March 3, 2008
Lyon College News Bureau

Lyon College, rated by U.S. News & World Report as a top-tier national liberal arts college and a best value among those colleges, today announced a new initiative, “The Lyon Experience,” that will, among other things, provide all new students with a laptop computer.

The program enhances technological and outside-the-classroom education experiences, providing what Lyon officials call “a student-centered, experience-rich liberal arts education for the 21^st century.”

The three major elements of the Lyon Experience are: (1) laptops fully loaded with the software needed for Lyon instruction and extracurricular activities, (2) an “experiential transcript” documenting student achievement outside the classroom, a tool that can assist in job placement upon graduation, (3) an endowed international studies program that provides two weeks of overseas travel, with students being responsible only for meals and incidentals.

These initiatives, combined with Lyon’s student-to-teacher ratio of 11 to 1, its high on-time (four-year) graduation rate, its 13 Arkansas Professors of the Year Awards in the past 19 years and the 90-plus percent acceptance rates of graduates in medical and health-related programs provide Lyon College with unique points of difference, according to Lyon officials.

“Lyon has long been an innovator in the use of technology for teaching and learning,” said Dr. Walter Roettger, president of Lyon. “We began building our digital community more than a decade ago. In the 1990s we were among the first campuses in Arkansas to offer all students network connections from their campus rooms. Last spring, we became one of the first in the state to offer wireless connectivity throughout the campus.

“With this infrastructure established, we are taking the next step and giving our students the tools and training they will need for success in a communications-rich world,” he said. “This will also relieve parents and students of deciding ‘what computer to buy’ and ensure that every student has equal access to learning tools. Every student will have a computer that works everywhere at Lyon.”

Lyon will maintain the computers, which will be loaded with classroom-relevant software and e-mail and wireless capabilities, and make replacements available to students as needed.

Dr. John Peek, dean of the faculty, said Lyon is a national leader in providing a liberal arts education for the 21^st century.

“Our students are well known and widely sought by graduate schools and businesses for their ability to listen and write, reason and problem-solve,” he said. “Among the advantages they have is that of traveling internationally in small groups with faculty leaders and with substantial financial support from our endowed Nichols International Studies Program.”

In recent years, students have traveled to more than a dozen countries including Austria, Belize, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Peru and Switzerland.

“Students cover only the cost of meals and incidentals on these two-week trips,” said Dr. Nikki Yonts, director of the Nichols Program. “Thanks to the program’s endowment, the costs of air travel and lodging are covered by the College.”

Vicki Webb, the College’s director of career planning and placement, said the Lyon Legacy program would provide permanent documentation of student achievements while enrolled at Lyon.

“This experiential transcript will capture activities in such areas as leadership, professional development, community engagement, collaborative inquiry, global understanding and aesthetic expression,” she explained. “Our students will have the opportunity to document their personal development in and out of the classroom. We’ll provide them with a formal record of these activities and the transferable skills they represent at graduation.”

Lyon students will receive their computers as part of the College’s Red Carpet Days beginning Aug. 21 when all new students arrive for orientation.

“We’ll provide workshops to ensure that everyone knows how to use them,” said Charles Neal, director of information services.

Lyon officials said the College would bundle the costs of the laptops into its tuition for new students entering in 2008-09.

“The remarkable thing is that a Lyon education will continue to cost less than 80 percent of an average national liberal arts college,” said Raymond LaCroix Jr., chairman of Lyon’s Board of Trustees.

“Over the past decade, Lyon has matured to become a top-tier national liberal arts college,” he said. “The Lyon Experience Program will draw upon our strengths to provide an experience-rich, student-centered liberal arts and sciences education for the 21^st century.”

To learn more about the Lyon Experience, visit www.lyon.edu/LyonExperience.asp.