When Lincoln University opened its state-of-the art $23 million International Cultural Center in November, the small liberal arts college reached another milestone in its sweeping modernization program aimed at boosting its appeal to students in an increasingly competitive higher education environment.
Not far from the cultural center, with its art gallery and 1,045-seat auditorium, is the new Science and Technology Building, a $45 million, 116,000-square-foot facility.
A few steps away from those buildings is a new 409-room singleoccupancy dorm that will be complemented by a 600-bed residence hall set for occupancy in 2011. Intercollegiate football returned to the school last year for the first time in 50 years. A campus radio station signed on this fall. A campus TV station is set to go on the air in January.
To say Lincoln, a small, quasi-private historically Black college, is on a roll might be an understatement. The good fortune is the result of tough choices, trade-offs, program and operational changes and the constant reminder of competition in the neighborhood.
“When we finish in a couple of years, we will be the center of attraction to local residents,” says Lincoln President Dr. Ivory V. Nelson, the chief architect of the new Lincoln who is marking his 10th year at the helm. “We have worked on, and I think succeeded, in making sure Lincoln becomes a place of choice.”
While very much a private institution, the physical remake of Lincoln is propelled by an infusion of millions in public funds, the product of a quid pro quo deal the school struck in 2003 with Gov. Edward Rendell and former state Attorney General Mike Fisher.
At issue was “control” of the Barnes Foundation, an arboretum and prized collection of thousands of pieces of art including works by Cézanne, Renoir, Matisse and others. Created in 1922 by Dr. Albert Barnes, a wealthy owner of medicine patents and art collector who had a royal distaste for the Philadelphia art elite, the foundation is now worth billions and is housed in a small facility picked by Barnes in Merion, Pa., a few miles outside Philadelphia.
