New students on Wednesday filled Annunciation Chapel on the University of Saint Mary’s campus for a university tradition.
Since the 1970s, the institution has taken time before classes start to welcome the new students to the fold, whether they be freshman or transfers from other universities.
“This day you become Saint Marians,” University President Sister Diane Steele told those gathered in the chapel. “You join a family that is already 88 years old and that stretches across the globe into 33 different countries.”
She said over the next few years, the students might find themselves changing.
“You will discover dimensions of yourselves that you never even dreamed of, never thought possible,” she said. “You will see a glimpse of who you are and who you are held to be.”
Bart Heim is a transfer student, coming to the university for the first time, halfway through his junior year.
“It’s pretty cool,” and helped to ease anxieties of being a new student, he said of the matriculation.
John Shultz, director of public relations for the university, said matriculation ceremonies date back several hundred years, but Saint Mary is one of only a handful of schools that still engage in the practice.
“It’s sort of the university’s official welcome to all these students and a way to incorporate them into the Saint Mary community,” Shultz said.
Most freshmen students moved in on Saturday and classes for all students at the Leavenworth campus begin today, he said.
According to Shultz, a record 135 full-time freshmen students have enrolled at the university’s Leavenworth location this year.
“There was a big spike last year,” Shultz said, but the last three years have all seen record enrollments.
And with that increase in enrollment has come other new developments for the university.
“We’re seeing a building boom on campus, we’re seeing an increase in the number of programs we offer,” he said.
Last year, the university’s added its first doctoral program in physical therapy and opened a new dormitory in Berkel Hall. This year, Shultz said the university has begun work to find coaches to begin several new sports programs.
Beginning in fall 2011, Shultz said the university will have men’s and women’s track and field and cross-country teams. And the cheerleading team that was added last year will be expanded with the addition of a dance squad at the university.
