President's Message

Dear Friends,

The colleges that thrive will embrace agility and flexibility while staying true to their missions. LVC’s successes in recent years include record enrollment in undergraduate and graduate programs; significant retention gains; curricular innovation; expanded brand recognition; new and upgraded facilities; national and international student and faculty awards; and the development of outstanding academic and career support services—among many other points of pride. In 2020 and 2021, unlike many colleges and universities across the United States, we held in-person learning and weathered the pandemic without needing to furlough staff or cut salaries or benefits.

We are seizing this moment to look ahead and prepare for what’s next. Through Imagine LVC, the College’s next strategic plan, we define our path to a vibrant future. Among the questions we have discussed this spring: What do we stand for as a community? What will we do over the next three to five years that allows us to outperform our enrollment competitors and achieve financial sustainability? And what resources will we need to accomplish these goals?

From the many conversations with faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents, and the Board of Trustees, four clear imperatives emerged as guiding themes for our future:

#1 Future-ready Students: We will enhance LVC’s preparation of students for career success and lifelong personal well-being. Tactics will include building on the strengths of the Edward and Lynn Breen Center for Graduate Success and establishing support systems through which students build skills that prepare them for future personal success—mentally, physically, spiritually, culturally, environmentally, and financially.

#2 Inclusive Excellence: We will become a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive community. This will require a campus- and community-wide effort to attain success. There are evident inequities in retention and graduation rates among underrepresented LVC students, which must change. Significant improvements also must occur in hiring, retention, and creating a welcoming and inclusive community.

#3 In-demand Programs: We will invest in new academic programs that meet the needs of employers and society, collaborate with regional partners, and leverage relationships with similar educational institutions.

#4 Visibility, Reputation, and Financial Sustainability: We will diversify revenue, raise LVC’s visibility in core enrollment markets, and inform new markets about LVC’s academic excellence and success. And we will pursue private and public funding to support the strategic initiatives of Imagine LVC.

We are defining a concrete, measurable set of action steps for each of the four imperatives and will present Imagine LVC for consideration to the LVC Board of Trustees in August.

Thank you for all you do as alumni and friends to make Lebanon Valley College stand out from the competition. I hope to meet many of you at Homecoming in October and throughout the coming years.

Sincerely,

James M. MacLaren, M.A., Ph.D. President of Lebanon Valley College