Statement of Institutional Principles

August 26, 2026

Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC) is responding to an August 3, 2026 letter from the Secretary of Education, Linda E. McMahon, regarding “A National Call to Action of University Presidents and Governing Boards.”

Principle One

The opacity of university admissions has caused allegations of favoritism, unjust outcomes, and illegal discrimination. Every prospective student is legally entitled to equal treatment regardless of protected characteristics, and credible accusations of covert attempts to evade the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard will persist as long as admissions criteria remain shielded from public view.

How will your institution ensure that admissions criteria are transparent and wholly described to prospective applicants? And how will your institution ensure admissions decisions are based on merit, achievement, and your university’s educational purpose?

Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC) addresses admissions transparency, merit, and educational mission through an open-door admissions policy tailored to community college access.

Unlike traditional four-year universities that select applicants through competitive admission panels, LCCC fulfills its educational purpose by granting general admission to anyone who can benefit from continuing their education.

Ensuring Transparent Admissions Criteria

Open-Door Access: Requirements are published in the college catalog and online. Applicants must submit a standard application along with high school transcripts, GED verification, or prior college records.
Clear Placement Standards: Course eligibility is determined through standardized placement testing (math, reading, and writing) or published exemption criteria (SAT/ACT scores, AP credits, or high GPA).
Explicit Program Criteria: Selective programs—such as Nursing, Health Sciences, and Veterinary Technician programs—list distinct prerequisite courses, minimum GPAs, and standardized entry requirements transparently in the academic catalog.

Grounding Decisions in Merit, Achievement, and Purpose

Alignment with Mission: As an open-access institution, “merit” is defined by student readiness to learn rather than competitive exclusion. Admission is viewed as a process to assist individuals in achieving career and personal goals rather than a tool to reject applicants.
Objective Course Placement: Acceptance into specific college-level courses and specialized tracks relies on objective measures of achievement, including placement exams, prior coursework, and earned prerequisites.
Selective Program Admissions: For high-demand healthcare and technical programs with limited seats, admission decisions are governed by transparent rubrics assessing academic performance, prerequisite completion, and healthcare background checks.
Merit-Based Financial Support: Academic achievement is directly rewarded through institutional scholarships, which evaluate GPA, credit accumulation, and program-specific milestones.

Principle Two

Institutions must encourage an ethic of free speech and foster a thriving marketplace of ideas, guided by open inquiry and honest debate. The collision of opposing viewpoints is necessary to advance learning and prepare students for the duties of citizenship.

How will your institution protect the free exchange of ideas, wide-ranging debate, and open-minded campus discourse? And how will you guarantee that unruly and violent protestors do not harass students or disrupt classes, research, public lectures, and campus operations?

Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC) addresses the protection of expressive rights, open discourse, and campus safety through its institutional policies, governing conduct codes, and safety protocols:

Fostering Free Exchange of Ideas and Open Discourse

Academic Freedom and Expression: LCCC explicitly acknowledges and affirms rights to academic freedom and freedom of expression across its learning environments and institutional resources.
Core Community Values: The LCCC Code of Student Conduct emphasizes core values of Integrity, Community, Social Justice, Respect, and Responsibility. The code asserts that community members are expected to engage in equitable, respectful interactions that support open discussion while holding individuals accountable when behaviors infringe on others’ rights.

Preventing Disruption, Harassment, and Unruly Behavior

Code of Student Conduct Enforcement: LCCC maintains behavioral standards under the Policies & Procedures Violations of student conduct—including harassment, physical intimidation, or behavior that interrupts educational activities, research, or public lectures—are formally addressed through the Dean of Academic Support and Student Services and campus conduct proceedings.
Employee Code of Conduct: LCCC maintains behavioral standards under the same framework for employee conduct. All employees are expected to interact with each other and with students in a professional, respectful manner with the highest regard for each other’s safety and well-being. LCCC adheres to a policy of progressive discipline for employees. This corrective action process may include a referral to the College’s Employee Assistance Program provider or immediate termination of employment, if warranted.
Public Safety: The Safety and Emergency Management Coordinator oversees campus safety, security, and emergency preparedness, reporting directly to the Vice President and CIO. Security Officer services across all three campuses are provided through a partnership with a third-party security agency.
Officer Training: Public Safety officers undergo continuous professional training. Core certifications and instruction include CPR, AED, First Aid, Stop the Bleed, Narcan administration, de-escalation, and ALICE active attacker response.
Law Enforcement Collaboration: The Department of Public Safety works closely with local and state law enforcement agencies across all locations:
- Main Campus: Primary police jurisdiction is maintained by the Pennsylvania State Police, who respond whenever law enforcement intervention is needed.
- Sites: Local municipal police departments hold jurisdiction for off-campus sites, including the Donley Center (Allentown), the Morgan Center (Tamaqua), Lehigh Valley International Airport and designated high school dual-enrollment locations.
Incident Reporting Tools: The college utilizes reporting tools like the StART System for community members to submit official reports regarding disruptive behaviors, threats, or violations of college policies. For external members, there is a “Contact Us” form on the website.

