10 Reasons to Celebrate

The $400 million Live Connected, Lead Change campaign is supporting bold initiatives to build on the College’s strengths, solidify its standing among the nation’s most outstanding undergraduate institutions, and position it for future success. As 2015 draws to a close, here are 10 reasons to celebrate the campaign’s progress and impact this year.

A Banner Year

Gifts, pledges, and bequests total more than $280 million, a dramatic increase over the $236 million that had been raised as of the campaign’s public launch in November 2014.

Big Boost for Financial Aid

Support for financial aid since the start of the campaign topped $39 million in 2015. The goal is $60 million. Over half of Lafayette’s students are receiving assistance through the College’s financial aid program in 2015-16.

Global Education

The Oechsle Center for Global Education, made possible by the support of Trustee Emeritus Walter Oechsle ’57 and the late Christa Huber Oechsle, opened in January, bringing the College closer to its goal of incorporating a global perspective into every student’s educational experience.

Williams Arts Campus

The College’s newest academic building, completed in December, adds a black box theater and film screening room to facilities at the expanding Williams Arts Campus at the base of College Hill, where the campus meets downtown Easton. Other new facilities at the arts campus were in use throughout 2015.

Exceptional Generosity

The ranks of Lafayette’s most honored benefactors grew to 119 members with the induction of Philip D. ’60 and Bernice Bollman, Judson C. ’79 and Cynthia Oaks Linville ’80, and H. Lee Messner ’49 into the Société d’Honneur. The Société has welcomed 22 new members during the campaign.

A Big Splash

Plans were made this year for the College’s natatorium to undergo a dramatic transformation thanks to a lead gift from Mike ’70 and Jill Weinstein.

Consistent Givers

The College celebrated the 10th anniversary of the The Fleck Consistent Giving Society, which has grown to more than 6,700 members, including 374 new members in 2014-15. The society recognizes alumni, parents, and friends who have given to the College for five consecutive years. Those who have given for 10 straight years are honored with a decorative brick, engraved with their name and class year, which is displayed on the Quad. Members of the 10 most recent graduating classes are inducted after three years and receive a brick after five years.

Connected Communities Residential Program

The 673 members of the first-year class became the first to participate in a new housing program, featuring five Commons, that gives students a platform for building identity within their class and forming smaller communities as the foundation for their college experience.

Record Broken

Giving to the Maroon Club during the campaign reached more than $12.8 million toward a goal of $20 million to update and expand athletic facilities, endow coaching positions, fund scholarships for student-athletes, and more. This includes a record $1.76 million in 2014-15.

Research and Mentoring

More women engineering students will gain research experiences and mentoring beginning early in their college careers thanks to a grant from the Clare Boothe Luce Program and support from Heidi Ludwick Hanson ’91 and Daniel Hanson.

The generosity of alumni, parents, and friends is enabling the College to enhance and improve every aspect of the Lafayette experience. The campaign is strengthening academic excellence through the addition of faculty positions, new and renovated facilities, resources for financial aid, and other initiatives. It is also dramatically enhancing residential, co-curricular, and extracurricular life on campus, and allowing the College to integrate students’ academic, social, and professional development in exciting new ways.