Pacific Lutheran University

You’ve read about what makes PLU a unique institution – now read the details. Use this alphabetical list to find specific information about PLU – such as the number of arts organizations on campus (22), the student-to-faculty ratio (15:1), or the number of strokes it takes to make par on our nine-hole golf course (35).

Academic Services

The Ramstad Commons is comprised of departments that support students in their academic endeavors and foster their exploration of personal and vocational identity in the context of their lives and communities.

Academic Advising  www.plu.edu/~aadv

• Helps students select classes       and create an academic plan
• Guides students in clarifying education, life and career goals

Academic Assistance  www.plu.edu/~aast

• Provides one-on-one tutoring, group study sessions, math lab and foreign language conversation
• Teaches effective study strategies to match individual learning styles

The Academic Internship Office  www.plu.edu/~intern

• Helps students find internships that allow them to earn university credit for learning experiences in a professional work environment

Career Development  www.plu.edu/~career

• Helps students connect personal values, interests and skills with career choices
• Provides individual career counseling, online assessments, various career workshops and job search strategies

Center for Public Service and Volunteer Center  www.plu.edu/~pubsrvc

• Offers hundreds of ways to serve off-campus through volunteering, community work-study and academic service-learning courses
• Helps students discover connections between their off-campus service, their academic work, and their skills and life goals

Services for Students with Disabilities www.plu.edu/~countest/services-students

• Works with faculty and staff to ensure reasonable accommodations for students with documentation
• Facilitates accessibility to all university programs and activities through removal of physical barriers, in compliance with ADA

Student Employment  www.plu.edu/~stuemp

• Posts on- and off-campus jobs and Work Study positions
• Administers State Work Study program
• Assists with applications for on-campus jobs

Average Scores

GPA for First-Year Students
GPA: 3.61
SAT: 1100 Composite
ACT: 24 Composite

Campus Ministry

By its very nature, PLU is a place for the dialogue between faith and reason. Campus Ministry offers voluntary chapel worship Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, University Congregation on Sunday, and information on religious groups of other denominations. www.plu.edu/campusministry

Class Size

2% less than 10 students
57% less than 20 students
81% less than 30 students
96% less than 40 students

Diversity Center

The PLU Diversity Center brings together people and ideas to celebrate a shared human experience while exploring, affirming and enriching diversity
in our community.

The Diversity Center welcomes all students and celebrates the diverse perspectives that all students, faculty and staff bring to the PLU experience. www.plu.edu/~dcenter

Enrollment

Undergraduate
2006-07 school year
3,340 (64% female, 36% male)

Facilities, Athletic

Baseball and softball fields – Beautiful natural-grass fields that look out toward Mt. Rainier.

Golf course – Nine-holes, par 35.

400-meter track – Complete with runways and pit areas for track and field meets.

Memorial Gym – Seating for 1,100 and a maple floor.

Names Fitness Center – 5,500 square-foot facility, indoor jogging track, state-of-the-art weight training and conditioning equipment.

Olson Auditorium – Seats 3,200, houses a 10,000 square-foot artificial turf fieldhouse, racquetball and squash courts, classrooms and physical education offices.

PLU Pool – A 25-yard, six-lane competitive swimming area, equipped with a Colorado timing system. Diving area includes one- and three-meter boards.

Soccer field – For both men’s and women’s soccer.

Sparks Stadium, home of Lute football – Located in nearby Puyallup, Wash. Has 4,500 covered seats and artificial turf.

Tennis courts – Six lighted courts.

Facilities, Campus

146-acre campus
42 buildings
9 residence halls
1 apartment-style residence hall
6-acre wilderness preserve
Computer user labs
Science Center
Music building with 534-seat concert hall
Nursing building
Auditorium seating 1,200
Student Center with media complex and game room
Sand volleyball court
Swimming pool

Fulbright Scholars

78 since 1975

Honors Program

The International Honors Program is a challenging and creative way to satisfy most core curriculum requirements, reflecting PLU’s unique mission and its emphasis upon the liberal arts. This multi-year program consists of seven interdisciplinary courses that explore contemporary issues and their historical foundations through an integrated and multi-national approach. For more information, go to www.plu.edu/honorsprogram.

Internship Opportunities

Here are just a few of the companies at which PLU students have interned and found jobs.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu – Leading global professional services organization.
IndoChinese Cultural and Service Center – Provides referral, translation, and interpretation services for Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian community members.

Intel – International company specializing in microprocessor and digital media innovation.

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center – The region’s preeminent cancer research and treatment facility.

Greater Lakes Mental Healthcare – A community supported nonprofit organization providing mental health services in southwestern Pierce County.

Microsoft – The computer software giant with world headquarters in nearby Redmond, Wash.

Pierce County Sheriff’s Department – Serving the county where PLU is located.

Point Defiance Park, Zoo and Aquarium – Among the nation’s 20 largest urban parks, Point Defiance is 698 acres including Five Mile Drive, Fort Nisqually and the Zoo and Aquarium.

Russell Investment Group – Worldwide financial and investment professionals.

Starbucks – The worldwide coffee chain with headquarters in nearby Seattle.

Seattle Mariners – Washington’s Major League Baseball team.

Safe Streets – Pierce County organization that develops, mobilizes and maintains strategies to reduce and eliminate both drug and gang activity.

U.S. Geological Survey – Government organization that helps resolve complex natural resource problems both locally and nationally.

Weyerhaeuser – International
forest products company with headquarters in the Tacoma area.

Religion

As Reported by First-Year Students
30% Lutheran
10% Catholic
35% Other Protestant
16% Unknown
9% Other

Student Involvement and Leadership

Student Involvement and Leadership provides support, coordination and resources for student interests, including student programming, leadership development, and clubs and organizations. See Clubs and Organizations for a list of opportunities. www.plu.edu/~sil

Student Media

KCCR - