2019 Year in Review

Muhlenberg College earned a STARS Gold rating in recognition of its sustainability achievements from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

Muhlenberg’s new 3+3 partnership with the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law will provide qualified students with early access to one of the nation’s top law schools.

The Stabler Foundation, which has been a partner of Muhlenberg since August 2010, granted the College $720,000 toward the Donald B. and Dorothy L. Stabler Endowed Scholarship Fund. The figure was an increase from $480,000 and $560,000 in the previous two years.

The new major, which debuted in the Fall 2019 semester, and the newly revised sustainability studies minor offer students an interdisciplinary approach to understanding complex environmental challenges and developing solutions to effect real change.

In its ninth year, more than 170 alumni lent their time and expertise to current students as part of Alumni Week, an annual event that brings Muhlenberg graduates to campus (in person or via videoconference) to discuss what they do and how they came to do it.

This year, Muhlenberg’s radio station, WMUH, celebrates 70 years of being “The Only Station That Matters.” WMUH first began broadcasting during the academic year of 1948-1949.

Perten, who began his role August 1, serves as a member of the College Chaplain’s senior leadership team and the lead representative for Jewish student life at Muhlenberg.

On April 26, a group of 66 outstanding Muhlenberg students proudly stepped forward, one by one, to be inducted into Alpha Alpha Alpha, a new first-generation college student honor society. Muhlenberg is the Delta, or fourth, chapter of Tri-Alpha in the country.

Every two years Muhlenberg College students who want to fully grasp the scope of climate change have a chance to visit ground zero: Bangladesh.

Co-founded by English Professor Francesca Coppa, the site is a community for artists, a fan-built social network and a female-designed and -led software project.

The M.U.L.E. (Muhlenberg Useful Living Essentials) Community Cabinet is among several new initiatives that provide resources for Muhlenberg students experiencing scarcity or other hardship.

On August 15, 2019, Muhlenberg officially became a smoke-, tobacco- and vape-free campus. The policy prohibits the use of all smoke and tobacco products, including cigarettes, e-cigarettes (including Juul) and smokeless tobacco, on College property.

“New York Times” journalist Laura Pappano recently spent a day on Muhlenberg’s campus speaking with various members of the College community for her piece, “Where 4-Year Schools Find a Pool of Applicants: 2-Year Schools.”

Tony Jack discussed his research, which examines the divide between poor college students who come from under-resourced public schools and those who attended elite private schools on scholarship, alongside his own experiences as a first-generation college student.

The College received the recognition for improving democratic engagement on campus, earning a silver seal at the 2019 ALL IN Challenge Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Muhlenberg College’s Institute of Public Opinion, consistently named one of the top pollsters in the country, was one of just six pollsters to earn a top grade from the polling analysis website FiveThirtyEight.

For 26 years, Muhlenberg College has hosted “Youth and Prejudice: Reducing Hatred; Lessons of the Holocaust” for middle school students in the Lehigh Valley, a program designed to connect the atrocities of Nazi Germany to modern-day actions of hate.

Muhlenberg College Board Chair Richard C. Crist Jr. ’77 P’05 P’09 recently announced that the College’s Board of Trustees had formalized Kathleen Harring’s role as interim president with a two-year agreement.

Strong financial support for student research makes exceptional undergraduate opportunities possible: In 2019, Muhlenberg experienced a record-breaking year for its Alumni Weekend research poster session—81 students presented their work, 62 of whom had conducted on-campus summer research.

The best season in Muhlenberg football history ended with a 45-14 home loss to North Central in the Division III semifinals. The team’s senior class was the winningest in program history, with a four-year record of 41-8, two Centennial Conference championships and the program’s first two trips to the NCAA quarterfinals.