Lehigh University

Lehigh University

Motto	Homo minister et interpres naturae (Latin)
Motto in English	"Man, the servant and interpreter of nature"
Type	Private research university
Established	July 27, 1865 (1865-07-27)
Founder	Asa Packer
Accreditation	MSCHE
Religious affiliation	Nonsectarian; historically Episcopal Church
Academic affiliations	NAICU ORAU LVAIC UNAI Space-grant
Endowment	$2.20 billion (2024)
President	Joseph J. Helble
Provost	Nathan Urban
Academic staff	681 (2023)
Total staff	1,997 (2023)
Students	7,692
Undergraduates	5,911
Postgraduates	1,781
Location	Bethlehem , Pennsylvania , United States 40°36′22″N 75°22′38″W
Campus	Small city, 2,350 acres (950 ha)
Newspaper	The Brown and White
Colors	Brown and white
Nickname	Mountain Hawks
Sporting affiliations	NCAA Division I FCS – Patriot League EIWA MARC ACHA IHSA USCSA
Mascot	Clutch the Mountain Hawk
Website	www.lehigh.edu

Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer. Lehigh University's undergraduate programs have been coeducational since the 1971–72 academic year. As of 2022, the university had 5,911 undergraduate students and 1,781 graduate students.

Lehigh has five colleges: the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business, the College of Education, and the College of Health. The College of Arts and Sciences is the largest, with 38% of the university's students. The university offers Interdisciplinary Studies, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts, Master of Science, Master of Business Administration, Master of Engineering, Master of Education, Doctor of Philosophy, and Doctor of Education degrees.

The university is classified among "Doctoral Universities R2: High Research Activity".

Campus

Further information: List of Lehigh University buildings

An illustrated postcard of Lehigh University's campus in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1907

Alumni Memorial Building in November 2019

Lehigh University is located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the historically industrial Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. Lehigh encompasses 2,350 acres (9.5 km²), including 180 acres (0.73 km²) of recreational and playing fields and 150 buildings comprising four million square feet of floor space. It is organized into three contiguous campuses on and around South Mountain, including:

• The Asa Packer Campus, built into the northern slope of the mountain, the university's original and primary campus;
• The Mountaintop Campus, atop South Mountain, including intramural sports fields, Imbt Laboratories, and Iacocca Hall; and
• The Murray H. Goodman Campus, immediately south, where a 16,000-seat stadium and some of Lehigh University's sports facilities are located.

In May 2012, Lehigh was the beneficiary a gift of 755 acres of property in nearby Upper Saucon Township, Pennsylvania from the Donald B. and Dorothy L. Stabler Foundation. The gift from the estate of the long-time benefactor allowed the university to expand to its current size of 2,350 acres across all its campuses, and to consider new long-term potential uses for the university's new properties.

Administration

As a private institution, Lehigh University is governed by its board of trustees, established 1866. The board can have no less than 18, nor more than 35 members at any given time. The board selects the university president, as well as their vice presidents who operate as "executive agents" of the board.

Presidents

Deming Lewis was the university's tenth president from 1964 to 1982 and was in charge of the construction of most of the modern campus

