See photos of President Alice P. Gast in and around the beautiful Lehigh campus.
Address to Parents - August 23, 2007
Alice P. Gast
I am pleased to have this opportunity to formally welcome you to the Lehigh family and to reflect with you about Lehigh and the opportunities your sons and daughters will have here.
One of Lehigh’s most distinctive attributes is its clear and unwavering focus on students. At Lehigh, our outstanding faculty, dedicated administrators and loyal alumni are passionately committed to undergraduate excellence and to making each student’s years at Lehigh as productive, rich, and valuable as possible. We are all here for your sons and daughters, and for you.
The founding principles set forward by Asa Packer more than 140 years ago are clearly still at work here today. His vision was:
- to combine classical and scientific education
- to keep the size of the student body proportionate to the abilities of the faculty to teach them well
- to be nondenominational and have an admission policy based on merit
Your sons and daughters will find that Lehigh balances broad classical education with specializations that are important for society. Our commitment to small classes and focus on excellence provide a truly outstanding educational experience.
As one alum told me, Lehigh provides a true Renaissance experience for its students. You brought your sons and daughters to the right place to get an education that will prepare them to lead in our changing world.
Lehigh’s quality of education and its dedication to each student are among the reasons why it is one of the most desirable universities in the nation. More than 12,000 talented young people—the largest pool of applicants ever--applied to enter Lehigh; fewer than one in ten is here today as a member of the Class of 2011. In this year’s new class, we have students from 41 states and 19 countries.
I know that selecting a college is a family decision. So you should feel proud that your family chose Lehigh and that Lehigh chose you.
In Lehigh, you have selected a university that is small enough for students to really get to know the faculty, staff and each other. I assure you that they will be carefully mentored, not just taught.
The infectious passion of our alumni who come back year after year, is a clear testament to the great times spent at Lehigh and the lifelong friendships begun here.
We may be in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania today, but our challenge is to understand and engage in higher education that spans the world and prepares our students for the future. Changes in technology, commerce, science and culture all accelerate the rate at which the world becomes a smaller place. Increasingly, global challenges require global solutions. At Lehigh, we are dedicated to providing opportunities for learning that extend far beyond our lovely campus.
One example that is particularly exciting for us is the extraordinary opportunity we have to welcome the Dalai Lama for a series of teachings at Lehigh. He will give a public lecture to our community in July and we hope to welcome back many of our students for this historic event. But throughout the academic year, there also will be many more opportunities to learn about Tibet and Tibetans, their history, religion, culture, food, music and philosophy. We will have a series of lectures throughout the year along with the creation of a sand mandala, opportunities to sample Tibetan food and hear Tibetan chants.
As part of our Summer Reading Program, your son or daughter read the autobiography “Freedom in Exile” by the Dalai Lama. If you haven’t already, I would encourage you to read this fascinating book as well. One thing that impressed me so much about it is how His Holiness’ approachable, easy to understand personality and teaching style comes through in the prose.
There is also an important message in the story of the Tibetan exile. Both the Dalai Lama and Pandit Nehru, the leader of India realized that the future of the Tibetan people lay in the education of their children. They provided for the establishment of schools where Tibetan youth would learn the philosophical foundations of their religion and culture. This foresight has preserved a people.
We stand for the principle that education frees people to form their own views; make their own decisions; and lead society by developing new ideas and improving the world.
Our Lehigh students will be doing this: forming their own views, making their own decisions and leading by developing new ideas. (I’m sure many of them have exercised their viewpoints, ideas and decision making abilities with you already). We will be here to guide and support their further development of this independence along with the responsibilities that come with it.
On Sunday evening, I’ll be giving your sons and daughters some simple advice:
My first advice is to: Find out what you love to do and do it.
We thrive if we are doing something we love. We excel if we wake up every day and have a passion for our work. Their four years here will set a strong foundation for this.
Lehigh is a place where they can explore their interests, talk to faculty whose work they admire, read books that interest them, and have discussions with fellow students. Lehigh has a wealth of academic strengths and many students discover their passion in life after an inspirational course in a different field.
Now, there will be hard work.
The second piece of advice is to work hard and push yourself.
There will be late nights at the library, long hours of reading, writing, solving problems… And students should seek to push themselves to do things that they might be less sure of. Try out for a play, pick up an instrument and practice, play intramural sports, tutor children in our neighborhood…. Whatever it is they do, they will greatly broaden their horizons, learn important life lessons and enjoy themselves.
The third piece of advice is to get to know others and learn from them.
