Lehigh University is a
private, co-educational university located in Bethlehem
, Pennsylvania
, in the Lehigh Valley
region of the United
States
. It was established in 1865 by
Asa Packer as a four-year
technical school and has grown to include
four diverse colleges. The university comprises 4,856
undergraduate students, nearly 2,000
graduate students, 600
professors, and 1,500 staff.
The university has four
colleges: the P.C.
Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, the College of
Arts and Sciences, the nationally ranked College of Business and
Economics, and the graduate-only College of Education. The College
of Arts and Sciences is the largest college, home to roughly 40%
percent of the university's students. The colleges offer a variety
of degrees, including
Bachelor of
Arts,
Bachelor of Science,
Master of Science,
Master of Business
Administration,
Master of
Engineering and
Doctor of
Philosophy. Additionally, they collaborate on a variety of
cross-disciplinary programs and on cross-college faculty research.
In the 2010
U.S. News & World Report
Best National Universities Ranking, Lehigh was ranked 35th overall.
In BusinessWeek's 2008 ranking of Which College Grads Earn the
Most, Lehigh ranked #14.
Campus
Alumni Memorial Building on the Asa Packer campus
Located in
the Lehigh Valley, the university is
within driving distance of Philadelphia
and New York
City
.
Lehigh encompasses , including 180 acres of recreational and
playing fields and 150 buildings comprising more than four
million square feet of floor space. It is
organized into three contiguous
campuses:
- the Asa Packer Campus, Lehigh's main campus;
- the Mountaintop Campus, featuring an intramural sports field as well as Iacocca
Hall; and
- the Murray H. Goodman Campus, where a 16,000-seat stadium and other sports facilities are
located.
Lehigh's
main campus is built into the side of South
Mountain
.
Academics
Lehigh's average class size is 25–30 students; 80% of classes have
fewer than 36 students. The undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio
is 9:1.
The 2009 edition of
US
News & World Report's
Best Colleges ranked
Lehigh in its "Most Selective" admissions category and 35th in the
"National Universities (Doctoral)" category. The
The Princeton Review classifies it
among the "Best Northeastern Colleges".
Lehigh University offers undergraduate enrollment within three
different colleges. These divisions, however, do not restrict
students from taking courses or majoring/minoring in a subject
outside of their respective college. This option allows students at
Lehigh to enhance their education and take full advantage of all
that Lehigh academics have to offer.
P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science
Graduates
of Lehigh's engineering programs invented the escalator and founded Packard
Motor Car Company and the companies that built the locks and
lockgates of the Panama
Canal
. Roger Penske of
Penske Racing is an alumnus. Students
from Lehigh's Materials Science and Engineering department were
chosen to assist in the analysis of debris from the
Space Shuttle Columbia
disaster.
Tau Beta Pi, the renowned
engineering
honors society, was
founded at Lehigh.
College of Business and Economics
In 2008,
BusinessWeek ranked
Lehigh's College of Business and Economics 25th in the nation among
undergraduate business programs. Lehigh's accounting program is
particularly strong, ranked as the number one undergraduate
accounting program in the nation by BusinessWeek. The finance
program is also strong, ranked as the 18th best undergraduate
program in the nation by BusinessWeek. Accounting and finance
majors at Lehigh are heavily recruited by
Big Four auditors, consulting firms, and
investment banks. Additionally, BusinessWeek ranked Lehigh's
part-time MBA fifth in the nation and first in the region in
2007.
Most business college classes take place in the Rauch Business
Center, which includes four computer labs. The Rauch Business
Center also includes a financial services lab where students have
access to premium investment research equipment.
College of Arts and Sciences
Based in the
Zoellner Arts
Center, Lehigh offers a variety of performing and visual arts
programs. In particular, it has many music programs, including its
Marching 97, the Wind Ensemble and the Philharmonic
orchestra. It has a dedicated Humanities Center, which is an active
center for discussions in philosophy, literature, religion studies,
and other subjects.
Lehigh also has a program called ArtsLehigh, oriented towards
enhancing interest in the arts on campus.
