Brown and White Vol. 127 no. 13

              The Brown and White
Vol. 127 No. 13
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
‘All the Lehigh News First’
LEHIGH’S NEW PRESIDENT
Sitting on John D. Simon’s night stand is an old, worn copy of “Lehigh University: A History of Education in Engineering, Business and the Human Condition.”
Simon found the book online and ordered it from a rare bookstore in Bethlehem. The newly announced 14th Lehigh president decided he’d better learn a lot more about Lehigh than he currently knows.
“I think it’s really important for people in this type of leadership role to understand…the institutional cul­ture because you have to work within the institutional culture,” he told The Brown and White. “But I think it’s important to understand what gave rise to the institutional culture.”
The book, Simon said, covers Lehigh history up until 1990. The rest he hopes he can hear about in person from the community members who lived it.
Simon, currently the executive vice president and provost at the University of Virginia, was announced as Lehigh’s new president Friday in an email from Board of Trustees Chair Brad Scheler. In statements released by the university, Scheler hailed Simon as the “right choice,” and Interim President Kevin Clayton praised him as the “unique individu­al” who could lead Lehigh to greater success.
After an eight-month search process
Simon, executive vice
president and provost at the UVA, will take office
on July 1, 2015
Christa Neu/Courtesy of Lehigh University
John D. Simon was welcomed as Lehigh’s 14h president Friday. He plans to make his first official trip to campus Monday, Oct. 27.
By ABBY SMITH
Editor in Chief
Bottom-up organizer
The role of a university president is vast and all-encompassing. He or she must consider the needs of different campus groups, working to appease alumni, faculty, staff, parents and students as well as working to address issues on a local and national scale. There are so many concerns a pres­ident must deal with that he or she cannot often pick just one focus.
An issue Lehigh Provost Pat Farrell hopes Simon will prioritize is campus climate.
“I’d love it if he would help us con­tinue the momentum we think we’ve built around campus climate, con­tinuing to improve campus climate,” Farrell said. “Its a work in progress. It will be for a long time, but as much support and engagement from John as possible would be great.”
Simon is no stranger to campus culture issues. Prior to his service at UVA, he worked as the vice pro­vost for academic affairs at Duke University for six years. During this time, Simon headed a major cam­pus culture initiative, spending seven months meeting with various groups on campus to break down the issues surrounding campus climate and diversity inclusion.
The initiative followed the 2006 Duke lacrosse scandal in which three players were charged with first-de­gree sexual assault, kidnapping and rape. The players were ultimately found innocent of the charges in an April 2007 North Carolina court deci­sion, but the case raised concerns about the way Duke students inter­acted with each other and what kind of culture the students and adminis­tration created on campus.
John D. Simon eager to take on the challenge as Lehigh’s 14th leader
Humanities classes experience steady decline in enrollment
See PRESIDENT Page 4
By ALEX BLOOM
B&W Staff
See HUMANITIES Page 3
Both the number of students in individual classes and the number of declared majors in the humanities and social sciences have declined in recent years at Lehigh, particularly since the economic downturn, which is consistent with the national trend.
However, steps are being made to reverse this.
“I can say that in the four years I have been (at Lehigh), there have been some marked changes in stu­dent enrollment patterns,” said Cameron Wesson, associate dean for undergraduate programs and profes­sor of sociology. “There seem to be, if you go back before I got to Lehigh and simply look at the numbers, enrollment numbers in a range of social science, humanities fields have been trending downward for about a decade or so.”
These trends are made clear by numbers of declared majors and course enrollments that cover until the fall of 2013. It is clear that, while some departments have fared better than others, the declines have been across the board, although there have been a random spikes.
the office of the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. There has since been a steady decline, with only 374 enrollments in the spring of 2013 and 307 in the fall of 2013.
In addition, the department of anthropology consistently surpassed 600 students before reaching its highest numbers for the 2006-2007 academic year, with 711 and 825 stu­dents enrolled in the fall and spring, respectively. The department has not surpassed 700 enrollments since the spring of 2010, only surpassing 600 twice and falling as low as 481 in the fall of 2013.
The same trend can also be shown for the decline in majors in these dis­ciplines with anthropology, dropping from 39 in the fall of 2011 to 20 in the fall of 2013. International relations went from never having fewer than 77 majors before its spring 2010 high mark to dropping steadily to a low of 45 in the fall of 2013.
The numbers tend to be closely correlated, as students who take upper-level courses tend to be majors, while students in entry-level cours­es are usually the students whom the department tries to attract as majors, typically during their sopho­more year.
According to Michael Raposa, chair of the department of religion studies, while entry-level courses have been popular because of first-year and upper-class engineering and busi­ness students, the 200- and 300-level courses have been declining in enroll­ment from typically having 18 to 20 students a few years ago to now hav­ing seven or eight. John Smith, chair of the history department, attributes
during which a committee of trustees, administration, faculty and students reviewed more than 250 candidates, it seems as though Lehigh has found the ideal candidate to fit its needs.
Simon is confident that Lehigh is the perfect fit for him, as well. Throughout the search process, he said he was astounded by the wel­coming atmosphere Lehigh created for him.
In fact, Simon recalls his first meet­ing with the search committee in New York City and the first words Clayton said to him before his inter­view: “Welcome to Lehigh.”
“Just the passion that I have seen, whether it’s the alums, the faculty that I have met, the students I’ve met on a tour…there’s just this incredible love of the institution and what the institution tries to do,” he said.
For Simon, this passion resonates in every member of the Board of Trustees that he’s met, as well, and it’s an experience he’s truly never encountered before.
“They love the place, and they real­ly want to see it just be great and be a fantastic experience for students and faculty and staff,” he said. “It (the university) has a great tone.”
The History Department had 571 students enrolled in the spring of 2006, 453 in the fall of 2009 and 491 in the spring of 2010, according to