Lehigh President Announces $250 million Initiative

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Dear Lehigh University Faculty and Staff:

The decision by our Board of Trustees to invest $250 million to advance our academic mission is a great vote of confidence in you, Lehigh’s faculty and staff.  Now the work begins.

The Board, in conversation with the senior leadership, has identified four broad areas where we will make these investments:

  1. Financial aid and merit aid for our students
  2. A reimagined University Center; renovations to Chandler-Ullmann and Christmas-Saucon; upgrades to our physical plant, especially our laboratory and technical infrastructure
  3. Deepening our existing commitment to programs that develop student experiences in  innovation, integration and entrepreneurship, hallmarks of a Lehigh education
  4. Globalizing our campus to assure our graduates are educated about the world, can access internships and education experiences throughout the world, and are acquiring the knowledge, skills and experiences to prepare them to lead in taking on the complex global issues of their generation

I have charged Provost Pat Farrell to lead a process to gather input from the faculty and staff about how best to advance the institution through the wise investment of these funds.  As provost, Pat is responsible for making decisions about academic investments, in consultation with me and the Trustees.

The better informed Pat is through input from our faculty and staff, the better the decisions he will make.  To that end, I am also charging the senior leadership team and the deans to do everything they can to encourage the best information is put forward.  We will need to make use of our university governance structure, the knowledge of department chairs and the perspective of the deans and other senior administrators in the process.

While this investment is significant, we all know it is not sufficient to meet all of the legitimate academic needs of the university or support all the big ideas generated by the faculty.  The decisions we make around this investment will be critical to our success in the capital campaign we will announce later this year, and will be a springboard for additional investments in the university.

I expect discussions in the coming weeks and months will be informed – and passionate.  That is as it should be.  I do not expect the university community will necessarily reach consensus, and that is fine.  My goal is that faculty have input and understand the rationale for the decisions made, even if there is less than universal agreement.

I look forward to advancing our academic mission.  These are truly exciting times for Lehigh.

John D. Simon