MANSFIELD, PA—Mansfield University has been accepted for membership in the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC).
MU President Fran Hendricks was on hand to accept the invitation on behalf of the university at the annual COPLAC Business Meeting in Washington, DC on Friday, January 23.
“The COPLAC Board voted unanimously to admit Mansfield University to its membership,” COPLAC Director Bill Spellman said. “Board members commended Mansfield for its strong liberal arts core curriculum and its student-centered faculty. The COPLAC Bylaws limit membership to one campus per state. We are pleased to welcome Mansfield University as Pennsylvania’s public liberal arts institution.”
“It is an honor for Mansfield University to join this elite group of institutions that share our vision of the importance of an affordable, liberal arts based education,” Hendricks said. “We are proud to be selected as Pennsylvania’s representative in COPLAC.”
MU becomes COPLAC’s 29th member institution; 28 in the U.S. and one in Canada.
Founded in 1987, COPLAC promotes awareness of the value of high-quality, public liberal arts education in a student-centered, residential environment.
“COPLAC membership aligns with our stated objective to be one of the premier, small public liberal arts college in Pennsylvania,” Hendricks said. “Our membership offers expanded opportunities for our students, faculty and staff to participate in joint COPLAC research and projects with other COPLAC member schools.”
Mansfield students and faculty had their first such experience in advance of MU’s admission, when several students presented at the COPLAC Fall 2014 Regional Undergraduate Research, Scholarly and Creative Activity Conference held at Keene State College, NH last November.
That invitation was extended after a team of COPLAC representatives visited the MU campus as part of the admission process last September.
For more information on COPLAC, go to coplac.org