Waltham’s Bentley University Welcomes Most Diverse Class In History

WALTHAM, MA — To kick off the 2022-2023 academic year, Bentley University welcomed the most diverse class in its history, with 25 percent of incoming students being the first in their families to attend college.

The school’s orientation week began on August 29 with the MOSAIC Experience, a pre-orientation program for students of color and their allies. Remaining first-year and transfer students arrived to campus on September 1 for the university’s official orientation.

“As orientation leaders, we are trying to fill the Bentley campus with energy and positivity and take what we learned in training to welcome the Class of 2026 and make them feel like they belong,” said Sid Goel ’24, a Data Analytics major.

Later in the afternoon, students and their families gathered in the Bentley Arena for Convocation, a longstanding Bentley tradition to welcome new students to campus in a formal ceremony.

“On our campus, we welcome, celebrate and affirm a broad and inclusive community,” President E. LaBrent Chrite said as he addressed the crowd. “In fact, you, the Class of 2026, have the distinct honor of being the most diverse incoming class in the history of our university.”

During the ceremony, the Jumbotron highlighted stats about the incoming class. The 1,154 students in the incoming class arrived from 34 states and 51 countries and territories, 364 identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American, 292 are first-generation students, and 12 percent are varsity student-athletes at Bentley.

“You can expect to be surrounded by a community that mirrors the pluralism of the world around you,” Chrite said. “We seek to create a community that brings together students with differences in background, belief, orientation, experience and opinion. As you begin your journey here at Bentley University, as you define your passion and purpose, I encourage you to appreciate the transformational possibilities that result from sustained exposure to differing points of view.”

Orientation, which ran from September 1-4, included informational and social activities such as a welcome for students in the Honors Program, a Q&A session with University Police, an academic resource fair, a block party, bingo night, and a scavenger hunt.

Programming will continue throughout the fall semester, including a recognition event for first-generation students in October.