News from Transy

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University is listed in The Princeton Review’s “The Best 378 Colleges,” a ranking that includes the top 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges. “Transylvania University offers outstanding academics, which is the primary criteria for our choice of schools for the book,” said Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s senior vice president and author of “The Best 378 Colleges.” The book’s two-page profile of Transylvania includes comments from students surveyed for the book. Students described Transylvania as an “extremely close-knit campus” with a “strong sense of community.” They said that Transylvania strives to provide “a holistic educational experience where one can grow intellectually and academically while participating in a vibrant social community.” Other students said that they work “ridiculously hard,” but that the professors let you stop by during their office hours and discuss just about anything. One Spanish and English double major affirmed, “It doesn’t matter whether a class is lecture or discussion based, because either way you’re guaranteed to learn something.” The schools’ evaluations are based on institutional data, feedback from current students, visits to the schools, opinions of independent college counselors and other factors. The Princeton Review is a New York-based education services company known for its education, admission and test-prep services. Transylvania, founded in 1780, is the nation’s sixteenth oldest institution of higher learning and is consistently ranked in national publications as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country.

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University’s pioneering August term is poised to introduce first-year students to the academic rigor of a liberal arts college. The Class of 2017 will arrive on campus on August 9—three weeks before upperclassmen—to learn what it will take to excel at Transylvania. Although Transylvania’s unusual August term includes elements of the typical college orientation—a multitude of social activities for the class of 2017 to get to know each other and bond as a group, educational programming related to making responsible choices as an independent adult and community service opportunities—it also incorporates a rigorous classroom experience: the First Engagements seminar. Classes of approximately 14 students meet daily with a faculty member to discuss two texts and become acquainted with the type of critical thinking and discussions that will be expected as part of their college academic experience. Participating faculty come from all academic areas, and students in different sections of the class may be exposed to widely varying perspectives on the First Engagements theme. This year’s theme is “Reading the World,” which captures two goals of a liberal arts education: learning to read critically and exploring the wider world. Over the summer, the first-year students read “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” by Mark Haddon, which will provide the jumping off point for initial discussions. Once on campus, students will also read “Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason” by Russell

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University has bolstered enrollment by reaching out to diverse populations—from its own backyard to across the globe. This year’s incoming class not only is the most racially and ethnically diverse in school history—by far—but it’s also the most international ever. Traveling here from countries as far flung as China, Peru, Iraq and England, the 20 new students from abroad represent a 900 percent spike in the past five years. Also, about 20 percent of first-year students identify themselves as a member of a racial or ethnic minority group. This is 26 percent more than in last year’s incoming class, which was the most diverse until now. The total number of new students—305 so far—is an average size compared to the past four years. Transylvania’s overall enrollment for the fall term is expected to be 1,075, the largest in the past three years. In addition to maintaining the size of the class, having a more diverse student body strengthens the teaching and learning environment. “We’ve been very intentional about trying to increase the population of students of color,” said Brad Goan, vice president for enrollment and dean of admissions. This includes initiatives such as campus visits through the Trailblazers Scholarship program and outreach to community organizations that serve underrepresented students. Much of the diversity increase comes from a gain in Hispanic students—21 this year—which bodes well for the future because it’s a growing demographic. Additionally, the university’s strategic enrollment

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—Fifteen faculty members from some of the top liberal arts colleges in the country will converge at Transylvania University later this week for a seminar called “Twenty-First Century Liberal Education: A Contested Concept.” The eighth annual event will draw participants from institutions such as Pomona, Carleton, Kenyon and Middlebury colleges from Thursday to Sunday. Ten seminar sessions and two plenary talks will address a variety of topics—from modernizing liberal education to exploring its evolution. “We remind ourselves what it has been so we can understand what it is,” seminar coordinator and Transylvania political science professor Jeffrey B. Freyman said. “Transylvania has historically played a central role in that, because we’re such an old institution.” Founded in 1780, Transylvania is among a handful of colleges that pioneered higher education in America. One of the seminar’s two plenary speakers will be Robin Feuer Miller, a Brandeis University professor who is an expert in Russian literature and senior advisor to the provost for faculty. She will present From Well-Rounded to Sharp: Liberal Education in the Twenty-First Century on Thursday night. Then on Saturday, Neal Broadus Abraham, a physics professor and executive director of Five Colleges, Inc., will present Liberal Education in an Era Requiring Global Citizenship. Five Colleges is a prestigious consortium of Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Freyman said participants in the seminar—sponsored by the university’s Bingham Program for Excellence in Teaching—will come

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