The rustle of papers, and the opening of laptop computers and books filled classrooms today at Tusculum College as Tennessee's oldest college welcomed back students for the fall 2005 academic semester.

Tusculum College enters its 212th year with its enrollment in the traditional undergraduate program nearing 1,000 students. About 950 students are enrolled in the program, called the Residential College at Tusculum.

The college has approximately 370 new students in class this fall. The freshmen class has a strong academic profile, and the entering students are expected to be successful in their college careers at Tusculum.

Enrollment in the traditional undergraduate program has been on a steady increase for the past five years. In 2001, 635 students were enrolled in the traditional program, which had increased to 896 in 2003 to the about 950 enrollment for this academic year.

Housing on campus is at capacity as it has been for the past few years with the increase in student enrollment.

Traditional college classes met for the first time Monday in the new classrooms in the Library. Expansion and renovation of the historic building was completed over the summer.

The facility is nearly triple the size of the original building, allowing the college to provide increased on-site reference, circulation and periodical space, as well as house additional computer terminals and resources and a book collection of 65,000 volumes. The Library's print collection exceeds 185,000 print and microform texts and over 200 periodical subscriptions.

The addition to the Library also includes six full-size classrooms, eight faculty offices, a conference room and study rooms, and a special classroom dedicated to library instruction and information literacy.

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