No.	Name	Tenure	Notes
1.	Henry Coppée	1866–1875	Mexican–American War veteran and President of the Aztec Club of 1847. Christmas Hall renovated, Packer Hall and President's house constructed.
2.	John McDowell Leavitt	1875–1880	Episcopal priest, lawyer and journalist. Linderman Library constructed.
3.	Robert Alexander Lamberton	1880–1893	Lawyer. Coppee Hall and Chandler-Ullmann constructed. Phi Beta Kappa founded.
4.	Thomas Messinger Drown	1895–1904	Created MIT's chemical engineering program. Led school through Panic of 1893. Williams Hall constructed.
-	William H. Chandler	1904–1905	Chandler, a professor at the university, served as acting president after Drown's sudden death during a surgery.
5.	Henry Sturgis Drinker	1905–1920	Class of 1871, first alumnus to hold position. Fritz Lab, Drown Hall, Coxe Lab, Taylor Hall, Taylor Gym, Taylor Stadium, and Lamberton Hall constructed. Split school into colleges.
-	Natt M. Emery	1920–1922	Drinker resigned in 1920. His vice president, Natt M. Emery, served as acting president until 1922.
6.	Charles Russ Richards	1922–1935	Graduate school opened to women, Alumni Memorial constructed.
7.	Clement C. Williams	1935–1944	University of Iowa's dean of engineering, Richards and Drinker dorms built. Retired in 1944.
8.	Martin Dewey Whitaker	1946–1960	Manhattan Project alumni. Dravo, McClintic-Marshall, and Centennials I dorms built. Whitaker Lab built.
9.	Harvey A. Neville	1961–1964	First and only elected president.
10.	Deming Lewis	1964–1982	Bell Labs alumnus. Maginnes Hall, Whitaker Lab, Mart Science and Engineering Library, Sinclair Lab, the Seeley G. Mudd Building, Neville Hall, Rathbone Dining Hall, Centennial II, Brodhead, Trembley Park, Saucon Village dorms, and the Philip Rauch Field House, and the Stabler center constructed.
11.	Peter Likins	1982–1997	Purchased Mountaintop Campus from Bethlehem Steel. Demolished Taylor Stadium to make room for Rauch and Zoellner Halls. Resigned to become an advisor to George H.W. Bush.
-	William C. Hittinger	1997–1998	Class of 1944. A 22-year veteran of the board of trustees. Selected as interim President after Likins resigned.
12.	Gregory C. Farrington	1998–2006	Helped raise $250 million for the endowment of professors as well as another $75 million for the recruitment of new professors.
13.	Alice P. Gast	2006–2014	First female president. Opened Lehigh's Stabler Campus. in 2010 named to the post of science envoy by Hillary Clinton. Resigned to be named President of the Imperial College London.
-	Kevin L. Clayton	2014–2015	Alumnus from large family of alumni, 22-year veteran of the board of trustees.
14.	John D. Simon	2015–2021	Former provost of the University of Virginia. Established the College of Health. SouthSide Commons, Singleton, Hitch, and Maida dorms constructed.
15.	Joseph J. Helble	2021–present	Class of 1982. Renamed Packer Hall to Clayton Hall.

Student governance

In 1988, a student senate was created at the university to act as a governing body for undergraduate students, though it is empowered only to offer recommendations to the university's board. Still, the student senate still has an impact as it determines which clubs receive funding and which are authorized to be listed as official university clubs. A separate student senate exists for graduate students, known as GSS, which focuses on advocacy for grant procurement and graduate student travel costs to visit sites.

Academics

See also: Lehigh University faculty

Sayre Observatory, an 1896 donation to the university

Iacocca Hall, named in honor of Lehigh University alumnus Lee Iacocca

The university's Packard Laboratory in November 2015

Williams Hall in November 2019

As of 2022, Lehigh has 584 full-time faculty members, with 95% holding a doctorate degree or the highest degree in their field. Faculty members are required to have a minimum of four office hours per week.

Lehigh's average class size is 28 students; the student-to-faculty ratio is 10:1.

The university offers undergraduate enrollment to all its colleges except its College of Education. Students are permitted to take courses or major and minor in subjects outside of their respective college. The university operates on a semester system.

Colleges

See also: List of Lehigh University engineering highlights

College of Arts and Sciences

Based in Maginnes Hall, the College of Arts and Sciences offers a variety of humanities courses and visual arts programs and many music programs, including a marching band, the Wind Ensemble, and the Philharmonic orchestra. It has a dedicated Humanities Center, which is the site for many literature and other arts-based programs, including the Drown Writers Series. Lehigh also has a program called ArtsLehigh, oriented towards enhancing interest in the arts on campus.

College of Business

Lehigh introduced business and economics classes in 1893, with the first dedicated classes in economics being offered in 1897 and the first professor of economics being hired by the school, John L. Stewart, in 1898. Stewart is credited with creating the College of Business in 1918, establishing its original courses and teaching most of the classes himself. The college's inaugural class of 1922 numbered just 77. Through the 1930s the College of Business Administration stayed consistent, with around 10 professors and 350 students, and in 1938 was accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, with enrollment that year jumping to 465, or 25% of the total student body. In 1952 the College of Business Administration began offering a five-year course in Industrial engineering and business, as well as graduate courses for Master of Business Administration degrees and was expanded to include Master of Science degrees by 1964. In 1957 the college moved from Coppée Hall to the purpose-built Drown Hall.

