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President Kimberly Cline & Athletic Director Debbie DeJong

In recent years, we have taken many steps forward to elevate the University we all love, enhance the value of your degree from Long Island University, and improve the student experience. Thanks to our collective efforts, the word is getting out, with prestigious organizations like The Princeton Review rating LIU a “Best Northeastern University” for the first time in our history and leading publications like Forbes taking note.

Unifying our athletic program and competing in all sports at the NCAA Division I level as “One LIU” is a critical element in our continued path forward.

When it comes to building a national teaching and research institution, athletics is just one part of the equation. LIU’s distinguished faculty offers a world-class education with a focus on experiential learning that prepares students for success.

Athletics plays an important role in bringing people together and promoting educational values. As we elevate the LIU brand nationally through academic excellence and world-class research, our athletics program will unite our entire community and compete at the highest levels. Allowing our student-athletes to compete at the highest level will increase the University’s visibility and ultimately create a broader platform to tell the “One LIU” story.

In order to honor LIU’s strong tradition of athletic excellence, the new program will combine the traditional colors of both campuses into a unified blue and gold. And in the coming weeks, students and alumni will help choose the new mascot for the unified program.

In addition to elevating the brand and reputation of our University and the value of a Long Island University diploma, this new program will feature expanded opportunities for student-athletes. We will now compete in women’s ice hockey, women’s rowing and women’s water polo, and will offer our growing student population an enhanced ability to take courses on either campus.

In addition to enhancing student life, the University is putting students first by honoring all current scholarships to student-athletes through their graduation. We take the “student” in “student-athlete” seriously, and we will work one-on-one to ensure all student-athletes graduate on-time, with a LIU diploma.

We are expanding our elite partnerships. We are hosting the prestigious Polk Awards at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., collaborating with celebrated philanthropist T. Denny Sanford to provide early-childhood education to nearly quarter-of-a-million students in our region, and partnering with BSE Global to renovate the historic LIU Paramount Theatre. Additionally, Governor Andrew Cuomo recently supported LIU with $12 million in state transformative funding toward the New York metropolitan area’s first veterinary program, pending accreditation.

This is an exciting milestone for LIU and is another step forward in strengthening our position as an elite national teaching and research institution. Now, we will be brought even closer together to support a single, NCAA Division I program that will unite, inspire, and elevate our University to even greater heights.

You can learn even more about the future of LIU Athletics and stay up to date on the latest developments at one.liu.edu.

Sincerely,

Dr. Kimberly Cline
President, Long Island University

Debbie DeJong
Director of Athletics, Long Island University

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