Principle Three

Some academic disciplines and departments have subordinated the scholarly pursuit to political and social goals, as documented in the recent Report on the State of Scholarship in the Humanities and the Humanistic Social Sciences. When disciplines skew toward one side of the ideological spectrum, the truth-seeking function of the university suffers and public trust declines. How will your institution encourage intellectual pluralism in all its academic units?

The curriculum for all coursework, particularly the social sciences and humanities requires that all viewpoints or philosophies are reviewed and not one single area of focus. Assessments within the subject area must include diverse perspectives on the subject matter rather than a single emphasis. Student clubs are also required to not promote one ideological viewpoint such as one political party. The college wide student learning competencies focus on diverse thinking and acceptance of differences.

How will your faculty hiring and evaluation practices support academic vitality and ensure that all relevant perspectives are taken seriously? And how will your school ensure the research enterprise is dedicated to advancing knowledge, deepening understanding, and serving the American people who fund it?

Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC) addresses faculty hiring, evaluation, academic vitality, and its applied research and educational mission through its institutional frameworks and policies:

Supporting Academic Vitality & Diverse Perspectives in Faculty Hiring and Evaluation

Rigorous Credentialing & Standards: LCCC ensures instructional quality by requiring full-time faculty candidates to hold at least a Master’s degree (with doctorates preferred) and adjunct instructors to hold a minimum of a Master’s degree or 18 graduate credits in their teaching discipline.
Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination: Per LCCC’s institutional hiring policies, the college maintains equal opportunity practices that prohibit discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, age, gender identity, disability, or other protected characteristics. Recruitment processes seek to build a diverse pool of educators to ensure wide-ranging perspectives in the classroom.
Faculty Development and Coaching: Through programs like the Coaching Commons, faculty engage in self-analysis, professional growth, evidence-based instructional strategies, and peer-led evaluation. This supports ongoing academic vitality, innovative teaching, and culturally responsive instruction.
Evaluations: Adjunct faculty are evaluated in the year of hire and every other year thereafter. Evaluations consist of assessment in general classroom performance, including preparation and presentation of material, course content, including relevance and appropriateness, and student evaluation of the Adjunct Faculty’s effectiveness.

Advancing Knowledge and Serving Public Funders Through Applied Research & Education

Focus on Student Success and Applied Learning: As a public community college funded by local sponsors and state taxpayers, LCCC’s research and institutional analysis focus on applied outcomes, curriculum effectiveness, and workforce alignment rather than traditional theoretical research enterprises.
Institutional Research & Accountability: LCCC utilizes a dedicated Office of Institutional Research to systematically collect data, measure student outcomes, and support accreditation processes (such as Middle States). This ensures transparency and responsible stewardship of public tax dollars.
Community and Workforce Service: LCCC serves local taxpayers by translating academic knowledge into direct community benefit, partnering with local employers, government workforce agencies, and educational institutions to meet regional workforce and educational needs.

Principle Four

The price of some postsecondary degrees seems out of reach for many American families—in significant measure due to ever-rising administrative costs and other expenses unrelated to core university functions. Rates of student attrition and student loan defaults are too high, and universities should take responsibility for ensuring better outcomes. Schools should be transparent about the value of their degrees and prioritize offering education that fosters employment.

How will your institution ensure that families can access affordable, high-return, degrees? What can your school do to contain costs, improve pricing transparency, and ensure that every academic program equips students to repay their loans?

Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC) addresses postsecondary affordability, cost containment, pricing transparency, and student outcomes through the following institutional practices and policy structures:

Cost Containment and Affordability

Competitive Community Tuition: As a public community college supported by local sponsoring school districts and state funding, LCCC maintains tuition rates significantly below regional four-year institutions. For local sponsoring district residents, full-time associate degree programs average around $11,000 in total tuition and fees over two years.
Low-Cost Instructional Materials: Through initiatives like the LCCC Textbooks+ program (33 per credit), LCCC lowers indirect costs by providing digital course materials and textbooks at predictable, reduced rates, minimizing unexpected out-of-pocket expenses. This expires December 31, 2026 and will be replaced with Textbook ACCESS, a reduced cost program, providing a reduced cost for electronic resources per course in a book fee attached to the tuition bill. This Textbook ACCESS program begins January 1, 2027.
Dual Enrollment Savings: LCCC partners with local high schools to offer dual enrollment at reduced per-credit rates, allowing high school students to earn college credits early and lower the total cost and time required to complete a degree.