The College of Education's logo:
Bold, Connected, Innovative
College of Education
- College homepage: http://www.lehigh.edu/education
The College of Education offers graduate programs in
Counseling Psychology,
Educational Leadership,
School Psychology,
Special Education, "Teaching, Learning,
and Technology", and Transcultural Comparative International
Education. More than 6000 students have received one of these
degrees as of 2007, with some of them going on to receive awards
such as MetLife/NASSP National Middle Level Principal of the
Year.
Faculty
As of 2009 Lehigh has 629 instructional faculty, 443 of whom are
full-time. Over 99% of the faculty hold a Ph.D. or the highest
terminal degree in their field, and about 70% of all full-time
faculty are tenured. About three-quarters (74%) of them are male.
Faculty members are required to have a minimum of four office hours
per week.
Athletics

Called the Engineers until 1995,
Lehigh's teams are now officially known as the Mountain Hawks,
although teams prior to 1995 may be referred to by the older title.
They mostly compete in the
Patriot
League as part of
NCAA's
Division I.
Lehigh competes in 25 different NCAA Division I sports. Despite the
rigor of its academic programs, its 2006 student-athlete graduation
rate of 97% ranks 12th among all 326 NCAA Division I institutions.
In 2002, it won the inaugural
USA
Today/NCAA Foundation Award for having the nation's top
graduation rate of all Division I institutions. Lehigh
student-athletes' success on the field and in the classroom has
resulted in Lehigh being one of the 20 Division I schools included
in
U.S.
News & World
Report's "America's Best College Sports Programs." Lehigh
graduates have gone on to professional careers in the
National Football League,
Major League Baseball,
Major League Soccer,and the
National Basketball
Association as players, scouts, coaches and owners. Lehigh
graduates have competed in the
Super Bowl
and won gold medals for the USA at the
Olympics.
Wrestling
The most storied athletic program at Lehigh is its wrestling team.
Over the past several decades it has turned out several
All-Americans and had numerous squads finish with Top 20 NCAA
national rankings. Under coach Greg Strobel, recent teams have
dominated the
EIWA league. On April 15, 2008,
the athletic department announced the hiring of former assistant
coach and two-time national champion
Pat
Santoro as Lehigh's next head coach.
"The Rivalry"
Lehigh
University is notable for its rivalry in sports and academics with
nearby Lafayette
College
. Since 1884, the two football teams have met
145 times, making
"The Rivalry"
the most played in the history of college football. It is also the
longest uninterrupted rivalry in college football, with the teams
playing at least once every year since 1897. The Rivalry is
considered one of the best in all of college athletics and
ESPNU recently ranked The Rivalry #8 in their Top Ten
College Football Rivalries. This game is sold out long before
gameday each year.
History
Asa Packer named his university 'Lehigh'
after his other passion, the railroad, despite suggestions from
some to call it 'Packer University'. It was founded to provide a
well-rounded education for young men, combining a
liberal and
scientific education with the technical skills
necessary to increase the prosperity of the region. According to
William Bacon Stevens, the first president of the board of
trustees, Asa Packer's founding gift of $500,000 was the largest
single endowment for a literary institution at that time.
From 1871 to 1891, Packer's endowment allowed the institution to
offer its education free of charge by competitive exam. This, plus
its blend of engineering and liberal arts, attracted some of the
nation's brightest students, many of whom went on to distinguished
careers in industry and engineering.
Unlike other engineering schools of the day, Lehigh was envisioned
as a university instead of an "
institute of technology," offering
an education that was rooted in both scientific and classical
traditions as espoused by
John Amos
Comenius. Initially there were five schools: four scientific
(civil engineering, mechanical engineering, mining and metallurgy,
and analytical chemistry) and one of general literature. Over time,
additional areas of the arts and sciences were added and
engineering curricula were both merged and expanded.

Lehigh's seal
The stock market crash accompanying the
Panic of 1893 was a major financial blow to
the university, since its endowment was largely invested in stocks,
particularly shares of
Lehigh
Valley Railroad donated by the founder. As a consequence,
Lehigh decided to drop its
Episcopal
Church affiliation in 1897, allowing it to qualify for state
and federal government aid.
Based on the experience of Lehigh engineers who went into industry
a College of Business & Economics was added in 1910. Lehigh's
business curriculum was unique in that it combined both the
abstract emphasis on
Economics seen in the
Ivy League with the practical skills of
management seen in more common
business administration degrees
given by other universities.
