Incoming classes have continually raised standards for admission and helped propel Elon to the top of national college rankings over the past 10 years.

This year alone, Elon ranked second among 119 Southern master’s-level universities.

As a result of the university’s rising recognition, Elon has attracted students from prominent high schools with challenging programs. The average SAT scores of incoming freshmen at Elon have risen from 1057 in 1996 to 1217 in 2006 as well as the average campus-wide GPA rising from 2.37 in the fall of 1978 to 3.12 in spring 2006.

When President Leo Lambert noticed the continual rise in academic preparation of each incoming Elon class, he called for an assessment on academic challenge starting in the fall of 2005.

In response, seven standing committees were formed and seven reports on academic challenge were produced in the spring of 2006. Each of these reports formed the basis for a series of public forums in 2006, culminating in a set of recommendations to increase academic challenge for the students of Elon.

On Sept. 22, 2006, faculty, staff and students were given the opportunity to make final recommendations and prioritize the suggestions during a final summit meeting. The Report of the Academic Summit Steering Committee contains 10 items and 18 recommendations concerning academic challenge including scholarship, grades, experiential learning, diversity and alcohol.

After some debate, members of the university community decided on a working definition for academic challenge. Academic Challenge is the means by which Elon elicits from students their best efforts and enables them to think and act in ways that are discipline-specific, integrative, and progressively more complex, critical, and self directed (May 2007 Statement on Academic Challenge).

According to Dr. Mary Wise, assistant vice president of academic affairs and a member of the academic summit steering committee, the academic challenge effort is simply a way to update teaching methods in accordance with the increased intellect in Elon students.

“Many first year students were found to only be taking three four-credit classes, which is too light a load for most of our students,” Wise said. “As part of the academic challenge, we asked departments to add new classes as well as see that most first year students were assigned four four-credit classes in addition to Elon 101 and wellness. As a result, many first year students now have a 19-hour semester to begin with.”

The next few years will see more increases in academic challenge as more initiatives from the academic summit are realized.

Reporter: Laura Wainman - 09/05/07