Lehman at a Glance
New York Governor Herbert H. Lehman, for whom the college was named, was known for his honesty and integrity in public service.
HISTORY: Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, Lehman was established in 1968 as an independent college of The City University of New York and named for Herbert H. Lehman, the great New York Governor, U.S. Senator, philanthropist, and humanitarian. During World War II, the campus was the main national training site for women in the military. For six months in 1946, it served as interim headquarters for the newly formed United Nations.
TYPE OF COLLEGE: Public, comprehensive, coeducational liberal arts college with more than 100 undergraduate and graduate degree programs and specializations.
ENROLLMENT: 11,861, including 9,570 undergraduate students and 2,291 graduate students (Fall 2008). Students come from more than 90 countries around the world.
ACADEMIC CALENDAR: Fourteen-week semesters in the fall and spring; two six-week summer sessions; and a winter intersession in January.
CAMPUS: A 37-acre, tree-lined campus noted for its distinctive blend of Collegiate Gothic and modern architecture; 15 buildings include a Center for the Performing Arts, a College Art Gallery, four venues for theatre and dance, a Speech and Hearing Clinic, and The APEX, a world-class facility for sports and recreation.
LOCATION: Along the Jerome Park Reservoir in the Kingsbridge Heights neighborhood of the northwest Bronx. Near public transportation (No. 4 and D trains) and Bronx buses. Ample on-campus parking in secured lots.
FACULTY: 368 full-time, of whom 85% hold Ph.D. degrees, and 460 part-time (Fall 2008). Seven Distinguished Professors.
STUDENT-FACULTY RATIO: 16-1
AVERAGE CLASS SIZE: 18
DEGREES OFFERED: B.A., B.B.A., B.F.A., B.S., B.A./M.A., M.A., M.A.T., M.F.A., M.P.H., M.S., M.S.Ed., and M.S.W. In association with the New York Botanical Garden, a plant sciences concentration in the City University's doctoral program in biology is based at Lehman.
ALUMNI: more than 55,000 (since 1968)
ACCREDITATION: Board of Regents, University of the State of New York; Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools; American Chemical Society; American Dietetic Association; American Speech Language Hearing Association; Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education; Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs; Council on Social Work Education; National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education; National League for Nursing; and Professional State Accreditation in Teaching.
FINANCIAL AID: 75-80 percent of students receive financial assistance.
Scholarships, grants, loans, and part-time employment are available for eligible students.
NOTABLE ACADEMIC PROGRAMS:
CUNY Flagship Initiatives in Teacher Education, New Media, and Structural and Molecular Biosciences.
Nationally Recognized Research Programs in biological sciences, psychology, mathematics and com¬puter 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 offers a dual-degree with Sungshin University in South Korea and nursing programs both with Sungshin and with institutions in Ireland and Antigua.
LEONARD LIEF LIBRARY: Open stacks collection of 713,500 volumes supplemented by 572,000 microforms. The Library subscribes to 1,535 periodicals and over 13,000 electronic journals. It is a designated depository for government documents. Fully automated CUNY-wide book catalog, circulation system, periodical indexes, electronic full-text databases, and Internet access. CD ROMs and LANs.
TECHNOLOGY: Located on the plaza level of Carman Hall, the Department of Information Technology Resources houses nine microcomputer classrooms, an open lab area with over 100 microcomputers, printing facilities, a help desk, a small auditorium, and a faculty development lab. Additional computer facilities are located in the new Multimedia Center, the Leonard Lief Library, and within individual departments and classrooms.
INTERCOLLEGIATE SPORTS: Women's basketball, cross country, softball, swimming, tennis, indoor track, volleyball, cheerleading. Men's baseball, basketball, cross country, soccer, swimming, tennis, indoor track, outdoor track, volleyball, cheerleading.
ATHLETIC CONFERENCES: NCAA, CUNY Athletic Conference, ECAC, Hudson Valley Men's/Women's Athletic Conferences, Knickerbocker Athletic Conference, Metropolitan Collegiate Swimming Conference, Metropolitan Intercollegiate Men's Volleyball Conference, and the New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Conference. All sports are NCAA Division III.
THE HIGH SCHOOL OF AMERICAN STUDIES AT LEHMAN COLLEGE. One of New York City’s new special¬ized high schools — and the first to focus on history, this school represents a collaboration among Lehman, the NYC Department of Education, and the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American His¬tory (a private foundation). For two consecutive years (2007, 2008), the school has been named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top 100 high schools in the country. It is currently ranked as the number one high school in the Bronx, second in both New York City and New York State, and 29th in the nation. One hundred percent of the school’s first four graduating classes (2006 – 2009) have gone on to college.
CAMPUS SAFETY: Lehman is located in an attractive residential setting near the New York Botanical Garden and Van Cortlandt Park. The campus has a professionally trained staff of public safety officers. In compliance with the Federal Title II Campus Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act, a report of campus safety and security programs and incidents of crime on campus is available from the Office of Public Safety, Lehman College, 109 APEX, Bronx, NY 10468-1589.
Important Telephone Numbers:
- Lehman College 718-960-8000
- Admissions 1-877-LEHMAN-1
- Alumni Affairs 718-960-8975
- The APEX 718-960-1117
- Campus Tours 718-960-8713
- Continuing Education 718-960-8512
- Financial Aid 718-960-8545
- Human Resources 718-960-8181
- Lehman College Art Gallery 718-960-8731
- Lehman Center Box Office 718-960-8833
- Leonard Lief Library 718-960-8577
- Media Relations 718-960-8211
Last modified: Sep 2, 2009
