- Posted in All University
- Category: Campus News
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.