When the 19-year-old Marquis de Lafayette asked the King of France to finance his journey to assist in America’s fight for freedom, the king refused. Lafayette secretly purchased his own ship, adding the words “Cur Non?” (“Why Not?”) to his family crest to serve as his motto. The Latin phrase Cur Non guides Lafayette College today in challenging students to move beyond the comfort of their familiar environment and experiences.
One of America’s oldest colleges, Lafayette has roughly 2,400 students and more than 200 full-time faculty. With 49 majors in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering; 250 student organizations; and an amazing campus, rich in academic, residential, and recreational facilities, Lafayette offers all the benefits of larger schools with the student-centered approach of a small, undergraduate college.
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Collaborative, high-impact learning
A Lafayette education is about actively exploring interests and making dynamic connections between ideas and among people, locally and globally. Together, students and faculty collaborate beyond traditional academic boundaries to tackle intellectual challenges and solve real-world problems. This high-impact approach to learning propels our graduates to lives of accomplishment.
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Committed
teachers and scholars
Faculty are at the core of Lafayette. They are noted scholars and researchers on the frontier of learning, and have dedicated their lives to teaching, actively working with undergraduates to connect ideas from different majors in creative ways. Through intense personal mentoring in the classroom, field, laboratory, and beyond, Lafayette faculty inspire their students to lifetimes of learning and leading.
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Extraordinary
campus and facilities
With a beautiful campus in a great location near one of the world’s top cultural centers, Lafayette has fully-equipped academic facilities that are well suited to new curricular initiatives and to the evolving demands of research as an important part of education. Arts and athletic facilities have expanded in recent years on the campus and in the community to the benefit of students and local citizens.
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Involved, focused, and active students
Lafayette students are drivers, not passengers; doers, not spectators. From diverse backgrounds here and abroad, they are motivated and focused, and they plan to use their education to accomplish great things in the world. They are engaged and active in academic projects and student organizations, and are highly successful in pursuing advanced study and securing top careers.
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Life at Lafayette
“Vibrant, engaged, connected, dynamic.” Students and alumni use these words to describe life at Lafayette. While our students certainly attend exciting Division I athletic events (the annual Lafayette-Lehigh game – the most-played football game in college sports – attracts thousands) and support theater and music performances on campus, they are a community of “doers.” Whether athletes or artists, debaters or budding politicians, volunteers or community activists, Lafayette students are involved, recognizing that education is not limited to the classroom. An exceptional campus in the thriving Lehigh Valley, just 70 miles from New York City, facilitates this active lifestyle.
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Departments and Programs
Students comment that the breadth of our curriculum–in the arts and humanities, social and natural sciences, and engineering–sets Lafayette apart from the colleges their friends attend and gives Lafayette a “university feel” in an environment dedicated to the undergraduate. While our faculty are active scholars and researchers in their own right, they are committed to teaching and mentoring undergraduates and to working with their colleagues from different academic departments to bring students majoring in diverse areas together, solving real-world problems from multiple perspectives. This is the hallmark of a Lafayette education. This is where excitement is found in teaching and learning.
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Easton, Our Home City
The Mayor of Easton recently noted that few cities could boast of as good a relationship with a college or university as can Easton of its relationship with Lafayette. This thriving city of 30,000, part of Pennsylvania’s third-largest metropolitan area (the Lehigh Valley), is home to great restaurants, a beautiful riverfront, the majestic State Theatre, and a growing arts community. The city provides learning opportunities for our students through involvement in sustainability projects, service learning, and joint redevelopment efforts. And all this just 70 miles from New York, 60 miles from Philadelphia, and less than an hour from the Pocono Mountains and outdoor activities — making Easton a great place to live and learn.