Pricing Transparency and Financial Clarity

Higher Education Cost Transparency: LCCC maintains a public Higher Education Cost Transparency portal that breaks down full-time and part-time costs, including tuition, technology fees, comprehensive fees, and projected multi-year tuition adjustments.
Upfront Degree Cost Estimates: The college provides transparent total-cost estimates for full associate degree programs, helping families plan for the entire cost of attendance before enrolling.
Financial Aid Packaging: The LCCC Financial Aid Office caps borrowing limits strictly at the official Cost of Attendance (COA) to prevent over-borrowing and provides clear counseling regarding federal, state (PHEAA), and institutional grants and scholarships.

High-Return Degrees, Career Alignment, and Debt Manageability

Workforce-Aligned Curriculum: LCCC aligns career and technical education (CTE) degrees and certificates directly with high-priority regional occupations, trade industries, healthcare, and local employers to maximize immediate graduate employability.
Direct Transfer Articulation Agreements: To protect the return on investment for students planning to complete a four-year degree, LCCC maintains statewide and institutional articulation (transfer) agreements, ensuring that credits transfer seamlessly without loss of time or money.
Academic Standing and Default Prevention: LCCC enforces Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) requirements—monitoring GPA and credit completion rates—to help students stay on track for graduation, avoid aid suspension, reduce dropouts, and prevent default risks associated with non-completion. In addition, the College uses a third-party vendor to provide additional outreach for default prevention.
Academic Debt Relief: To improve accessibility to education for all students, LCCC created the Academic Debt Relief program policy that enables students with outstanding balances due from prior semesters to enroll in future semesters with the outstanding debt forgiven if certain conditions are met. This is a one-time debt relief initiative that once approved and the student demonstrates successful completion of their semester, the prior semester’s debt is considered satisfied in full and removed.

Principle Five

High academic standards are essential because rigor and learning go hand-in-hand, equipping students with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in life and contribute to their country and community. Artificial intelligence has upended traditional methods of teaching and assessing student learning. Some schools recently have announced steps to combat grade inflation.

How will your institution incentivize rigor in the age of AI, combat grade inflation, and prioritize excellence in teaching and learning?

Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC) addresses academic rigor, artificial intelligence in the classroom, grade integrity, and high-quality instruction through institutional academic policies, accreditation standards, and faculty governance:

Managing AI and Maintaining Academic Integrity

Academic Dishonesty Standards: Under the LCCC Code of Student Conduct, unauthorized use of generative AI tools on coursework, exams, or assignments falls under academic dishonesty (cheating, plagiarism, or unauthorized assistance).
Syllabus and Course-Level Policies: Faculty members establish clear expectations in individual course syllabi regarding whether AI tools are permitted, required, or strictly forbidden for specific learning modules and research projects. Responsible use of AI for employees to enhance teacher and administrative processes is reiterated in the college’s administrative regulations.
Authentic Assessment Strategies: Instructors are encouraged to utilize authentic, direct assessment methods—such as proctored exams, in-class writing, project-based demonstrations, and oral presentations—to ensure that student work reflects individual mastery rather than automated generation.

Combating Grade Inflation and Ensuring Rigorous Assessment

Standardized Learning Outcomes: LCCC aligns course curricula with defined, measurable Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) established by academic departments. Student achievement is measured directly against mastery of these standards rather than subjective or inflated grading curves.
Accreditation and External Benchmarking: Academic programs are continuously evaluated under specialized accrediting bodies—such as the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) and health program accreditors—which demand verified performance data, retention metrics, and objective student outcomes to validate degree integrity.
Academic Progress Monitoring: The college enforces Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) standards. Students who fail to meet strict minimum cumulative GPA and credit completion requirements face academic warning, probation, or suspension, upholding baseline expectations for college-level work.

Prioritizing Excellence in Teaching and Learning

Focus on Teaching Excellence: As a community college, LCCC focuses exclusively on instruction and learning rather than faculty research production. Professional evaluations emphasize classroom performance, student engagement, and instructional quality.
Faculty Professional Growth & Coaching: Programs like the Coaching Commons provide faculty with ongoing peer observation, evidence-based pedagogical training, and instructional design support to refine continuous, rigorous teaching practices.
Curriculum Continuous Improvement: Departments participate in systematic program reviews and outcomes assessments, utilizing data to update curricula, ensure labor-market relevance, and maintain rigorous standards across all learning modalities (in-person, hybrid, and online).

