- July 8th, 2006, 12:35 am
#20250
I wonder how we'll be portrayed in this one:
Liberty University to be featured in magazine articlehttp://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... ws!archive
Ron Brown
rbrown@newsadvance.com
July 7, 2006
Liberty University will be one of three featured schools in an upcoming guidebook for colleges published by U.S. News & World Report.
LU will be the focal point of an article in the magazine’s America’s Best Colleges edition scheduled for newsstands in late August.
UCLA and Cornell University will be the other featured schools.
The magazine puts out the guidebook, which ranks colleges and universities, each year.
The U.S. News & World Report presentation is one of two articles in the works by prominent magazines about LU.
A Forbes magazine reporter was recently in Lynchburg and is working on an article that will touch on LU’s financial turnaround following near-bankruptcy in the early 1990s.
The article will talk about LU’s recent rapid growth and the school’s impact on an emerging Lynchburg business communitysaid Jerry Falwell Jr., LU’s vice chancellor.
“They chose Liberty not only because of the religious aspects of the school, but because of the explosive growth over the past five years,” Falwell said. “They try to spotlight schools that have been overlooked or have not been in the press a lot.”
Falwell said the attention given to LU is indicative of just how far the school has come.
“Just five or six years ago, Liberty wasn’t even on (U.S. News & World Report’s) list,” he said. “It was as if LU didn’t exist. We started calling the magazine’s editors to say, ‘Hey, there’s a college down here, please list us.’”
Falwell said LU’s selection as one of the featured schools could become an invaluable recruiting tool.
“That’s the edition of U.S. News that countless numbers of high school seniors use as a handbook when choosing colleges,” he said. “It has sort of become a one-stop shop for potential students seeking information on where to go to college.”
Boyd C. Rist, LU’s provost, said the selection of LU is an affirmation of the school’s growing credibility.
“It is a recognition that Liberty is playing a leading role among colleges that are faith-based in providing an education that is first-rate academically,” he said.
“We are going through a couple of breakthrough years in terms of Liberty’s recognition. It has caused individuals to sit up and take notice that we are now a major player in higher education.”
Rist said the addition of the school’s North Campus has contributed to the school’s rise among colleges and universities.
“We are taking on, with the new facilities, an air of permanence and an aura of stability,” he said. “We are an institution that is here to stay.”
Larry Shackleton, LU’s vice president of administration, said the school’s success is dependent on a variety of factors.
“When parents and students go out and investigate schools, they have higher expectations than they did 10 or 20 years ago,” he said. “Students expect to have student centers. They expect to have good athletic programs. They expect to have good dorms. They expect to have excellent academic programs.”
- By Dalegarz1