UMass Magazine Online

Fall 2002

Departments

Around the Pond

Features

Around the Pond

Keeping count

QUALITY NOT QUANTITY

Admissions, that delicate balance. Last year, when too many students enrolled in the freshman class, a housing crunch ensued. This year, the admissions strategy was to admit fewer and better students. The result is that somewhat fewer students than expected enrolled – down from 30 percent to 28 percent – but the goal of raising academic quality was achieved, according to Joseph Marshall, dean of enrollment at UMass Amherst. Doing the numbers for about 3,400 new students, the average SAT scores were up 6 points to 1123, and the average high school GPA was up from 3.35 to 3.42. And no housing crunch.

OVER & OUT

Apple maggot flies last 10 seconds after landing on the latest version of a pesticide-laced red sphere devised by Entomology Professor Ron Prokopy, which eliminates the need to spray fruit, since the spheres intercept about 95 percent of flies entering an orchard.

UNIVERSITY ONLINE

Motivated students have been enthusiastic about UMassOnline, the university’s electronic classroom. More than 7,800 enrolled in 30 programs. Most of the students are older working professionals, who want to improve skills to get a better job. The most popular degrees are business, nursing and counseling.

2006 CONVOCATION

200 + members of the class of 2006 and a brand-new Chancellor Lombardi (below) won class T-shirts at this year’s revamped Convocation. The band played, cheerleaders cheered and a record good time was had by the more than 2,350 new students who attended.

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Clearly in focus

LOMBARDI: more images

Comings & Goings

Go Forth!

Martyrdom's extraordinary legacy

Martyrdom: Larger Image

studying war, seeking peace

Staub: larger image

A whole new level of study

Information technology gets a minor

Keeping count

Lemurs -

Godfrey: Larger Image

Gardens in space and other astronomical wonders

Gardens: larger image

Cleaning up our act

Fossella: Larger image

Score Board