With A&M-Commerce surpassing its previous record of 10,000 students enrolled last year with this year’s 11,000, there are plenty of new faces on campus, but only one of them is lucky enough to be the 11,000th student to enroll.
That student is freshman Dakota Griffin. During his high school days, Griffin was involved in the band program as well as doing volunteer work for churches in his hometown, Greenville. Griffin told The East Texan that he chose A&M-Commerce because of the good reputation and its proximity to his home.
Although he does not intend to get involved with the A&M-Commerce music program, he does plan to get involved with other activities on campus.
“To be honest I really don’t know a lot of activities going on right now,” Griffin said. “A lot of my friends are involved in the Baptist Student Ministry, so I plan to be getting my feet wet there.”
While Griffin has not yet declared a major, he is interested in psychology classes, and looks forward to this semester.
“I was very last minute so they kind of just shoved me into classes,” Griffin said. “[I’m] mixing up my schedule and seeing what pops out at me. Also getting other students opinions of courses.”
Vice President for Student Access and Success Mary Hendrix was pleased to receive the news of the university’s achievement.
“We are thrilled that our university has set an enrollment record for the second year in a row and we are particularly proud that we have the highest retention rate of first-time, full-time freshmen in our history,” Hendrix said. “I would like to thank our entire university community for the many hours they have devoted to this effort and for the special care and support they provide our prospective and current students.”
When asked about her reaction to the record-breaking 11,000th enrollment, Hendrix explained that it was not something that the university took lightly.
“We were watching the numbers closely and anticipated reaching 11,000,” Hendrix said. “What we did not know was whether the 11,000th student would register on campus, online, or at one of our off-campus sites. We had a photographer in our One Stop Shop lobby just in case. Dakota Griffin was a great sport about all the attention he received and joked that if he knew it was going to be his lucky day, he would have bought a lottery ticket.”
Griffin is living off campus at home with his mother, Kim Griffin, but he says that he likes the commute, because it gives him, “time to think about things.”