Old Westbury welcomed the largest freshman class in the college’s history this Fall 2024 semester. With 837 freshmen, Old Westbury surpassed last year’s record, already a banner year, by over a hundred. The Office of Admissions noted there were 10,600 applications, a nearly 3,800 student jump.
With hallways fuller than ever, the question arises—what changed to constitute so many incoming students? It is partly due to the work done between President Sams and the Office of Admissions to remove barriers and improve communication between faculty and applicants.
New programs the school has offered may also contribute to this, such as Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) as well as the Black Studies program.
“When you do such an increase, you increase in energy as well,” President Sams said, when asked about growth. “It becomes a confirmation for so many people in the community that we have, educationally, a hot commodity.”
When Sams took office in 2021, he had an ultimate goal of five thousand students, which we have now surpassed by over 200. Though this growth did come at an interesting time—with the Natural Science Building (NSB) closed for renovations, changes had to be made to accommodate the lack of classrooms and faculty offices. However, faculty had no worries about these changes, as they knew this increase was coming well in advance.
“We have a lot of room for adjustment.” Sams stated. He shared that Old Westbury has been fortunate enough to receive funding from SUNY not based on our enrollment numbers, but rather the school’s commitment to student success. This funding has gone towards growing programs, adding personnel in a variety of offices (especially in Disability services), growing the office of veteran affairs, and contributing towards student support centers.
As for faculty offices, Sams’s residential college model came into play. NSB faculty has been moved down to the bottom levels of Woodland Halls 1 and 5 below students who live on the second and third floors, most of whom are STEM majors. This push influences students to engage with their professors out of class since they are directly accessible to them.
Sams said,“The task is to never lose sight of our mission while meeting the demands of that growth.” He intends to make sure that we never disrupt our crucial values of smaller class sizes and student-teacher ratio that keep our students engaged.
Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programming is another factor contributing towards student excellence. With an increase particularly in the population of Hispanic students on campus, the institution made adjustments to accommodate these students to the best of their ability. This includes a partnership with CREAR Futuros, a peer-mentor program that recruits Latinx students to support younger mentees at participating institutions.
“One of the reasons that faculty and staff come to SUNY OW is because we truly believe in its social justice mission,” said Bryan Terry, the Vice President of Enrollment Management and Marketing. “I believe today’s students are paying attention to all of the news stories and understand the need for social justice and the strategies to reach that goal, so the more students that we can train to build a better tomorrow, the better off tomorrow will be.”
“The value that one gets in their educational experience relates directly to the level of engagement that student has,” Sams said. He also gave a word of advice to new students: join the clubs and organizations that interest you and challenge yourself. “Everyone comes to college to have a meaningful experience…It is so important that we do not leave one student behind.”