Family Communications

Welcome to the Lehigh Family!

Our mission in the Office of First-Year Experience (OFYE) is to provide support and resources for the academic and social transition of new students and their families. We believe students are primarily responsible for their educational experience. We also acknowledge the integral role you, as parents and families, play in the success of your students. For more about our philosophy on parents and families as partners, please visit our family website.

We want to share some initial resources and information with you to help you as you go on this journey with your student.

Welcome Kit

The Welcome Kit is a helpful publication we ask students to carefully review. It has an abundance of information students need to know over the summer to be prepared for August. These were shipped to your student last week!

Lehigh Student Portal

The Lehigh Student Portal (go.lehigh.edu/lehighportal) is a one-stop-shop for important information. On Tuesday, May 16, students will be given access to new information on the portal. This page is just for first-year students and has been created to help them keep everything organized using the Summer Checklist. The Summer Checklist includes links to forms they must complete, important information to review, etc. and will ensure they don't miss any important deadlines over the summer. This is not something you will have access to, but we want you to know that it exists to help your student stay organized. (It is important for students to learn these responsibilities early on, which is why they are the only ones who should be accessing their portal.) Please note that there is no set time the portal will go live - it is a process and we will send an email to the students when the content should have switched over.

Email Reminder

Your student’s Lehigh email address will be ready for use Tuesday, May 16. Beginning May 17, ALL official university communications will be sent to their Lehigh email. We tell them to check their Lehigh email account often. If your student shares they are not receiving information, please encourage them to check their Lehigh email account.

Housing Information

The Housing Contract is available for students on their Summer Checklist starting May 19. In this contract they will submit housing preferences (such as their roommate preferences, themed community, and gender preferences) and choose a meal plan. The deadline to complete this is June 9.

PreLUsion Registration

If your student is interested in registering for one of our preLUsion programs, please note the link will go live at 3:00 PM EDT both on the summer checklist in the portal and on our prelusion webpage. This is an attempt to accommodate a multitude of time zones. PreLUsion scholarships applications are also available NOW!

Family Resources

We encourage you to check out the wealth of resources on our website – from the FAQ’s to the transition resources – we hope they will be helpful. The Lehigh Parents & Families webpage is also an incredible resource you should bookmark for the future. We will be in touch next week with more information about an exciting online summer webinar series to introduce you to university staff, campus resources, and helpful information as you work with your student to prepare for August. 

Save the Date!

The Summer Webinar Series will kick off with a bang! Three webinars in one week to get us started for the summer. Please save the date for the Kick-Off to the Summer Webinar Series with the OFYE which will be held on zoom on Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at 7:00 PM EDT. If you are interested in learning more about the Housing Contract process, they Housing Services will  host a webinar on Wednesday, May 17 at 8:00 PM EDT. Both sessions will be recorded and available afterwards.

We will continue to communicate with your student via email and will reach out to you every couple of weeks throughout the summer with updates.

You can contact us at the OFYE if you have questions at fye@lehigh.edu or (610) 758-1300.