ORANGE : Prospective Students Explore Chapman

Chapman College held its annual Exploration Day on Monday, enabling prospective students and their parents to walk the campus to get familiar with the school and its programs.

Several students said they were impressed with Chapman because of its “sense of togetherness and closeness.”

“It looks like I’m not going to do much more debating about where to go,” said Walter Threlkeld, 17, of San Diego.

Threlkeld, who came with his parents, said Chapman had answered his wish for a small liberal arts college.

“I’m pretty much enamored with the whole place,” he said.

Many of the prospective students and their parents were drawn by the relatively small size of Chapman’s enrollment, about 2,300 students.

“Big colleges really intimidate me,” said Michael Andert, 18, of Anaheim. “Chapman, with its small-campus atmosphere, appeals to me.”

More than 300 students attended Exploration Day, and several voiced concern about reports the school was facing tough financial times.

To help guarantee the college’s survival, Chapman President Allen E. Koenig recently unveiled a plan which calls for the faculty to be trimmed by 20% by the 1993-94 academic year. There will be heavy cuts in the liberal arts programs and more programs will be geared toward professional programs in business, economics, psychology, education and communications.

Koenig had also proposed that the present student-teacher ratio of 13 to 1 be increased to 18 to 1.

Karen MacKenzie of Fullerton said that she and her 16-year-old daughter, Megan, were concerned about the budget problems at Chapman but that after talking to students and staff members she was “satisfied with the school and satisfied with the answers.”