Type of College: A senior liberal arts college in The City University of New York, founded in 1968 and offering 69 undergraduate majors and programs and 39 graduate degree programs.
Location: 37-acre campus in the northwest Bronx across from the Jerome Park Reservoir and centered along a major educational corridor with four neighboring public schools
Enrollment (Fall 2008): 9,569 undergraduate students and 2,291 graduate students, for a total of 11,860 students
Undergraduate Profile (Fall 2008)
Honors Students (Fall 2008): 179, including the Macaulay Honors College at Lehman (51), the CUNY Teacher Academy at Lehman (18), and the Lehman Scholars Program (110)
Average Class Size: 18
Degrees Awarded (2008): 1,402 bachelor's degrees; 661 master's degrees Notable Faculty: Six Distinguished Professors, including Billy Collins, Poet Laureate of the United States (2001-2003) and New York State Poet Laureate (2004-2006), and composer John Corigliano, winner of both the Academy Award (2000) and the Pulitzer Prize for Music (2001)
Alumni: Over 55,000 in law, medicine, teaching, business, the arts, social services, and healthcare. Almost half live in the Bronx or elsewhere in New York City.
Research: For FY 2008, Lehman was awarded $16.56 million from federal and state agencies as well as private sources to support scholarly research and to provide special services to local K-12 schools, community organizations, and residents of the Bronx and the metropolitan area. As a result, Lehman ranked fourth in this area among the 14 CUNY senior colleges.
Recent Recognition (partial list):
Notable Academic Programs
CUNY Flagship Initiatives in Teacher Education, New Media, and Structural and Molecular Biosciences. Lehman houses the CUNY doctoral program in the plant sciences and has a long-standing collaboration with the New York Botanical Garden.
Nationally Recognized Research Programs in biological sciences, psychology, mathematics and computer science, physics, and astronomy receive substantial support from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation for faculty research initiatives and to prepare minority students to become future scientists.
Master's Degrees in Educational Leadership, Public Health, and Social Work. Lehman is the only institution in the Bronx offering these three graduate programs.
Lehman Online: From one course in Spring 1997, the program grew by 2008 to 156 course sections, enrolling 2,170 students, and included more asynchronous courses (taught completely online) than any other CUNY college. Included is the world's first online course in the Irish language.
Global Outreach. Lehman has established a dual-degree with Sungshin University in South Korea and nursing programs both with Sungshin and with institutions in Ireland and Antigua.
Notable Facilities
New Facilities:
Completed since 2002 (partial list): Multimedia Center, synthetic organic chemistry research laboratory; Counseling and Intervention Center for Special Services in Education; relocation and expansion of Education Library; robotics research laboratories; marine biology laboratory; 46-seat multimedia lecture hall; biology computer laboratory; language laboratory; multimedia radio studio; plant signal transduction research laboratory.
Facilities Under Construction: Phase One of a three-phase science facility, featuring updated, versatile classrooms, labs, and instrumentation; a rooftop teaching and research greenhouse; and environmentally sustainable technologies.
Lehman Speech and Hearing Center: Lehman has operated a Speech and Hearing Center for the community since 1968. A new state-of-the-art clinic continues to serve area residents of all ages, operating as part of Lehman's highly regarded graduate program in speech-language pathology.
Environmental, Geological, and Geographic Sciences: A new lab helps students in Geographic Information Science map technologies and track and analyze resource issues. It is one of only two such college labs in New York City.
Performing Arts Center: This premier performance space brings local as well as world-renowned artists to entertain audiences of schoolchildren, families, and adults. Hosting over 30 shows each year, it entertains more than 35,000 visitors from the Bronx, Westchester, New Jersey, and Manhattan.
The Lehman College Art Gallery has brought important contemporary art to Bronx audiences free of charge since 1984, making significant opportunities available to local artists to advance their careers and achieve a higher level of recognition for their work. The Gallery is also an Arts Learning Center for K-12 students, teachers, college classes, and community residents, as well as a pioneer in the use of interactive media for the visual arts.
The APEX: This world-class sports and recreation complex hosts major athletic competitions as well as high school and college games and helps to promote community fitness.
Lehman Stages: This performance/rehearsal facility includes four different theatre and dance venues.
Community Resources and Partnerships (Partial List)
Bronx Small Business Development Center: Since moving to Lehman College in 2000, the Bronx SBDC has worked directly with 5,923 businesses, helping them to invest over $64 million in the area's economy, which resulted in 2,205 jobs being saved or created.
Bronxnet: Lehman has housed the studios of this municipal access cable station ever since its establishment in 1988. Bronxnet administers four television channels and provides a wide variety of community programming, as well as television production training for Bronx residents and students at Bronx colleges.
Bronx Institute: This CUNY Institute, headquartered at Lehman, has worked intensively over the past decade to create a "college-going culture" among Bronx middle- and high school students. To date, more than 10,000 students in over 50 schools have benefited from the Institute's programs and efforts.
School Partnerships and Collaborations: Lehman programs and collaborations are impacting almost 4,000 teachers and administrators and over 50,000 area schoolchildren. Lehman is a partner or lead partner in eight of the borough's new "small schools," operated in collaboration with the New York City Department of Education and the New Visions reform organization. These schools include:
Last reviewed on: 4/23/2009