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Members of the extended Lafayette community are invited to participate in a live, one-hour webchat with President Alison Byerly on Tuesday, March 15, at 7 p.m.
President Byerly will speak about the new direction for the College that she recently announced and other topics of interest to alumni, parents, and friends. Her message to the Lafayette community, entitled “Lafayette’s People, Lafayette’s Future,” is posted here.
“This direction represents a shared conviction on the part of the administration, the faculty, and the Board of Trustees that Lafayette is defined by our people and that investing in the quality of our people and the vibrancy of our educational community is the best way to ensure our strength and success in the future,” she said.
The telecast will be hosted by Alex Karapetian ’04, president of the Alumni Association, and Lisa Kassel ’79, president-elect of the association. It will be streamed live at this site.
Members of the Lafayette community are invited to submit questions and comments in advance to the Office of Alumni Relations by clicking here. Questions may also be submitted during the telecast via Twitter to @LafayetteAlumni.
1 Comment
To assert that Lafayette “by increasing our enrollment by 350 to 400 students at this time of strong demand, we have a unique opportunity to increase the quality and diversity of its student body” seems like pure sophism.
We’re not selling soap so there is no obligation to meet demand. The more applicants that are accepted, the lower the academic quality of the herd. Furthermore, the College has plenty of diversity with students from almost every state, 48 countries, and a reverse discrimination program with a hip-hop name Posse.
Please refer to current US News and World Report top liberal arts colleges. Excluding the military academies, almost all of the top 20 colleges have enrollments of less than 2500 students.
Williams (2,045), Amherst (1,792), Swarthmore (1,542), Bowdoin (1,805), Pomona (1,650), Claremont McKenna (1,301) etc etc. All of these colleges are experiencing significantly increased applications. Most have endowments significantly larger than Lafayette’s, but none are significantly increasing the size of their enrollments. They seem to have plenty of diversity and academic quality and recognize the value of remaining small to preserve and enhance their reputations instead of engaging in empire building.
What is the cost of these initiatives? Annual costs, capital expenditure costs, etc?
Referendum: because of the costs and the magnitude of these initiatives and the alumni ending up paying for this, it seems to make sense to submit this to a referendum with clear, well reasoned advocacy and transparency.
It seems incredible that the College’s 35 member board of trustees unanimously approved this – perhaps this is where more diversity is needed in thought and opinion.
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