Presidential Address for Parent's Weekend

Saturday, November 11, 2017

Good morning. Before I give my talk, I want to share with you a video that I just received that I am excited about. It is part of an ongoing project called “Enduring Value of Lehigh,” where we look at what makes Lehigh Lehigh.

Why did I show this to you? Your sons and daughters will be the stars of this video over the next several decades, and I believe that the way our current alumni express the impact Lehigh has had on their lives will be similar to how today’s students will speak about the university in 10, 20, 30 years – these are our enduring values.

I know the transformative power of the Lehigh experience, I have seen it in action time and again. In my travels I have spoken to countless alumni who have been molded by their Lehigh experience. Regardless of when they were here, regardless of what they studied, these women and men share some important traits. They are ambitious, unafraid, daring. They believe, and then they act, with an entrepreneurial spirit, passion, and purpose. They share a belief that all things are possible, that no problem is unsolvable, that no dream is unachievable.

This is a very exciting time for Lehigh. We are building on our historic strengths to ensure that we continue to graduate leaders who are capable of meeting the great challenges of their time. I’d like to highlight a few exciting initiatives at the university.

An important part of student success is positioning our graduates to thrive in today’s global arena. To advance our efforts in this area, Lee Iacocca, Lehigh Class of 1945, stepped up and generously donated a matching grant to establish an international internship program. This past summer we sent 102 Iacocca interns abroad to 29 different countries.

I met with the interns and heard their stories about working in places like India, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Czech Republic, Singapore, Japan, Uganda. My discussions with the students proved to me that their experiences change their lives and career aspirations.

Lehigh excels in interdisciplinary programs and experiential learning. These programs empower our graduates to lead in emerging industries and key growth sectors. Lehigh is uniquely positioned to be an international research leader in areas such as data and computation … infrastructure and energy … bioscience and biotechnology. And our soon-to-open autism clinic will train graduate students to be certified behavior analysts, and will also be a space for conducting original research into what works best for children with autism.

I’d like to highlight developments in our programs around entrepreneurship. Last year we launched what we affectionately refer to as “our West Coast living room,” a partnership between Lehigh University and the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center in San Francisco. We partnered with the Center, connecting Lehigh student groups with entrepreneurs identified by Nasdaq’s milestone maker program. Last spring, one of our current parents, Tom Gillis, led the teaching of a course from the Nasdaq Center to students here at Lehigh. This past summer we conducted several programs in the facility, including our Student Idea Accelerator, Launch Bay C, giving students access to the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Silicon Valley. So while many universities teach entrepreneurship, Lehigh lives it.

We are fortunate to have creative spaces that spark innovation. Specifically, in the former Bethlehem Steel research buildings on our Mountaintop Campus we are pushing the boundaries of higher education with what I like to call an incubator for innovation. This is a wonderful example of space enabling creative thinking. The open bays are large and indestructible (they once poured tons of molten steel in these research labs); they call for one to think big. These buildings house interdisciplinary teams of students, in partnership with our passionate faculty, creating new knowledge and ways to approach real-world problems. Projects range from 3-D printing in concrete to new vaccine delivery systems.

Not only are our students learning to pull from the knowledge in multiple disciplines to create new insights and new devices, the faculty are learning how best to foster an environment that encourages and supports creativity. I’ve spent quite a bit of time at Mountaintop and am truly inspired by the student engagement; similar excellence is on display in classrooms and laboratories throughout campus. As we transform more of our physical spaces, I am confident that this excellence will only grow and deepen.

Investments in campus facilities underpin the entire Lehigh student experience – living and learning. We recently completed the renovation of Williams Hall, which houses many of our humanities and social science departments. We are nearing the completion of the renovation of Building C on Mountaintop, which will house Computer Science, our Data initiative, the Department of Art, Architecture and Design, and a range of interdisciplinary initiatives that fall under our commitment to advance “creative inquiry” on campus. We are planning for the renovation of Chandler-Ullman, which will continue to house the Psychology Department and will become the new home of the Math Department. We have received zoning board approval for a new multi-story student living facility along Brodhead Avenue that we are calling SouthSide Commons. This will provide apartment-style living and recreational space for 400 students. Our aim is to break ground next year and formally open SouthSide Commons for the 2019-2020 academic year. We are in the design phase of a residential community, called Bridge West; it will be located next to, and is being planned in conjunction with the renovations of, our University Center. We want to give all of our students a residential experience that is second to none.

There is much more I could talk about, and I know there are two major issues that are also on your minds: the student social scene and our institutional support for connecting your sons and daughters to the first step in their careers. You will now hear from Ric Hall, Katherine Lavinder, and Lori Kennedy on these topics.