Dear Faculty and Staff,

We are writing to update you on the many projects currently in process or about to go into construction in and around campus, and the impact these will ultimately have on parking and transportation.

As many of you are already aware, we are implementing a number of campus improvements to prepare for the addition of roughly 1,000 more undergraduate students, 500 more graduate students, 100 faculty and 100 staff – all part of Lehigh’s ambitious Path to Prominence program that paves the way for a more impactful, innovative university. New infrastructure projects include new student housing (SouthSide Commons on Brodhead Avenue and the Bridge West project that will eventually replace the outdated Trembley complex), and a new state-of-the-art Health, Science and Technology facility that will house the forthcoming College of Health. We are also making much-needed improvements to some of our most historic structures, and planning for a more pedestrian-friendly campus that will evolve over the course of the next decade. For more information on these and other projects, we encourage you to visit our Path to Prominence site.

It’s been a period of significant progress, and we recognize that these changes – while necessary for our continued institutional growth and success – do not come without some inconvenience to our faculty, staff and students, and we thank you for your patience over the past few months, and in the coming months.

In preparation for these projects, we have spent the last 12 months studying space, transportation and parking issues and meeting with various stakeholders across the university to develop the most effective approaches. The outreach efforts included more than 70 information and feedback sessions with various faculty and staff groups, departments, special interest committees, and student organizations.

We note that many of the transportation and parking initiatives were part of the 2012 Campus Master Plan called “Connections,” which had broad discussion and feedback from students, faculty, and staff as part of its creation and dissemination. We have been slow to implement some of the recommendations from that master plan to improve pedestrian travel on campus, limit cars to the campus periphery, more effectively use parking spaces, and more thoughtfully plan transportation routes to Mountaintop and Goodman. We will continue to meet with various groups and departments as we begin to implement a plan that will take effect on July 1, 2019.

At that time, we will have in place significant upgrades to a campus transit system, a commuter parking system that will be serviced by transit vehicles, and location-based parking permit options that will include a free off-site parking option. Collectively, we feel that this plan will better serve our long-term campus community as our physical campus continues to develop in new and exciting ways.

You can read more about this plan here (PDF). In it, you will note that there will be multiple price levels, depending on the parking option you select. As part of this plan, Lehigh will be giving each full- and part-time employee a salary increase of $250, effective July 1, 2019. This is in addition to the annual university merit-based increase. The new permit fee structure will go into effect on that same date.

Over the course of the next 10 months, we encourage each of you to consider the available options in order to make an informed choice. Representatives from Business Services and Facilities Services and Campus Planning will be available to meet with departments or groups to walk through the options, and to continue to gather feedback. We plan on continually assessing our approaches to transportation and parking issues, and will revisit them one year after implementation. The plan details how to schedule meetings for your department or group and provide feedback via Qualtrics.

Again, we thank you for your patience, your dedication and your support as we continue to invest in our institutional priorities, strengthen our academic standing, move toward a more sustainable campus, and create a more dynamic and powerful Lehigh.

Patricia A. Johnson
Vice President, Finance and Administration

Patrick V. Farrell,
Provost, Vice President of Academic Affairs