the Master of Sacred Music program at the University of Notre Dame in 2010-2011; she was also an instructor and accompanist for Notre Dame from 2007-2011. With a bachelor’s of music degree from the University of Minnesota, and both a master’s degree and doctor of musical arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music each in piano performance - Muniz has been active as a performer as
well as an educator. • Dana Morris is CMU’s new assistant professor of biology and she also is familiar with the university, having twice taught part-time, from 2005-2009 and also in 1997. Morris most recently has been a post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Missouri, working with Dr. John Faaborg on research involving the Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project. She was a graduate teaching assistant at MU, a naturalist with the Rockbridge Memorial State Park in Columbia, and an education assistant with the Kansas City Zoo, among other activities. Morris has a doctorate in biology, a master’s in fisheries and wildlife, and a bachelor’s in fisheries and wildlife, all from the University of Missouri.
New faculty in psychology, criminal justice, biology, music
Dana Morris
Jennifer Muniz