Identity is as important for a university as location is for real estate.  Moving through the first half of the twenty-first century, we at Lock Haven University are sustaining and enhancing our long-standing commitment to the sciences, liberal and fine arts, teacher education, and professional preparation.  Our identity is revealed in behaviors derived from our values:  an aggressive campaign to increase diversity, including integration of international education in all aspects of our lives; ubiquitous employment of appropriate technology; high-quality programs, documented by rigorous assessment and accreditation; and outreach to our communities through service and scholarship.  As our students embrace the university’s values, they engage in more and more experiential learning.  They begin to see themselves as reflective practitioners of knowledge, as intellectual leaders who not only understand but also exercise social responsibility through creative problem solving, seeking truth, and clear communication – that is, through scholarship.  Over the last decade, in my view, scholarship has become a cornerstone of Lock Haven University.  

     Our focus on teaching and learning is paramount.  Collaborative scholarship involving both students and faculty is particularly valuable as a mechanism for learning.  Our reputation for excellent student-teacher relationships has been an important attribute for many years.  Collaborative scholarship enhances the personal relationships that already exist and are so much a part of our reputation.  When students experience scholarship, the relationships are enriched.  In the best cases, our students absorb the values of scholarship and learn to learn.

     This day, the Celebration of Scholarship captures the results of many learning experiences at Lock Haven University.  It shows who we are and much of what we do.  As we more clearly document our strengths, our identity continues to evolve, but the direction is clear.  We are becoming a community in which every person is engaged and making economic, intellectual, creative, and moral contributions to a global society.

Dr. Keith T. Miller, President

Lock Haven University

Dr. Roger Johnson, Provost

 A university is a place of seeking.  Members of a university community cannot claim to know the truth about all things, but they are obligated by tradition, culture, and society to seek the truth with integrity, rigor, and energy.  A sustained will to seek is perhaps the core virtue of any university.  The expression of that seeking is scholarship.  Setting aside a day to reaffirm the value of scholarship and to celebrate the scholarship of our students and faculty is a fine thing.  On this day we energize our commitment to seeking truth, engender intellectual humility, engage in an enterprise larger than ourselves, demonstrate critical and creative thinking, and remind ourselves of our obligation to be of real service to our community and the world.

Dr. Sue Malin, Dean, College of Education and Human Services

We in the College of Education and Human Services are proud to highlight examples of our commitment to the “Celebration of Scholarship.”  The mission of the College of Education and Human Services is a testament to the pursuit of excellence.  Our mission states, “From this college shall go forth compassionate, productive, ethical lifelong learners who contribute interdependently to a global society.”  Through this mission, the members of the college exhibit their dedication to excellence through scholarship and numerous kinds of research.  Such a pledge to excellence engages faculty and students in a process of discovery and application.  Discovery and application emerge in all majors from teacher education to health professions.  The activities that evolve from discovery and application promote understanding, critical and creative thinking, evaluation, and reflection.  We believe the outcomes achieved through scholarship are lasting ones.  Faculty and students are empowered as “ethical lifelong learners.”  Our contributions to the “Celebration of Scholarship” are a glimpse into the daily quest for excellence.

 Dr. Karen Harvey, Dean, College of Arts and Science

This inaugural Celebration of Scholarship at Lock Haven University demonstrates and fulfills the mission of both the University and the College of Arts and Science to create a culture of learning, one that enriches our students, faculty, and the community.  Scholarship and research are not practiced in isolation, rather they are synergistic; that is, the cooperative achievements of many in a learning community creating a totality greater than the sum of their individual parts.  Faculty research is applied in classes and shared with students; student research, often undertaken with faculty, leads to their intellectual development; both prepare our students for careers and service to the wider community.   Practice of research and scholarship creates a community of lifelong learners in pursuit of knowledge.  We demonstrate our scholarship and learning across a broad spectrum, and the presentations of research, service learning, outreach projects to the local community, discussions and debates, live performances, and displays will illustrate this spectrum.  This day provides us with an opportunity to share our scholarship and demonstrate its importance not just within the University community, but to the local community and the Commonwealth.

 Dr. Tara Fulton, Dean, Library and Information Technology

Academic libraries have always served as an intellectual center for the campus, the place where faculty and students come together in pursuit of knowledge, information, and enlightenment.  They are the symbolic “heart of the university,” but they are also physically, concretely located at the center of the campus.  They are places of interdisciplinarity, places of community, places for exchange of ideas, and places for solitary reflection and learning.  Thus, Stevenson Library is pleased to be an integral part of the Celebration of Scholarship.  We actively support faculty and student research every day – that’s who we are and what we do.  And so it seems natural to us to contribute to this special day on which we all rejoice in our collective accomplishments.   Please visit the library in the course of the day on April 25, and remember the wealth of materials, expertise, and service support available to you.

 Dr. Mark Cloud, President of APSCUF

Scholarship is an essential component in the professional life of a faculty member. The thrill of discovery, new understanding, and new expression is infectious. Our faculty have a long and distinguished history in advancing our disciplines in intellectual and artistic achievement. Furthermore, we take great pride in the degree to which we regularly involve our students in this exciting enterprise that exhibits their acquired knowledge and skills.  We look forward to this Celebration of Scholarship to share our excitement and showcase the contributions and talents of our faculty and students with the larger campus community.