Lafayette President DANIEL WEISS outlined elements of the College’s new strategic plan to alumni attending reunion activities on campus
June 1-3. He said the plan is still under development, but when completed and approved by the Board of Trustees this fall, will place Lafayette “among the ranks of the finest liberal arts colleges in the country.”
1.) QUALITY OF FACULTY. “We’re going to invest in building the finest faculty we can,” Weiss said. He praised the College’s current instructors and
said Lafayette needs to keep making sure it upholds its standards of instructional excellence.
2.) CURRICULUM. Among the goals must be a curriculum that stresses globalism, where students are encouraged and enabled to learn foreign languages, cultures, and viewpoints and study abroad. That also encompasses service learning, the incorporation of service projects into curricula as “faculty work to get students out in the world” to gain first-hand knowledge. “This means taking our little college in Easton and connecting it to the world in myriad ways.”
3.) INITIATIVES IN THE LIFE SCIENCES. “This is the great scientific frontier in the 21st century,” Weiss said. He said the curriculum needs to stress cutting-edge learning in areas like stem cell research and nanotechnology to position Lafayette at the forefront of the science world.
4.) ARTS. “All great liberal arts colleges have strong programs in the arts,” he said. He praised the programs of the Williams Center for the Arts and Williams Visual Arts Building, and stressed the importance of the Experimental Printmaking Institute founded and directed by CURLEE HOLTON, which gives students the opportunity to work side-by-side with renowned professional artists and exhibit their works in real-world settings. “We ought to leverage it more effectively than
we do,” Weiss said. He also said the aesthetics of the campus need greater attention, in particular mentioning his desire to eliminate the road around the Quad.
5.) DIVERSITY. The school can better achieve diversity by becoming a stronger leader in making a Lafayette education available to anyone who qualifies academically, regardless of ability to pay, Weiss said.
6.) CAMPUS, RESOURCES, AND COMMUNITY. Among the priorities
in meeting this goal are making sure Lafayette is a responsible citizen in the
Easton community and maximizes the use of its resources. “This is a place that brings people together, who love this place, who want to be a part of this place,” Weiss said. “We can’t lose sight of that or we lose our identity, we lose our core.”
President Weiss encourages feedback from all members of the Lafayette community
on the strategic planning process. Comments can be made to President Weiss
(weissd@lafayette.edu).
