Message from Stephen C. MacDonald

To the Members of the Lebanon Valley College Community:

In the summer of 2012, the College will bring to conclusion two major projects that have occupied much of our time and energy over the past two years: we will complete the process of reaccreditation through the Commission of Higher Education of the Middle States Association and will finish the rebuilding of the Mund College Center, a $13.3 million undertaking that will give the College a new centerpiece for campus life.

When we complete these two projects, I will have served as president of Lebanon Valley College for eight years. Counting my earlier six years’ service as dean of the faculty, I will have occupied a senior leadership position at the Valley for 14 years. I believe it is a good time for the College to prepare for a transition to new leadership, and I have therefore expressed to the Board of Trustees my intent to retire as president of the College in the summer of 2012. The board will undertake a national search for the person to serve as the 18th president of the College to take office on July 1, 2012.

I look back with satisfaction at all that we have accomplished and will yet accomplish during my tenure as president: the completion of the Great Expectations Campaign in 2007 which raised $55 million for the College; a total rebuilding of the Neidig-Garber Science Center in 2008; the transformation of Lynch Memorial Hall in two stages in 2005 and 2008; the construction of the Stanson residence hall in 2009; the complete renovation of the Mund College Center; the refinishing of the exterior of the Humanities/Administration Building also in 2009; the graduation in 2006 of our first class of Doctors of Physical Therapy; the completion of the 2009 strategic plan and the adoption of another plan that will carry us through 2016; the addition of men’s and women’s lacrosse in 2010; the completion of the campus Master Plan in 2008; the successful navigation with minimal institutional damage of the Great Recession; the completion of our decennial reaccreditation; and the establishment of our admission and retention efforts on firm and productive ground.

I look further back to my years as dean of the faculty and derive satisfaction from the roles I played in a number of innovations during the years 1998–2004: the introduction of the First-Year Seminar Program in 2002; our gaining initial candidacy status for the Physical Therapy Program in 2003; the adoption of the Digital Communications Program in 2001; and the introduction of the principle of peer review in the tenure and promotion system at the College in 2004.

It has been wonderful to work these past years as president and dean with gifted faculty and administrators to bring about these things. I am supported by an unusually talented and creative group of vice presidents. And I have enjoyed the unwavering support of our Board of Trustees under the leadership of Bill Lehr and now of Lynn Phillips.

There is a busy year ahead to prepare the College for the transition to the leadership of its next president. The College is well positioned for this change; we face this transition with confidence.

I will have ample opportunity in the course of the next year to say goodbye to my many friends here at the College. I will want to thank all those good people who have made my years at LVC so memorable and so gratifying. Mary and I look forward to doing that.

Yours,


Stephen C. MacDonald
President
May 19, 2011

Lebanon Valley College™ in Annville, Pa., welcomes 1,630 full-time undergraduates studying more than 30 majors, as well as self-designed majors. Founded in 1866, LVC has graduate programs in physical therapy, business, and music and science education. Annville is 15 minutes east of Hershey and 35 minutes east of Harrisburg; Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore are within two hours.