College of Education

More than 7,000 students have received master's, education specialist, Pennsylvania Department of Education teaching certificates and certifications, doctoral degrees, and professional certificates from Lehigh's College of Education as of 2018.

P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science

Graduates of Lehigh's P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science invented the escalator and founded Packard Motor Car Company and the companies that built the locks and lockgates of the Panama Canal. Other notable alumni include Roger Penske, Lee Iacocca, John W. Fisher, and Terry Hart. Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, was founded at Lehigh. In 2005, George Tamaro, a Lehigh University master's degree in civil engineering alumnus, was the John Fritz Medal award recipient, issued by the American Association of Engineering Societies.

College of Health

Lehigh's College of Health offers classes in biostatistics, epidemiology, population health data science, and others related to population health. The college opened on August 21, 2020, and was the first in the world to offer undergraduate, graduate, and executive degrees in population health. It is based at the Health, Science, and Technology (HST) building which opened in January 2022.

Admissions

Admission to Lehigh University is classified as "more selective" by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The Princeton Review gives Lehigh an "Admissions Selectivity Rating" of 95 out of 99.

In 2023, the university received 18,415 applications. It extended offers of admission to 5,389 applicants, or 29%, after holistic review that includes examination of academic rigor, performance and admissions test scores. 1,531 accepted students chose to enroll, a yield rate of 28%. Of the 33% of incoming students in 2023 who submitted SAT scores, the interquartile range was 1370–1480; of the 10% of incoming students in 2023 who submitted ACT scores, the interquartile range was 31–33.

Rankings

Academic rankings
National
Forbes	64
U.S. News & World Report	46
Washington Monthly	29
WSJ/College Pulse	14
Global
ARWU	701–800
QS	591–600
THE	601–800
U.S. News & World Report	850

U.S. News & World Report's Best Colleges Ranking ranked Lehigh tied for 46th among "National Universities", tied for 25th for "Best Undergraduate Teaching", 26th for "Best Value Schools", 51st for "Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs", and 45th for "Most Innovative Schools" in its 2024 edition of "Best Colleges". In 2015, The Economist ranked Lehigh seventh among national universities in its ranking of non-vocational U.S. colleges ranked by alumni earnings above expectation. In its 2024 ranking of best U.S. colleges, The Wall Street Journal ranked Lehigh the 14th-best overall.

Along with three other Pennsylvania colleges, Dickinson College in Carlisle, Lafayette College in Easton, and Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Lehigh was a 2020 recipient of the Campus Sustainability Achievement Award issued by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education in commemoration of its participation in the Solar Collaboration Project.

In 2018, U.S. News & World Report ranked Lehigh's part-time MBA program 20th in the nation.

In 2012, BusinessWeek ranked Lehigh's College of Business 31st in the nation among undergraduate business programs. In 2012, BusinessWeek ranked Lehigh the seventh-best overall undergraduate finance program in the nation, and ranked its undergraduate accounting program the 21st-best in the nation.

In 2012, Entrepreneur Magazine and The Princeton Review named Lehigh the 24th- best undergraduate college for entrepreneurship.

In 2024, The Princeton Review ranked Lehigh 2nd on its "Where Students Study the Most" list.

Student life

Fraternities and sororities

A large majority of Lehigh's social fraternities and sororities have their own university-owned houses; most of the fraternities and sororities are located along Upper and Lower Sayre Park Roads in a region known as "The Hill".

Lehigh has one of the highest levels of student participation in fraternities and sororities; approximately 34% of undergraduates are members of a fraternity or sorority. During new member education, Greek life membership rises to almost 45%. There are 10 fraternities, all of which are housed on campus, and eight sororities, all of which are housed on campus.

Lehigh's "golden age of fraternities" came in the mid-1980s when there were 36 fraternities on campus, all located on "The Hill". Sororities were notably forced to operate off campus. When the drinking age was increased to 21, fraternities started to run into frequent hazing incidents and disciplinary issues which resulted in many of them being forced by the school to disband in the 1990s. Many of their former houses were transitioned to sorority houses and a few were demolished to make way for more dorms. As of 2024, some of the houses on "The Hill" remain vacant.

