Lafayette College celebrates its Bicentennial with $50 million in new gifts

Photos by Rick Smith

On a historic night celebrating Lafayette College’s 200th anniversary, President Nicole Hurd announced $50 million in new gifts and commitments, including eight endowed professorships, the most Lafayette has ever announced at one time.

The commitments, made by alumni, parents, and friends, include $20.5 million to endow eight professorships; $12.5 million from Chip Bergh ’79, H’22 and his wife, Juliet, to endow the Bergh Family Fellows program; and $17 million to enhance campus facilities.

“This is a historic moment for Lafayette. Two hundred years ago, the citizens of Easton founded a college and named it for a man who gave himself to a cause larger than his own,” Hurd said. “Tonight, the Lafayette family answered in that same spirit. These gifts are a statement of belief in our students, in our mission, and in what this College will become in its third century. This is our moment, and our community is rising to meet it.”

The announcement came during the Bicentennial Ball, a black-tie celebration that brought nearly 400 alumni, parents, and friends home to College Hill. The College chose to hold its 200th anniversary gala on campus, in the Bicentennial Village on the Quad, in the city whose citizens founded Lafayette. The evening concluded with a private concert by Harry Connick Jr.

Eight professorships, a Lafayette first

The $20.5 million in gifts will establish eight new endowments for professorships spanning art history, the humanities, environmental sciences, economics, applied ethics and leadership, finance, and data science. Some will bring new faculty to Lafayette, and others will support professors already teaching on College Hill.

Endowed professorships provide permanent support for faculty teaching, scholarship, and mentorship, and they strengthen the College’s ability to recruit and retain exceptional faculty.

“Outstanding faculty are at the heart of the Lafayette experience,” said Jefferson W. Kirby ’84, P’19,’22, chair of the Board of Trustees. “Tonight’s announcement demonstrates the strength of our community. Alumni, parents, and friends came together to invest in the College and in the teacher-scholars who inspire our students. Those students will carry us into our third century.”

Internships and research for every student

The Berghs established the Bergh Family Fellows program in 2022 with a $5.25 million gift. It provides fellowships that make internships, research, and study abroad possible for students regardless of their financial circumstances, and it has supported 200 students a year. The new $12.5 million gift endows an expanded program in perpetuity.

Bergh, a Lafayette trustee, is the retired president and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co.

“Chip and Juliet’s vision for our students is grounded in a deep commitment to both leadership and opportunity,” Hurd said. “The Bergh Family Fellows program has already allowed our students to engage in research with faculty, study across the globe, and intern in a variety of industries. Hundreds of students have been impacted the Berghs’ initial transformational gift, resulting in admissions to graduate schools and launching careers. With this endowment, these opportunities will be available to our students forevermore.” 

Places to gather and compete

The remaining $17 million will enhance the places where Lafayette students live, gather, and compete. The gifts, from several donors, include $15 million for athletics facilities and campus wellness initiatives, and $2 million for new spaces in the McCartney II residences. They build momentum for the College’s campus master plan, a long-range framework for renewing academic, residential, and student life spaces on College Hill and the Metzgar Campus.

Together, these commitments advance the priorities of Becoming Lafayette: A Vision for Our Third Century, the College’s strategic plan, which calls for deepening the connection between the liberal arts and engineering, expanding hands-on learning in Easton, the Lehigh Valley, and around the globe, and investing in the people and places that define the Lafayette experience.

“Lafayette has always been a place of ‘and’: the liberal arts and engineering, Easton and the world, a proud history and an ambitious future,” Hurd said. “Tonight we honored our first 200 years by investing in our third century. On, Lafayette!”