SRU welcomes 2,147 new students

re veteran Slippery Rock University students, driving onto campus during the first day of classes may have been a bit of a shock.

There have been a lot of changes to the campus landscape over the summer, some of which are continuing into the fall semester.

You can see that the new student center on the top of the hill is coming along nicely.

The walls are up and some windows are even in.

You can see the soil from the backyards of Eisenberg Classroom Building, Bailey Library and Swope Music Hall sitting in piles along the sides of the road, along with countless pieces of piping and construction material.

You can see Weisenfluh Dining Hall, which appears to currently be in the "gutting" process of renovations.

And then there are the familiar sights, the things that make you feel at home again.

You can see the fountain between the East and West Lake parking lots, welcoming you back onto campus.

You can see President Robert Smith happily riding around campus on his segway.

And of course, you can see, and feel for that matter, the enormous potholes up and down Kiester Road.

But for the freshmen and transfer students that are entering Slippery Rock's campus for the first time, everything is new and different.

Slippery Rock University is welcoming 2,147 freshmen and transfer students this fall, which is more than what the university had expected, according to President Smith.

Last spring, the university was hoping for a three percent enrollment increase, but that expectation was lowered to zero over the summer, presumably because of the budget cuts instituted by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett.

For those of you that aren't aware of the budget cuts, you should probably stop living under that rock that you call home, but despite your ignorance, we'll fill you in.

Slippery Rock University alone lost 18.3 percent of its funding in Corbett's budget cuts.

After adding in the 7.5 percent tuition increase, performance funding, reduced energy costs and reserve money, SRU is left with about a $2.2 million budget gap.

But despite all of the monetary issues, we still believe this is a great time to be at Slippery Rock University.

Just look at how much the professors love us.

They've been working without a contract since July and no one has made much of a fuss about it.

And with the exception of the hike in tuition, students haven't been directly affected much by the budget crisis, which is great.

Perhaps if we had, SRU may not have had the privilege of acquiring the students it did this fall.

The Rocket would like to welcome those 2,147 new students that we mentioned earlier, and we would just like to say that we hope you have a great time during your stay at Slippery Rock University.