Introductory Remarks at Lehigh Valley Partnership Event

Welcome, and thank you all for coming. I cannot believe I have been president for an entire semester. It has gone quickly and I have met so many people from around the world – people who care about this institution and our community. I have had the honor of working with some of you, and I look forward to working with all of you in the years to come. I would like to thank two people in particular. First, Mr. Lehigh: Mike Caruso. You set a high bar for our institution and its engagement with the community. And also Mayor Bob Donchez, a partner on many important initiatives; we are committed to work together to enhance our community.

I want to take this opportunity to talk about Lehigh as I have come to know it over the past 6 months. At Lehigh, we are committed to our students at all levels. We aspire to deliver the best in education in an inclusive community that respects differences, encourages collaboration and teamwork, and supports each individual as they find their voice and excel to their maximum potential.

We are committed to our faculty and staff – to hiring and retaining outstanding educators in order to create the learning environment that we desire and that our students deserve. And we realize it is a highly competitive landscape today for hiring and retaining excellent faculty and staff.

We are committed to providing distinctive excellence in our curriculum, in how we teach, in how we facilitate student learning. We are committed to new areas of knowledge and to providing educational opportunities for our students here and around the globe, in fields that will serve them well in the 21st century.

We are committed to innovating our educational model. Lehigh continues to excel in this area (our excellent and distinctive interdisciplinary programs such as IBE, IDEAS, and the Baker Institute are examples).

Our activities on South Mountain and on the Mountaintop, in the old Bethlehem Steel research labs, are setting the foundation for our future leadership in educational innovation. We do “interdisciplinary” well. Others claim to do it, but we do it better than anywhere I have worked. We truly make it happen.

We are committed to our community and to service to our community. Lehigh University is part of the fabric of South Bethlehem, and we are eager to work with the various community organizations to improve the quality of life for everyone here.

As I said earlier, I value my partnership with Mayor Donchez. We are both very much aware that our collaborative efforts have a far-reaching impact on South Bethlehem, an impact felt by the university community and local residents alike.

Another important partnership is the one shared by the Lehigh and Bethlehem Police Departments. I appreciate the leadership of LUPD Chief Ed Shupp and Bethlehem Chief of Police Mark DiLuzio, and their willingness to meet community safety challenges in a thoughtful yet decisive manner.

I’d like to take a few minutes to talk about something the campus is very excited about: our new Center for Community Engagement, led by Sarah Stanlick. The center is Lehigh’s hub for community-engaged research and learning. In essence, the CCE will help us – Lehigh staff, faculty, and students – work more effectively with our community.

How does the CCE help faculty?

• By offering faculty development workshops on topics such as service learning, ethical community engagement, and civic engagement.
• By assisting faculty with their community-based research and scholarship.
• By connecting resources (human, material, and financial) to support community-engaged work. This includes leveraging and connecting Lehigh resources for maximum value and impact.
• And because we want to have the largest possible impact in what we do, the center will help evaluate and assess the work being done.

How does the CCE help students?

• By preparing them for involvement in the community through training and skills development. Our students want their community work to be as meaningful as possible, and this training helps ensure that it will be. 
• The center helps students make connections in the community, to find the best setting for their interest and skill set so they can do the work they are most passionate about.
• The center can also help those students who are interested in planning their service learning as a central curricular component for a major or minor.

And finally, how does the CCE help the community?

• By offering professional development workshops at no or little cost to community partners.
• By providing strategic planning assistance on partner projects.
• By working with grant seekers to craft language about broader impacts and the common good.
• Perhaps most important of all, by asking the right questions of our community partners. “What do you need? What is the best way for Lehigh to work with you to do the most good?”

When we work smarter, our good intentions are transformed into work that has the farthest reach and the biggest impact. Ultimately, that is what Lehigh’s Center for Community Engagement is all about.

Something else we are excited about with regard to our involvement in South Bethlehem: Just a couple days ago, we were happy to announce that Lehigh University will be an anchor tenant, along with St. Luke’s, in a new office building to be constructed on the corner of 3rd and New Streets.

Stepping outside our campus and locating a significant number of our employees in the heart of the commercial district, at a gateway to Southside Bethlehem, was the right choice for Lehigh. We saw how important this was to Mayor Donchez and the City of Bethlehem, and we made our commitment to be a part of it. And we’re glad we did. We want to be an active participant in the economic vitality (and growth) of the city and the Lehigh valley.

I think we all have a bright future together, Lehigh University and the City of Bethlehem. I am excited, and I hope you are. Thanks for joining us this morning.