August
20, 2007
LINCOLN GETS HIGH MARKS FROM
PRESIDENT IVORY NELSON
IN STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY ADDRESS AT
ANNUAL CONFERENCE
LINCOLN
UNIVERSITY, PA ~ “Lincoln University is in excellent
shape,” declared
President Ivory V. Nelson at the annual Faculty-Directors Conference
at Wyncote Golf Club on Thursday.
President Nelson made the
comment in his State of the University address at the event
that signals the start of a new academic year. Lincoln begins
its one hundred and fifty third academic year on August 22.
“We
should be very proud of our accomplishments,” said President
Nelson, who begins his ninth year at the helm of the nation’s first degree-granting
historically black institution of higher education. “We have worked hard
as a team to get where we are. We have turned the corner toward excellence.”
President
Nelson was effusive in his assessment of the university’s
standing. For example, he mentioned the university’s
recent streak of record enrollments. For the past three years,
the university has witnessed record enrollments, capped by
last year’s 2,423 undergraduate and graduate
students. He said the university is expecting another record
enrollment in 2007-08 in part because of the university’s
increase in its retention rate from freshmen to sophomore year.
President
Nelson noted the growth of the university’s
physical plant. Since his arrival in 1999, he said the university
has allotted millions of dollars for renovation and new construction.
That sum includes construction of a 409-bed Student Residence
Hall, renovations to the Student Union Building, Ware and University
halls and the installation of air conditioning in Mary Dod
Brown Chapel. In the near future, he said the university
will begin construction of two new buildings, the International
Cultural Center and Science Center.
In terms of fiscal management,
President Nelson said he inherited a deficit, but the university
has operated in the black every year of his tenure.
President Nelson also touched on the changes that have occurred
on the academic side of the institution. For instance, he said
the university has changed its core curriculum for the benefit
of students and has established five centers of excellence,
including a unique collaborative arts degree program with The
Barnes Foundation.
That program is the first and one of its kind in the nation
as art majors also will take courses and experience internships
at the foundation. The other centers of excellence are in technology,
business, mass communications and science and math.
President
Nelson ended his address by encouraging the faculty and staff
to remain true to the university’s mission
of being student-centered and committed to excellence.
Founded in 1854, Lincoln University is a premier, historically
Black University that combines the best elements of a liberal
arts and sciences-based undergraduate core curriculum and selected
graduate programs to meet the needs of those living in a highly
technological and global society. The University is nationally
recognized as a major producer of African Americans with undergraduate
degrees in the physical sciences (biology, chemistry and physics);
computer and informational sciences; biological and life sciences. Lincoln
has an enrollment of 2,423 undergraduate and graduate students.
Lincoln
University of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
1570 Baltimore Pike, P.O. Box 179, Lincoln University, PA 19352 \
(484) 365-8000
