LehighNow Volume 01, Issue 03

              LEHIGHNOW
December 6, 2000
Volume 1, Issue 3
Achieving Excellence: Agenda
for Academic Leadership
IN BRIEF
ON THE GRIDIRON
Season ends
for Hawks
One week after they
upset Western Illinois in
the first round of the
NCAA Tournament, the
Mountain Hawk football
squad fell, 47-22, to the
number two-seeded
University of Delaware
on Saturday, Dec. 2.
Lehigh, which had
achieved its second
undefeated regular
season in three years,
finished the year with a
12-1 record.
Lehigh jumped out to
early leads of 7-0 and 10-
7 before the Blue Hens
scored 40 unanswered
points to take charge. A
series of costly penalties,
combined with four
uncharacteristic
turnovers by the Hawks,
helped fuel the Delaware
momentum.
Quarterback Brant
Hall '02 completed 20
out of 33 passes for 256
yards and three touchdowns. Brian Endler '01
caught seven passes for
129 yards and a TD.
"When you play a team
as good as Delaware,
you can't afford to make
mistakes," said Lehigh
head coach Kevin
Higgins. "We had some
mental breakdowns that
led to turnovers.
Delaware did an
excellent job at capitalizing on our mistakes.
That is what good
football teams do."
A draft strategic plan to
guide Lehigh's future has
been distributed to faculty
and staff for review,
discussion and feedback.
The plan, "Achieving
Excellence: Lehigh
University's Agenda for
Academic Leadership,"
was developed over the
past 18 months. An initial
implementation plan for
the current academic year
is included in the strategic
plan, along with the Seven
Strategic Goals released
last year, the Vision for
Lehigh, an analysis of
Lehigh's competitive
position, and planning
assumptions and choices.
"Our overarching goal is
to further enhance Lehigh's
reputation as a leading
university -both intellectually and educationally,"
said President Gregory
Farrington. "I believe
Lehigh has made substantial progress towards
achieving this goal this past
year. The $75-miIlion
academic excellence
initiative announced in
October is a major step in
this direction."
He urged faculty and staff
to submit comments to
deans, vice presidents, the
provost or directly to him
by the start of the semester
break.
"For Lehigh to achieve its
most ambitious goals, our
faculty and staff must not
only understand the plan
and the direction Lehigh is
headed, but also fully
support the effort,"
Farrington said.
To view the plan
(accessible only with a
faculty or staff e-mail ID),
go to www.lehigh.edu /
-inure!/luplan/.
John
Feinstein,
Washington
Post
columnist and
author of A
March to
Madness,
talked
recently to a
journalism
class about
his new book
on the Patriot
League called
The Last
Amateurs.
Yoshida to give
commencement
address
Ron Yoshida, provost and
vice president for academic
affairs, will give the commencement speech at
Lehigh's graduation
exercises at 2:30 p.m. on
Sunday, Jan. 14 in Stabler
Arena.
The January ceremony is
for students who have
completed their bachelor's,
master's or doctoral degree
requirements during the
summer or the fall semester.
About 400 students are
expected to graduate.
"I am indeed honored to
represent the university -
faculty, staff and students -
in making remarks at the
January commencement
address," Yoshida said.
"Einstein said, 'Imagination
is more important than
knowledge.' As graduates
begin a new chapter of their
lives, imagination is indeed
what will inspire discovery."
Yoshida joined Lehigh in
1996 as dean of the College
of Education. Under his
leadership, the college
became one of the top
education programs in the
nation. Previously, Yoshida
was associate provost and
assistant vice president for
academic affairs at Queens
College, City University of
New York.
An advocate of using
interdisciplinary approaches
to solving education
problems, Yoshida has
written more than 60
scholarly articles. He and
President Gregory
Farrington recently published the article, "Darwin
Goes to College: Educational
Competition in the Dot-com
World," in Educause Review.
That article explored how
technology is transforming
learning and some innovative approaches being
implemented at Lehigh.