President's Message

Dear Alumni, Parents and Friends,

Now in its 200th year of operations, Lycoming College continues to fulfill its mission of providing a distinguished baccalaureate education to 1,400 students each year. Your support and that of many others through the years have made that possible.

For almost 24 years, I have had the privilege of presenting diplomas to more than 40 percent of Lycoming’s living alumni. During the same period, contributions to the College have exceeded $65 million. The impact of such generosity can be found in many places, including in the productive lives of our alumni, in the scholarships that make it possible for students to attend and in the quality of our academic program. Whether your support is given to enhance the physical plant, to endow a scholarship, to support program enrichments or if it arrives in the form of an annual gift, the combination of such wide support undergirds the rigorous academic experiences and the residential environment that is Lycoming. You make what we do possible.

The strength and quality of a Lycoming education are evident. Our highly-credentialed, full-time faculty is far from a given in higher education today. Lycoming students reap extraordinary benefits from the expertise and dedication of our professors, a major factor in producing a graduation rate higher than those found at most other private schools in the nation and far higher than at the average public institution.

The College’s growing reputation attracts students from around the country and beyond. The Class of 2016 arrived this fall from 19 states and six foreign countries, among them 11 students from Vietnam. Fifty-seven of our new students were invited to participate in the Lycoming Scholars program. Twenty-two of our freshmen this year are either high school valedictorians or salutatorians.

Emily and I view our years here to have been both meaningful and purposeful. We are also pleased to have been able to endow two need-based scholarships, to create a third endowment in support of academic programming, and to have completed future provisions for the College. We are grateful for your support, as well as for the many memories and friendships we share with the broad Lycoming College community.

Sincerely,

James E. Douthat

President