CURRENT STATUS

With one of the lowest student-faculty ratios of any institution in Texas, Lamar University takes education to a higher level. Smaller classes allow faculty to take a personal interest in the success of their students. LU students receive an education that teaches them to think, to examine their values, and to develop new skills to shape their futures.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board ranks Lamar University first of 29 Texas institutions in terms of undergraduate courses taught by tenured and tenure-track professors. Exemplary programs have also earned LU’s College of Engineering a worldwide reputation.

Lamar University offers academic excellence and diverse educational experiences in and out of the classroom, From NASA space shuttle missions to leading-edge research in the field of deaf education, computer science, engineering and beyond. Lamar’s nationally certified deaf education program is the largest graduate program of its kind in Texas. The program also attracts master and doctoral students from outside the United States.

• Campus: 255 acres
• History: Founded in 1923
• Enrollment: Approx. 10,500
• Faculty: 489
• Student to Faculty: 20:1
• Athletic: Southland Conference
• Mascot: Cardinal
• Website: www.lamar.edu

LOCATION

Lamar University is located in Beaumont, Texas, one of the world’s largest petrochemical centers. Beaumont is a progressive city in the Sunbelt, offering private and public schools, churches, museums, shopping districts and a wide range of leisure-time activities to serve the metropolis of 114,000. A civic center, convention center and coliseum draw professional entertainers and a wide variety of businesses, social and professional groups to the city. Beaumont is convenient to major recreational facilities of southwest Texas, including the Gulf of Mexico, large lakes and the Big Thicket National Preserve.

MISSION STATEMENT

Lamar University is committed to the three-fold mission of teaching, research, and service. The University seeks to provide students with a broad education in the context of a global and multicultural environment, and seeks partnerships with business, governmental, industrial, and other educational organizations to accomplish its goals more efficiently.

UNIVERSITY GOALS

Lamar University emphasizes quality teaching, student access to faculty, and careful student counseling. The University creates a liberating educational experience for each student, which expands knowledge, awakens new intellectual interests, examines values, develops talents, provides new skills, and prepares each student to assume an effective role as a citizen in a democracy.

The University's mission in graduate education is broad based at the master's level, and includes doctorates in engineering and deaf education. Other doctoral level education opportunities for the region are enhanced through cooperative arrangements between Lamar University and other institutions of higher education. The University's mission in graduate education is characterized by an emphasis on professional fields of study.

With historical commitments to quality educational programs in engineering, business, the arts and sciences, health sciences, education, and the visual and performing arts, the University focuses its unique strengths on significant problems of contemporary interest as evidenced by its recent initiatives in environmental science and engineering, gifted education, and deaf education. Lamar University is strongly committed to the continual enhancement of teaching/learning methodologies and their systematic assessment. As a comprehensive, regional university with extensive educational programs, Lamar University academic efforts are directed to both applied and basic research, scholarship, and creative activities. Through its emphasis on the teacher-scholar model, the University encourages faculty members to be active in their respective disciplines, to involve both undergraduate and graduate students in research and creative pursuits, and to support the principle that research is inseparable from teaching. The University's educational mission extends to all residents of the Southeast Texas area and, in special cases, beyond the region. In recognition of that mission, Lamar University-Beaumont provides a diverse outreach program including: credit and non-credit continuing education offerings responsive to the personal, career, and professional development needs of individuals in our region; specialized skills training and human resource development for business and industry on the Gulf Coast; and public service activities that respond to unique regional educational needs and cultural interests.

The University contributes to the cultural life of the region through cultural and artistic presentations and events utilizing the talents of faculty, students, and visiting lecturers, artists, and performers.

Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to be involved in civic, cultural, service, and professional activities. By such volunteer and consultative activities, members of University demonstrate their citizenship within the larger community.