Kennesaw State called its increased number of summer courses and amount of students registered for summer a success after a large campaign to encourage students to attend in the summer.
According to KSU News, KSU’s summer enrollment for 2019 has grown by 8.5 percent since last year and 15.4 percent since 2017 with 17,577 students enrolled in summer courses. 15,488 students returned for the summer and 2,089 incoming freshmen and transfer students were in attendance for the summer semester as well.
KSU News also stated that the university held multiple activities to keep the Marietta and Kennesaw campuses active for summer semester students.
Such events included Walk-in Wednesdays with the office of career planning and development on each campus for on-campus career and internship advice, Chill Day Thursdays in the Joe Mack Wilson Student Center on the Marietta campus with free games and snacks and Free Movie Wednesday in the Carmichael Student Center on the Kennesaw campus. There were also free swimming lessons from the department of sports and recreation available in both campus pools.
KSU President Dr. Pamela Whitten said there are multiple benefits student can have through summer semester coursework such as accelerating progress towards their degrees, obtaining high demanding classes with ease and taking courses in a condensed format.
When Whitten began as KSU’s president in July of last year, she stated she wanted the university to increase the graduation rate among students at KSU. Instead of KSU’s regular six year graduation rate, Whitten also stated that she wanted to aim to bring the rate down to only four years. Through taking summer semesters, KSU students may become closer to reaching graduation within Whitten’s four year goal.
“Enhancing the summer experience is an important aspect of Kennesaw State’s commitment to student success,” Whitten said. “The increase in enrollment reflects the commitment of our faculty and staff to make the summer is beneficial to our students.”
