Lackawanna College is a school in transformation.
From striving to increase academic excellence to building its endowment, the college wants to increase its role in the community, administrators said Tuesday in a Times-Tribune editorial board meeting.
"If we do our work well in the classroom, the whole region benefits," said Paul Strunk, the school's vice president for college advancement. "Lackawanna is our community's college."
The private two-year college is trying to balance rising costs with keeping tuition affordable for students. About 80 percent of the school's 1,600 students are from the region, and many are first-generation college students. Tuition is $12,000 a year.
The college's budget is funded almost entirely by tuition, and officials hope to ease some of the burden of students, President Mark Volk said.
Mr. Strunk will concentrate on raising money - something the college has done little of in the past. The college will also be reaching out to alumni and marketing its alumni association, Mr. Volk said. The school's endowment is now $3 million.
Administrators and faculty members are also concentrating on increasing "teaching excellence," from planning to redesign classroom layouts to studying different teaching and learning styles, said Jill A. Murray, Ph.D., the college's executive vice president and chief academic officer.
The college and faculty union are currently at odds over a contract for professors. Administrators, who have said the union is unwilling to negotiate, has declared an impasse and is implementing a two-year contract. The union claims the college's action is illegal.
Before Raymond Angeli became the college's president 19 years ago, it was on the brink of bankruptcy and about to lose its accreditation. Mr. Angeli turned the college around, increasing enrollment and programs and expanding the school's footprint downtown and to four regional satellite centers. Mr. Volk became president last summer.
In the last three to four years, school officials started a strategic planning process, aiming to become more student-centered. Curriculum is being revised continuously and more student supports have been added, said Erica Barone Pricci, Ph.D., associate vice president for academic affairs. A program was added this past year that creates academic support and structure for football players and penalizes the student-athletes for missing class or misbehaving.
Plans are still in the works to create a $15 million athletic facility off Capouse Avenue, with a possible partnership from Scranton Preparatory School for a football stadium at the complex.
The college is also working on a $500,000 overhaul of the Paul Ross Field in Green Ridge, for use for the school's baseball team and for the public.
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