A similar emphasis on the well-rounded graduate can be seen in
Lehigh's approach to education degrees. Lehigh's respected School
of Education started as (and remains) a solely graduate-level
program. This is based on the principle that you need to learn
primary subject matter well before you can learn how to teach it to
others. Thus future teachers at Lehigh often take a five year
program earning both a Bachelors Degree in a specialized field and
a Masters Degree in Education.
In July 2008,
the Dalai
Lama held a public lecture and conducted a series of teachings
at Lehigh University.
The Clery Act
Between 1982 to 1985 there were 38 violent crimes involving rape,
robbery and assault at Lehigh University . On April 5, 1986, 19
year old freshman student Jeanne Ann Clery was raped, sodomized,
strangled, and mutilated to death in her campus residency. The
culprit Josoph M. Henry was sentenced to the electric chair. The
parents of Jeanne, Connie and Howard, settled out of court with
Lehigh University for an undisclosed amount. The backlash of
numerous unreported crime cases on university campuses lead to the
Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime
Statistics Act. The
Clery Act requires
that colleges and universities reveal information regarding crime
on their campuses.
Presidents of Lehigh
- Henry Coppée (1866–1875),
soldier, author, and engineer
- John McDowell Leavitt
(1875–1880), Episcopal clergyman
- Robert Alexander
Lamberton (1880–1893), lawyer
- Thomas Messinger Drown
(1895–1904), chemistry professor
- Henry Sturgis Drinker
(1905–1920), the only alumnus to serve as president
- Charles Russ Richards
(1922–1935), presided over the first graduate degrees awarded to
women
- Clement C. Williams (1935–1944), civil
engineer
- Martin Dewey Whitaker
(1946–1960), who worked to develop the atomic bomb
- Harvey A. Neville (1961–1964), the only faculty
member ever elected president
- W. Deming Lewis (1964–1982), presided over the
admission of undergraduate women
- Peter Likins (1982–1997), civil
engineer
- William C. Hittinger (1997–1998), electrical
engineer
- Gregory C. Farrington (1998–2006), chemist
- Alice P. Gast (2006–present), Lehigh's first female
president, chemical engineer
Notable alumni
- Ali Al-Naimi
(BS Geology, 1962), CEO, Saudi Aramco, formerly
Arabian American Oil Company, 1984–1995, Minister of
Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Saudi Arabia
,1995–Present.
- William Amelio (BS Chem. Eng., 1979),
CEO, Lenovo Group
Limited.
- Eugene Grace (1899), former President, Bethlehem Steel.
- Richard Hayne (BA Anthropology
1969), co-founder, Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free
People. Listed on Forbes 400 World's Richest People in
2008.
- Lee Iacocca (Industrial Eng. 1945, Hon D.Eng.
1965), former Chairman, Chrysler Corporation.
- Daniel C. Keefe, former CEO Ingersol-Rand.
- Philip Kent (BS Business & Economics
1976), Chairman & CEO, Turner Broadcasting.
- Warren Klawitter (BS &
MS Mathematics), Vice President & Chief
Actuary, GEICO
- Harold Mohler (BS Chem. Eng., 1948), former
President and CEO, Hershey Foods.
- Joseph R. Perella (BS Business
& Economics 1964),
former Chairman of Investment
Banking, Morgan Stanley.
- Douglas Rogers (1982), President, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare.
- Charlie Dent (MPA, 1993), United
States Congressman.
- Peter D. Feaver, (BA,
1983) member of the National Security
Council in the Clinton and Bush administrations and professor
at Duke
University
.
- Joe Morgenstern (BA English,
1953), 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner.
- John-David F. Bartoe (BS Physics
1966), Space
Shuttle Astronaut and ISS Research manager for NASA
.
- Steven J. Burakoff, cancer
specialist and the author of both Therepeutic Immunology
(2001) and Graft-Vs.-Host Disease: Immunology, Pathophysiology,
and Treatment (1990)
- Al Holbert, legendary American race
car driver
- Zhou Ming-Zhen, Chinese
palentologist, Academican of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,
recipient of the Romer-Simpson
Medal.
- Roger Penske
(1959), NASCAR and
IRL team owner and Member of
International Motorsports Hall of
Fame
.
