SEE HOW THEY GROW Two students share their volunteer experiences with Greencastle youth See page 6
Indiana’s Oldest College Newspaper
FRIDAY, MAY 4, 2012
VOL. 160, ISSUE 48
Student-run lobbying group trumpets youth voice
Class of 2016 parallels previous year’s class
By MATTHEW CECIL
6,000
Youth | continued on page 2
5,347
CLASS OF 2016
36.9% 19.5% 2.8%
5,204 4,962
5,000
4,700 4,461 4,172
4,000
3,000
FROM INDIANA
4,269
3,505
2005
2006
2007
2008
2011
2009
2010
2011
FROM ILLINOIS
2012
2012
42.85%
FROM CALIFORNIA
10.8%
38.98%
57.15%
INTERNATIONAL
61.02%
Percent Rejected
Percent Admitted
(AS OF MAY 1ST)
Jacob Bonifield started his own lobbying group before he could even legally drink and had only voted in one election. Now 21, the college junior is the president of Hoosier Youth Advocacy (HYA), an organization he and two childhood friends founded to fill in what Bonifield says is a “chasm of representation” in state politics between wealthy, older interests and younger generations. “This idea arose in principal out of the notion that that gap needed to be filled,” he said. Bonifield first thought of starting HYA in the second semester of his freshman year as a member of the student-run environmental policy research group, the DePauw Environmental Policy Project. That following summer Bonifield worked at the Indiana-based law and lobbying firm Barnes and Thornburg, which he credits for exposing him to the difficulties of professional lobbying. “I got to see the stark contrast, both in terms of representation, participation and effectiveness, between causes that I was particularly sympathetic towards as an 18-year-old interested in and knowledgeable about how state policy affects my life, as well as in the larger political makeup in Indiana,” he said. Indiana University students Bennett Fuson and Matt Sadler teamed up with Bonifield in late 2010 to form the lobby and give a voice to Indiana residents aged 15 to 25. They began putting together a mission statement that would guide their efforts in the Statehouse and across Indiana. The following spring, Bonifield, Fuson and Sadler appeared before numerous legislative committees, state politicians and policy experts to discuss bills concerning campus police, comprehensive education reform and new driver education. “[Those policies] were going to have significant impact on 18 to 25 year olds in the state, but none of which seemed to elicit an organized, cohesive effort on the part of that age group to become involved,” Bonifield said. “So that was our niche and how we came to be.”
NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED
DEPOSITS
news@thedepauw.com
TOTAL COST OF 2012-2013 ACADEMIC YEAR
$48,480
40 STUDENTS TO JOIN THE SCHOOL OF MUSIC 2011
3.61 28 1210
2012 AVERAGE GPA AVERAGE ACT SCORE AVERAGE SAT SCORE
3.6 27 1200
SOURCES: OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS AND DEPAUW.EDU ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARGARET DISTLER
MALE/FEMALE RATIO
56.9%
43.1%
By BECCA STANEK news@thedepauw.com
While the recruitment process for the Class of 2016 is still underway, there are currently 601 deposits in, as of May 3 — just two less than last year at this time. According to Dan Meyer, vice president for admission, this year is panning out pretty similarly to the class admitted last year. The Office of Admission is still working with a number of students who have yet to make their final college decision. In addition, 21 students were admitted on April 17, who will have until May 15 to make their final decision. “I anticipate that we will add another 10-15 deposits over the summer months,” Meyer said. The Class of 2016 are vey similar in regards to test scores and diversity. Test scores — both ACT and SAT — are identical to those of the previous two classes. International and U.S. diversity are very similar to previous classes, with 10.8 percent international compared to 11 percent last year and 14 percent domestic diversity compared to 18 percent last year. The Class of 2016 has higher enrollment from Illinois, California, Kentucky and Missouri. There are ten fewer students enrolled in the School of Music, but as last year was a record year for School of Music enrollment, this number is in line with previous School of Music classes. The 2011-12 school year has yielded big changes for DePauw’s Office of Admission, as there have been significant alterations in the recruitment process this year. This year the Office of Admission established a calendar for announcing decisions based on which admission procedure you selected — early decision, early action, or regular, decoupled the acceptance notification from the scholarship decision, raised the minimums required for scholarship consideration, hired five new staff members, totally redesigned all print and web communications and moved the Office of Admissions to Emison Building and Museum. “So, all-in-all, 2011-12 will be remembered as the year of changes in DePauw’s recruitment efforts,” Meyer said. “I believe all of these changes will continue to bring success to our future recruitment efforts, so I am excited for DePauw’s future