Traditions and student newspaper

Lehigh students have several lasting traditions. Lehigh's school colors, brown and white, date back to 1874, and the school newspaper, The Brown and White, has been continuously published since 1894.

ROTC

Main article: Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps

Since 1919 Lehigh maintains a unit in the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps, the Steel Battalion of the 2nd ROTC Brigade, which is headquartered in Jordan Hall on the mountaintop campus.

Athletics

Main article: Lehigh Mountain Hawks

See also: Lehigh Mountain Hawks football, Lehigh Mountain Hawks men's basketball, Lehigh Mountain Hawks men's lacrosse, Lehigh Mountain Hawks women's basketball, and Lehigh Mountain Hawks softball

The Lafayette–Lehigh most valuable player trophy plaque prior to the 144th meeting of The Rivalry in 2009; the series between the two colleges, which are 17 miles (27 km) away from each other in the Lehigh Valley, is the most-played rivalry in college football history with 158 meetings since 1884.

Philadelphia Eagles training camp at Lehigh in August 2009

Goodman Stadium at Lehigh in October 2007

As a member of the Patriot League, Lehigh competes in 25 different NCAA Division I sports. Lehigh's 2006 student-athlete graduation rate of 97% ranked 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 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 U.S. at the Olympic Games. While it is not a school sport, a number of Lehigh alumni, including Roger Penske, Al Holbert, and John Fitch, went on to successful careers in auto racing.

Basketball

Main article: Lehigh Mountain Hawks men's basketball

Lehigh's fifth trip to the NCAA tournament in 2012 proved to be their most notable to date, thanks to its first-round game as a #15 seed on March 16, 2012, against the #2 seed Duke Blue Devils. Despite being a heavy underdog, thanks to CJ McCollum's 30-point heroics, the Mountain Hawks pulled off the stunning upset, defeating the Blue Devils 75-70 and making it only the sixth time that a 15th seed had defeated a second seed.

Football

Main article: The Rivalry (Lafayette–Lehigh)

Lehigh University and nearby Lafayette College are rivals in sports. Since 1884, the two football teams have met over 150 times, making the game between the two programs, known as The Rivalry, the most played in the history of college football.

The rivalry between Lehigh and Lafayette is also the longest uninterrupted rivalry in college football; the teams have played annually since 1897. For the 150th meeting, the teams played before a sold-out Yankee Stadium in New York City.

The week leading up to the game features traditional festivities, including decorating fraternity houses, parties, rallies and the Marching 97 performing unexpectedly during classes the Friday before the game.

Wrestling

The most storied athletic program at Lehigh is its wrestling team, which began in 1910. Over the past several decades, the Lehigh wrestling team has produced 158 All-Americans and had numerous squads finish with Top 20 NCAA national rankings, including finishing second in the nation in 1939. In 2008, the athletic department hired Pat Santoro, a two-time national champion and two-time winner of the EIWA Coach of the Year (2009, 2012) as Lehigh's head wrestling coach.

Home dual meets and tournaments take place in Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall, on the university's main campus. Commonly known as "The Snake Pit", it has been the home of Lehigh wrestling since 1942. In 2013, Grace Hall was converted into the Caruso Wrestling Complex, including a visiting area and Lehigh's College Wrestling Wall of Fame.

In March 2017, Lehigh wrestler and Bethlehem native Darian Cruz won the NCAA Division I national wrestling tournament, becoming Lehigh's first national champion since Zach Rey, Lehigh's current assistant wrestling coach, won the title in the heavyweight division six years earlier, in 2011.

Lacrosse

Lehigh University's lacrosse program is a prominent part of Lehigh's athletic offerings, with both men's and women's teams competing at the Division I level. The men's team and women's team compete in the Patriot League.

The men's lacrosse team has achieved historic success over the years, including four Patriot League Championships. The team earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in 2024 after rallying to defeat Boston University 11–10 in the championship game.

