Haley Pierson, left, and Olivia Morris play water balloon volleyball in the aquatics area during RecFest Friday at Indiana University. Staff photo By Jeremy Hogan
Freshman Logan Witte sat on the curb near the Showalter Fountain, waiting for New Student Service Day to begin. After days of outside events during Welcome Week, he chose to help at the Hoosier to Hoosier Community Sale, which was indoors at a warehouse on South Rogers Street.
“It’s a good way to help and to get around Bloomington,” Witte said.
The service day on Saturday was one of the last events of Indiana University’s Welcome Week, which ends today after it kicked off Wednesday with move-in day and freshman induction, and events continued to offer connections to various areas of campus from cultural centers to club and intramural sports opportunities to health resources and more.
Witte is one of about 7,700 freshmen who spent the past several days moving-in and exploring campus and Bloomington. And on Monday, the record-setting class — in numbers and academics — will attend their first IU classes.
The class is the biggest ever, breaking the record of 7,590 set in fall 2012.
This group of students also increased the number of underrepresented minority students over past freshman classes. Black students increased by 7 percent over last year, and Hispanic students by 10 percent, according to IU’s estimates.
Plus, IU reported that roughly 700 freshmen are from other countries around the world.
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