Mission, Values and History
Inspired to create educational opportunities, the people of Easton, Pennsylvania proposed the establishment of a college named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette for his service to the cause of freedom during the American Revolution.
Our Mission
Chartered in 1826, Lafayette College is dedicated to excellence in undergraduate education. Students are engaged in a transformative educational experience that bridges the liberal arts, engineering, and interdisciplinary study. The College fosters intellectual inquiry, artistic exploration, scholarship, and personal growth in a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive community. Lafayette students become critical thinkers, creative problem-solvers, and responsible citizens of the world.
MAY 2024
Our Values
Engaged Learning
We cultivate a residential undergraduate learning environment where faculty and staff foster the interplay among the liberal arts, engineering, and interdisciplinary study, and nurture intellectual curiosity, creativity, and ingenuity.
Community Belonging
We value mutual respect, collaboration, and empathy in an accessible, inclusive, and diverse community where everyone can flourish.
Responsible Citizenship
We are thoughtful members of the global community, educating our students to be compassionate, ethical leaders who constructively participate in society–from Easton and the Lehigh Valley, to the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world.
Purposeful Sustainability
We value an environmentally healthy and socially just world, managing resources with care and accountability, integrating sustainability into our academic and campus life, and pursuing innovative solutions to complex local and global challenges.
Institutional Excellence
We are dedicated to excellence in teaching, learning and scholarship, across co-curricular pursuits, and through the multifaceted work of the College, and hold one another to the highest standards in our respective fields.
MAY 2024
Accreditation
Lafayette College is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, 3624 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104; 215.662.5606.
The Commission on Higher Education is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the United States Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
The Chemical Engineering Program, Civil Engineering Program, Electrical and Computer Engineering Program, and Mechanical Engineering Program are accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of the ABET.
The Bachelor of Science in Computer Science degree is accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of the ABET.
The Bachelor of Science program in chemistry and, under certain conditions, the Bachelor of Arts in chemistry meet the requirements of the American Chemical Society, making graduates of those programs eligible for membership in the Society immediately upon graduation.
Charter & Statutes
The Charter, an act of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania legislature, is the legal instrument by which Lafayette College was incorporated in 1826—a document that today would be called “articles of incorporation.” The Charter was amended seven times between 1832 and 1999. The Statutes are the College’s (that is, the Board of Trustees’) corporate bylaws; the Statutes have been amended 17 times since 1971, when they were completely “recodified.” These two documents have been traditionally published in a single booklet, Charter of Lafayette College and Amendments Thereto; Statutes of Lafayette College as Amended, last issued in May 2015.