India tour for Wooster President Grant Cornwell; recruiting cricket players ?

College of Wooster President Grant Cornwell will embark on a two-week, four-city tour of India in late January to meet with Wooster alumni and parents, visit high schools, and confer with higher education colleagues. He will be accompanied by Peg Cornwell, associate to the president for community, trustee, and parent relations, and Shila Garg, professor of physics and former dean of the faculty.

The group will visit Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, and Delhi. This is the first time a Wooster president has scheduled a series of alumni events in India, where the college has recruited students for decades.That recruitment drive has recently gotten a major boost through cricket, according to Nicola Kille, of Wooster’s Ambassador Program and Faculty Advisor for the cricket club.

In October, for its Homecoming, the College of Wooster played cricket and pulled a record 967 fans into the football stadium for the game.Though cricket is the original college sport in the USA this event marked an epochal moment in the sport’s comeback in the USA. It followed upon Wooster’s cricket team’s particpation in the 2010 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship in March, and the Midwest Championship in Sept.

“Wooster has a long history of engagement in India, going back to the earliest days of the college,” Cornwell said, “and with initiatives like our Global Social Entrepreneurship program, the Hales Fund study group of faculty who travelled there in 2008, and new courses being developed that will be taught in India in 2012, our engagement continues to deepen. I’m very excited to have this chance to meet with our alumni, explore opportunities with higher education leaders, and continue to spread the word about Wooster to prospective students in India.”

American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah said, “American College Cricket is demonstrating how important cricket can be to USA Universities as a student recruitment tool, and President Cornwell is in the forefront of appreciating that. We expect to see more US and Canadian colleges taking advantage of the opportunities cricket present.”

The College of Wooster is an independent liberal arts college, nationally recognized for an innovative curriculum that emphasizes mentored, independent research. Founded in 1866, the college has approximately 2,000 students and is located on a picturesque campus in Ohio.

College of Wooster has already confirmed its Registration for the 2011 American College Cricket Spring Break Championship in March, in Florida.