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LOCK HAVEN -- In three short years, Lock Haven University will celebrate the 150th anniversary of its founding.
Founded in 1870 as the Central State Normal School, it was chartered to prepare teachers for public schools. The school was a private corporation until it was legally conveyed to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1914. After 1960, it was no longer exclusively a teachers college. Graduate programs were added after 1983.
Dr. Donna Wilson, provost and executive vice president of the Academic Affairs Department, called the anniversary to the attention of the university's trustees at their recent meeting.
The university is looking to the year 2020 not just as its special anniversary year but also as a benchmark, the provost said.
The "Lock Haven University 2020 Vision" planning process will ready LHU to meet the changing market for education, she said. Focuses will include encouraging high-impact learning experiences like internships, designing an academic program array that is responsive to the market, and hiring tenure-track faculty members for programs that attract students, she said.
The university is conducting a self-study and getting ready for a site visit by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, Wilson reported. The study is looking at academic excellence, financial sustainability, responsibility, and partnerships, she said.
Partnerships in the local community include participating in the LH JAMS Festival -- Lock Haven Jazz and Arts on Main Street.
The festival was new last summer. This year, it will be held Friday and Saturday, Aug. 18 and 19, and the university's participation will be larger, reported Rodney Jenkins, vice president for university relations. The university will host an all-day arts and music camp for high school students on that Friday, he said.
Through another LHU partnership, with WBRE-TV, students produced the hour-long television program "Celebrating Black History" which the station aired last month.
The university's Dosey Arts Scholarship Recital will be held at 7 p.m. March 22 at Durrwachter Alumni Conference Center, the trustees heard.
Spring break is next week, and the university expects to launch its new website then, Jenkins reported. The current web address is www.lhup.edu. That address will continue to work, he said. In addition, a new address will come online: lockhaven.edu. Once the new website is launched, visitors will be able to reach it using either address.
Also over spring break, the LHU Outreach for Humanity Club will host a community service trip to Roanoke, Va., where local students can serve with volunteers from all over the world. Projects will focus on homelessness, hunger, the environment, animal care, and at-risk youth.
LHU's Global MountainServe Center for Community Service has moved to its new campus location in the renovated Parsons Union Building, the trustees heard. This will make the MountainServe Center more accessible for student leadership groups, clubs, and the general campus community, according to Dr. Tyana S. Lange, vice president for enrollment management and student affairs.