The Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) was founded in 1969, fostering connections between the six universities in the region and expanding students’ educational opportunities through collaboration.
The six institutions in LVAIC are Moravian University, Lehigh University, Muhlenberg College, DeSales University, Cedar Crest College, and Lafayette College.
Moravian President Bryon Grigsby said that Moravian’s strongest connection within LVAIC is with Lehigh University because of the close proximity of both universities. It is most feasible for students to commute between these two campuses rather than other institutions that are farther away.
“I try to think about the feasibility for students,” Grigsby said. “It is much more difficult, and takes much more time, for a student to drive over to Easton [Lafayette], navigate the area, find parking, and locate the classroom.”
Many Moravian students attend Japanese language courses and fifth-year physics courses at Lehigh, and many Lehigh students attend anatomy classes at Moravian.
Moravian and Lehigh also operate on similar academic schedules, with comparable start and end-of-term dates and fall/spring break dates. This makes it easier for students to navigate the courseload and scheduling expectations of both universities.
Grigsby explained that there are many financial benefits for the universities in LVAIC. Because each institution has different areas of study that they prioritize, students can take advantage of and explore these different areas of study without each home institution having to expend more funding to hire professors in them.
Grigsby noted another benefit: “From the institution’s perspective, you’re getting that course for free,” he said.
By banding institutions together, LVAIC also helps them keep costs down on paper products and digital resources. With nearly 20,000 students, the population of LVAIC schools is roughly the same as Penn State’s (on its University Park campus). That gives LVAIC greater purchasing power, allowing the institutions to collectively lower the cost of library resources (interlibrary loans), Canvas subscriptions, stationery products, and more.
Additionally, LVAIC was able to negotiate contracts, which resulted in a total of $11 million in savings during the 2022-23 academic year.
Grigsby explained that these lower costs align with Moravian’s goal of keeping education affordable and creating an equitable university.
To cross-register for courses at another institution, students should first access each institution’s online course catalog to select a course they’re interested in taking. They will then click the “Add” button on the LVAIC Cross Registration page, and complete the “Request for Cross Registration” form.
Information from this form is first sent to the student’s academic advisor for approval, then their home institution’s registrar, and finally the host institution’s registrar.
Approval from the host institution depends on whether or not there are open seats in the course. Students may not be informed about the status of their registration request until the beginning of the semester.
In the 2022-23 academic year, 225 students cross-registered in more than 200 courses in all LVAIC institutions.
LVAIC works to do more than connect students with courses at other institutions; it also operates the Health Insurance Consortium and the Lehigh Valley Research Consortium and holds professional development workshops.
During the 2022-23 year, LVAIC’s Board of Directors created their 2024-27 strategic plan and developed a new mission statement that focuses on three outcomes: optimized resources, people excellence, and impactful presence.
The program’s new mission statement is, “LVAIC advances a culture of innovation and intentional collaboration that expands academic excellence, educational access, community engagement, and the student experience at each of its distinctive member’s institutions and positions the Lehigh Valley as a leading destination for higher education.”