Principle Six

University-sponsored research can drive economic growth and deliver medical innovation and technologies with vital military applications. University leaders must ensure that the research enterprise is oriented toward advancing the U.S. national interest—not our adversaries’—by refusing gifts with problematic conditions and ensuring that foreign actors do not unduly influence academic programming, research personnel, researcher assignments, or student admissions. Institutions must also ensure that malign foreign actors do not gain access to sensitive research or technology.

How will your school protect academic programs from foreign influence and safeguard the integrity of the research enterprise?

Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC) addresses academic program protection, philanthropic transparency, and institutional research integrity through defined governance policies, regulatory compliance, and administrative oversight:

Curricular Oversight & Faculty Governance

Academic Freedom and Autonomy: LCCC’s academic programs and curriculum are maintained under the direct authority of internal faculty and academic leadership. Program offerings, degree pathways, and course materials are protected from unvetted external influence or targeted donor intervention.
Administrative Grant Review: All institutional grants, specialized gifts, and external instructional partnerships undergo strict review by college leadership under official Policies & Procedures to ensure alignment with LCCC’s educational mission and state academic standards.

Gift Transparency & Federal Reporting Standards

Philanthropic Integrity: The LCCC Foundation manages philanthropic contributions under strict governance guidelines. External donations are scrutinized to verify that gifts carry no improper strings, obligations, or foreign attempts to direct academic content.
Section 117 Disclosure Compliance: As a public postsecondary institution, LCCC adheres to federal reporting mandates—including Section 117 of the Higher Education Act (HEA)—requiring disclosures for foreign gifts, foreign contracts, or financial relationships that cross statutory thresholds.

Data Security & Applied Research Framework

Institutional Data Security: Through the college’s Institutional Data Security Policy, sensitive institutional data, confidential records, and academic resources are safeguarded against cyber threats, unauthorized external access, and foreign data exposure.
Institutional Review Board (IRB) Oversight: For internal institutional research and campus surveys, LCCC utilizes formal IRB processes and secure, encrypted data protocols to ensure research integrity, participant confidentiality, and responsible data management.
Applied Mission: Because LCCC functions primarily as a teaching-focused community college specializing in workforce certificates and associate degrees rather than classified defense or theoretical scientific research, its research footprint centers on student outcomes, operational assessment, and regional workforce data.

Principle Seven

American taxpayers invest hundreds of billions of dollars into higher education every year. American universities must put Americans, and American interests, first. That means prioritizing American students and faculty, orienting the research enterprise to support the country’s economic and security needs, and putting American societal success ahead of global commitments.

How will your institution answer this national call to action? How can your campus and faculty advance American security interests, deliver academic programs that meet urgent workforce needs, and contribute materially to the Nation’s prosperity?

Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC) answers this national call to action by serving as a regional engine for economic security, workforce development, and targeted upskilling across eastern Pennsylvania.

Direct Alignment with Essential Workforce and National Needs

Critical Infrastructure and Technical Trades: LCCC’s Center for Workforce Development provides hands-on, high-demand training programs in core trades necessary for economic resilience, including Advanced Manufacturing, Industrial Maintenance, Electrical, Mechanical Engineering Technology, HVAC, Fiber Optic Installation, and Welding.
Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness: The college serves state and local security needs by housing dedicated training pipelines for emergency services, including Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), Paramedic, First Aid/CPR, and specialized Firearm Education and Training programs.
Healthcare Workforce Pipeline: LCCC expands regional healthcare capacity by offering accessible certification pathways for essential health personnel, including Nurse Aide, Phlebotomy, Mental Health Technician, and registered nursing degree tracks.
Logistics and Transportation: To keep American supply chains moving, LCCC delivers Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) training programs and warehouse logistics instruction, directly strengthening regional transportation infrastructure.

Public-Private Partnerships and Economic Investment

Employer-Tailored Upskilling: LCCC collaborates directly with regional businesses through customized learning solutions, upskilling current workers to maintain regional industrial competitiveness.
Maximizing State and Grant Funding: Through strategic partnerships with the Workforce and Economic Development Network of Pennsylvania (WEDnetPA) and the Workforce Board Lehigh Valley (WBLV), LCCC helps local companies secure grant funding to defray training costs and expand job opportunities.
Regional Strategic Planning: The college aligns its degree and certificate offerings directly with Pennsylvania’s Eligible Training Provider List (ETPL) and regional workforce development priorities, ensuring public educational funds deliver measurable employment outcomes and long-term economic return.