Alamance County’s population is about to grow by several thousand as students show up at Elon University.
Elon University will soon welcome a freshman class of about 1,285. Those students will make up about a fourth of the school’s 4,950 undergraduates, with about 500 graduate students studying at Elon.
Students in this year’s freshman class were chosen from among 9,380 who applied.
University spokesman Dan Anderson said that’s the highest number of applications ever, though not far outpacing the 9,200 applications from 2006.
Freshmen will move in on Aug. 24 and classes start Aug. 27.
Elon has three new majors this year, in anthropology, art history and music technology. The univer-sity is expanding its Middle Eastern studies program with a $160,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Elon has two new buildings in its Academic Village. Three new buildings will open this fall next to the Ernest A. Koury Sr. Business Center. Those include a dining complex and two residence buildings.
Rhodes Stadium is adding a large video screen to its scoreboard that will use programming, anima-tion and graphics to encourage crowd interaction.
Well-known visitors to Elon this year will include Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Du-kakis, who is scheduled to be on campus Sept. 18. She will give master classes to performing arts stu-dents.
Pulitzer Prize winner George Will, an author and columnist who has done work for Newsweek, The Washington Post and ABC News, will give Elon’s Baird Pulitzer Prize Lecture on Sept. 20.
Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and founder of the MK Gandhi Institute for Non-violence in Memphis, Tenn., will speak on Nov. 7.
The Elon University School of Law in Greensboro is welcoming its second class this fall. The class includes 108 students ranging in age from 21 to 57.
Law school classes begin Aug. 20.