Greek Life
Nearly all of Lehigh's fraternities and sororities have their own
houses which are owned by the university; most of the fraternities
and sororities are located on the "Hill" along Upper and Lower
Sayre Park Roads. Approximately 34% of undergraduates are members
of a Greek organization. There are currently 22 fraternities, 18 of
which are on campus, and 9 sororities, 8 of which are on
campus.
Spirit and traditions
Lehigh students have several lasting traditions: Lehigh's school
colors, brown and white, date back to 1874, and the school
newspaper of the same name was first published in 1894.
Following the death of Asa Packer in May 1879, the University
established "Founder's Day" to be held in October to remember and
recognize those have contributed to the success of the University.
The event remains an annual tradition.
Freshmen are traditionally inducted into the University in a
convocation in Packer Chapel and welcomed at a Freshman-Alumni
Rally where their class flag is given to them by the class from
fifty years before.
Until the 1970s, freshmen wore small brown hats with their class
numbers called "dinks" from the beginning of the fall semester
until the Lafayette football game. The week leading up to the big
game was full of festivities created to unite the students and fuel
spirit.
In one of these events, "The Pajama Parade,"
the freshmen were led across the penny toll bridge in their pajamas
singing "We Pay No Tolls Tonight" to the Moravian
College
dormitories where they would serenade the
women. The week before the game still involves decoration of
the Greek houses, a bonfire, parties, rallies and the Marching 97
performing unexpectedly during classes the Friday before the
game.
While the riots to rip down the goal posts in Taylor Stadium are a
thing of the past, many alumni return for the Lafayette game (which
is usually sold out three months in advance) to root Lehigh on, to
attend parties at their former fraternities and sororities, and to
see old friends.
Detailed rankings
US News & World Report
The 2008 edition of
Best Colleges from
US News &
World Report's ranked Lehigh as "Most Selective" in admissions
and 31st in the "National Universities (Doctoral)" category. It
ranked as follows among the 126 top-tier universities:
- 8th in Alumni Giving.
- 16th in Classes with fewer than 20 students.
- 28th in Best value.
- 30th in Retention rate.
- 32nd in Student selectivity.
- 32nd in Graduation rate.
- 36th in Percentage of students in the top 10 percent of their
high school class.
- 36th in Average standardized test scores.
The magazine also included Lehigh in its "America's Best College
Sports Programs " list
BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek ranked Lehigh's
undergraduate College of Business & Economics 25th overall in
the nation in 2007. The school was ranked 1st in accounting, 11th
in median starting salaries for its graduates, and 21st in academic
quality.
Photo gallery
File:Gymnasium (Coppee Hall) 1896.jpg|Coppee Hall Gymnasium (built
1882).Image:Lehigh_University_Packard_Lab.jpg|Packard Laboratory,
home of the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied
ScienceImage:Lehigh_University_Rauch.jpg|Rauch Business
CenterImage:Fairmart.jpg|The Fairchild-Martindale
LibraryImage:Lehigh_University_Packard_Windows.jpg|Packard Lab
windowsImage:Lehigh_University_Christmas_Saucon.jpg|Christmas
Saucon Hall, home of the Department of
MathematicsImage:Lehigh_University_Admissions_Stairs.jpg|Stairs
Leading to Alumni Memorial
BuildingImage:Lehigh_University_Asa_Packer.jpg|A statue of founder
Asa Packer, by the Admissions
BuildingImage:Packer_Memorial_Church_Door.jpg|Above an entrance to
Packer Memorial Church
See also
References
- Class Summary
- U.S. News Best Colleges
- [1]
- Lehigh University at a Glance from
US News & World
Report.
- BusinessWeek rankings.
- BusinessWeek Undergrad B-School Specialty Rankings:
Accounting Rankings
- The Best Part-Time MBA Programs
- Zoellner Arts Center website
- The
Marching 97 website
- ArtsLehigh from the Lehigh website
- COE Academic Programs from Lehigh's website
- COE Alumni page
- Plotnicki, Rita M., Looking Back: A Lehigh Scrapbook,
Lehigh University, 1991
- Lehigh University : His Holiness the Dalai Lama
- [2]
- [3]
External links