The Clery Act

Main articles: Clery Act and Murder of Jeanne Clery

On April 5, 1986, Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old Lehigh freshman, was raped and murdered in her Lehigh dorm room; the perpetrator, a Lehigh student, was apprehended, tried, and sentenced to death. In 1990, the backlash against unreported crimes on numerous campuses across the country led the United States Congress to pass the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, known as the Clery Act, which requires that colleges reveal information regarding crime on their campuses.

Notable people

Lehigh University's "Commercial Seal." In December 2001 the university attempted to make this the official seal, however, backtracked due to alumni opposition

Alumni

For a more comprehensive list, see List of Lehigh University alumni.

Notable alumni include:

• Pongpol Adireksarn, former deputy prime minister of Thailand
• Ali Al-Naimi, former Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia
• Hans J. Baer, Swiss banker
• Martin Baron, former editor of The Washington Post and The Boston Globe
• Lynn S. Beedle, National Academy of Engineering member, founder and director of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Frank P. Brown Medal recipient, John Fritz Medal recipient, and Deputy Office in Charge of the Nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll in 1946
• Stephen J. Benkovic, chemist and National Medal of Science recipient
• Harry J. Buncke, "father of microsurgery"
• Steve Chang, co-founder and former CEO of Trend Micro
• Stacey Cunningham, 67th president of the New York Stock Exchange
• Charlie Dent, former U.S. Representative
• Henry Sturgis Drinker, mechanical engineer for the Lehigh Valley Railroad and president of Lehigh University, 1905–1920
• Robert Durst, convicted serial killer and the subject of The Jinx, a 2015 HBO miniseries
• Cathy Engelbert, WNBA commissioner and former CEO of Deloitte
• John W. Fisher, National Academy of Engineering member, founding director of the ATLSS Engineering Center, and Frank P. Brown Medal Laureate
• James Geurts, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition)
• Terry Hart, NASA astronaut
• Richard Hayne, co-founder of Urban Outfitters
• Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler
• Thomas R. Kline, lawyer, namesake and benefactor of the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law
• CJ McCollum, professional basketball player, New Orleans Pelicans
• Paul Marcincin, former mayor of Bethlehem and founder of Musikfest
• Thomas William McNamara, United States Navy rear admiral
• Joe Morgenstern, film critic and Pulitzer Prize winner
• James Ward Packard, founder of Packard Motor Car Company
• Roger Penske, founder of Penske Corporation and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
• Austin Price, professional basketball player in the Israeli Premier Basketball League
• Jesse W. Reno, inventor of the escalator
• Stephanie Ruhle, MSNBC journalist
• Michael Smerconish, SiriusXM radio host and CNN television presenter
• John H. Tilelli Jr., U.S. Army General and U.S. Army Forces commander
• Wendell Weeks, CEO and chairman of Corning Inc and Amazon.com board director
• William Wiswesser, chemist and pioneer in chemical informatics
• Robert Serber, physicist on Manhattan Project
• Matt McBride, former baseball player for the Oakland Athletics
• Levi Stoudt, pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles
• Mason Black, pitcher for the San Francisco Giants

Faculty

Notable past or present faculty members include:

• Sirry Alang, professor of sociology and public health researcher
• Ferdinand P. Beer, the first chair of the Department of Mechanical engineering, professor of mechanical engineering from 1947 to 1984, wrote several textbooks influential to engineering education
• Helen M. Chan, New Jersey Zinc Professor of material science and engineering
• Michael Behe, professor of biochemistry, and intelligent design advocate
• Dan M. Frangopol, professor of structural engineering and inaugural holder of the Fazlur R. Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture
• Terry Hart, professor of mechanical engineering and former NASA astronaut
• Norman Melchert, Selfridge Professor of Philosophy from 1962 until his retirement in 1995
• Joanna B. Michlic, professor of Polish-Jewish history
• Francis J. Quirk, professor of art from 1950 to 1973
• Elsa Reichmanis, Perkin Medal recipient and Anderson Endowed Chair in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
• Stephanie Powell Watts, professor of English and award-winning author

Honorary degrees

• Bill Cosby (issued in 1987 and rescinded in October 2015)
• Donald Trump (issued in 1988 and rescinded in January 2021)

See also

• Lehigh University Press

External links

• Official website
• Lehigh Athletics website
• "Lehigh University" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.