This week, most of your sons and daughters have moved to a new (likely smaller) space, leaving behind the home they’ve known and loved. Some of them went from having their own room, to living in close proximity to many people their own age—people from different backgrounds and cultures and having different interests.
This is an important part of their journey. I am sure you will be hearing about their living arrangements (and perhaps their laundry needs).
In the coming weeks and months, as they get to know their fellow students, faculty and staff, they will find that their circle of friends and close confidants will grow broader and more diverse. They’ll find that in addition to you, their family, upon whom they rely for support, they can seek advice and comfort from students, professors, mentors, staff, and coaches, to name just a few.
In this wireless era, we parents, are accustomed to connectivity, being able to get in touch in seconds, no matter where we all are. This connectivity makes balancing freedom and responsibility and gaining independence all the more important.
This is their time to explore Lehigh, to explore the intellectual opportunities, the different possible career paths, and to learn about themselves. This evolution may be a challenge for you parents too. Remember, they will be working hard and may forget to check in quite as often as before.
At Lehigh, our students will be treated with respect, honesty, integrity, and civility—key values of the Lehigh community. In return, we ask that they exhibit the same virtues in their academic life, their social life, and in their actions on and off campus. To live up to Lehigh’s expectations, they will have to hold themselves in the same high regard.
Making Decisions
With freedom and independence also comes the responsibility to make good decisions and to use their time well. Managing time is very hard these days. They will need to find ways to balance work and recreation. Finding this balance is a crucial life skill that they will carry far into the future.
There are also decisions your sons and daughters will need to make about being healthy and safe. These choices about their health and safety can range from making sure that they get enough sleep to learning how to manage stress and how to relax. Students sometimes take unwise shortcuts -- like using too much caffeine to stay awake and alcohol to relax. They'll need to make decisions about staying healthy, being safe, and following the rules, of Lehigh's community and the world outside. We will help them to make the right choices.
If they do make a poor decision - whether it is academic, social, or personal in nature - our staff, faculty and Gryphons are experienced and capable and available to help them solve the problem and to make a better decision the next time around. Just as we all pitched in to help the first-years move into the residence halls, the whole Lehigh family is here to help them if they find they need it.
While we view parents as partners in the educational process, it is important for students to gain the confidence that comes from working things out themselves when they struggle. When they call, please encourage them to seek out the resources on campus. Of course, if you notice problems that persist or if you have a truly significant concern, please don’t hesitate to contact the experienced professionals in Student Affairs.
Security
At Lehigh we know that nothing is more important than the health and well being of your sons and daughters. Last year the world was horrified by the terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech. As we shared the grief this tragedy produced, we also revisited how we protect our campuses from harm. At Lehigh, we are serious about our commitment to foster a safe and healthy living and learning environment. Card access systems, emergency phones, late night shuttle service, around the clock police coverage and a close working relationship with local law enforcement agencies have all been in place for many years. After a comprehensive three year review process, last spring the Lehigh University Police Department became the second university police department to be accredited in Pennsylvania. Additionally, we have excellent systems in place to identify and secure assistance for students experiencing significant emotional distress.
Lehigh University has spent the time since the Virginia Tech tragedy revising our emergency preparedness plan, engaging in an emergency response desktop drill, and developing a communication system to augment our existing capabilities. In the event of an incident, we will share information with the campus community via e-mail, the university website, a telephone hotline and through our professional and student residence life staff. Over the summer, we have installed an emergency text messaging system called LU-Alert that will enable us to alert the campus community rapidly in the unlikely event of an incident posing an imminent and serious threat to campus safety.
We urge all incoming students to provide us with their cell phone number. Privacy laws require that students must “opt in” to the system. There is an easy two step process (it takes two steps to verify the request). We will be presenting this opportunity to the first-year students in the orientation period and collecting the rest of the numbers upon the start of the school year.
Safety is a shared responsibility. Working together enhances the effectiveness of our overall campus preparedness programs, so we will remind our students to be aware and to use common sense precautions that we will continue to reinforce with them.
Your sons and daughters are an exceptional group of young scholars with great talents and tremendous promise. Our entire team of senior leaders, faculty and staff are excited about having them here and are dedicated to helping them make the most of their new life here.
We will encourage the students in the Class of 2011 to:
- form their own views,
- make their own decisions and,
- lead society by developing new ideas and improving the world
We will encourage them to find their passion, to enjoy their freedoms responsibly, to build new relationships, and to make these the greatest of times.
I welcome you to the Lehigh family and I will look forward to seeing you again soon.
Thank you.
Emergency Info - Text-only version - Copyright, Terms of Use and Privacy Policy |
