Earlham College | News from Public Affairs

RICHMOND, Ind. — Another record international enrollment, a golden anniversary and the opening of a new residence hall are all reasons to celebrate the start of the 160th academic year at Earlham College.

A car entering campus via G Street passes under a set of new banners announcing Earlham's celebration of 50 years of international study. The College is a recipient of the 2006 Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization and will be the subject of extensive coverage later this fall in the annual report Internationalizing the Campus: Profiles of Success published by NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

At the same time many colleges and universities nationwide report figures indicating a further decline in the overall number of foreign students on U.S. campuses, the number of international students attending Earlham has surged to a third straight record. According to Associate Director of International Programs and International Student Liaison Kelley Lawson-Khalidi, the College this fall expects to host 147 overseas students representing 61 nations. Both figures are up substantially from the 2005-06 academic year, when 128 international students from 52 countries were enrolled.

Since 1996, when international students registered a scant three percent of Earlham's undergraduate population, the number of foreign students joining the College community has swelled to the point that today nearly one-in-eight students encountered on campus calls another country home. Among this year's group of international attendees are 41 first-year students, near the record of 43 international first-years realized in the fall of 2004, says Musa Khalidi, senior associate dean of admissions and director of the College's international recruitment efforts. He adds that nations being represented at Earlham for the first time this year include Uzbekistan, Mali and Lesotho.

Earlham's commitment to such multicultural diversity is a principal reason why the College recently was named a recipient of the 2006 Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization by NAFSA: Association of International Educators. Another important factor is Earlham's long and successful history promoting off-campus and international study, beginning with a contingent of students visiting France in 1956.

The sun comes up on Mills Hall and a new era in residential living at Earlham. The new residence hall — the College's eighth — is the first to utilize the concept of suites in its design. Bedrooms are clustered around shared living rooms and no more than four students will share any one bathroom. Kitchens, dining areas, study rooms and laundry facilities also can be found on each of the building's three floors.

Today, upwards of 70 percent of graduates report having participated in at least one off-campus or study-abroad program, either for a semester or during one of the College's increasingly popular May Terms. In addition to France, Earlham students now may visit and study in other European locations (including Northern Ireland, England, Germany and Spain), as well as Africa (Senegal and Tanzania), Asia (China and Japan), South Asia (India and Sri Lanka) and more than a dozen other cities, countries or regions identified by the International Programs Office.

Later this fall the College's various international initiatives also will be highlighted in an extensive article by former Associated Press education writer Christopher Connell, writing for NAFSA's annual report Internationalizing the Campus: Profiles of Success.

Meanwhile, among the more immediate signs of the anticipated, yearlong golden anniversary celebration of Earlham's successful "engagement with a changing world" is a series of colorful banners, produced by the Public Affairs Office, which will greet students, parents, alumni and visitors as they near the campus along U.S. 40 (Old National Road) and enter via either the main drive or G Street (off of College Avenue). Featuring photographs of students involved in various aspects of their international "immersion," the banners alternately describe study-abroad opportunities at Earlham as "Powerful," "Personal," and "Peaceful."

The second floor west balcony of Mills Hall promises to be a popular meeting and social space for many Earlhamites. It overlooks a courtyard created by the new building's connection to Warren and Wilson Halls and offers pleasing views of the open athletic fields beyond the Athletics and Wellness Center on the south end of campus.

Also waiting to greet students, parents, faculty, alumni and others arriving on campus this fall is Mills Hall, the College's first new residence hall in more than a decade. Situated between and connecting Warren and Wilson Halls, opened in 1992, the three-story, 56,700-square-foot structure brings to eight the number of residence halls on campus (exclusive of Norwich Lodge, converted to student housing in the wake of Earlham's largest-ever first-year class in 2004) and will eventually increase by at least 132 the number of students able to be accommodated in those buildings. Olvey-Andis Hall currently is undergoing extensive renovation and will not reopen until the 2007-08 school year, when similar work on Barrett Hall is expected to begin.

Although from the outside similar in architectural appearance to its immediate neighbors, "the WWs," the interior of Mills Hall marks a sharp departure from residential space found anywhere else on campus. It is the first designed on the "suites concept," with sleeping rooms arranged around shared living rooms and only four students assigned per bathroom. Common spaces for socializing — including kitchens and dining areas on each floor — as well as studying also are scattered throughout the building.

The impressive structure is named in recognition of a family whose connections to Earlham date back more than a century and whose efforts on behalf of the College have been characterized as "extraordinary." Among other contributions, the Mills family through the years has provided guidance to Earlham through the service of 10 members on the College's board of trustees. It also is the only family to have produced two presidents of the institution — John Joseph Mills (Earlham's longest-serving executive, 1884-1903) and Gene Mills (acting president 1996-97).

Mills Hall will be dedicated officially on Saturday morning, Oct. 14, during the College's annual Homecoming and Reunion Weekend.

Contact:
Kevin Burke, director of media relations
765/983-1323 — E-Mail Kevin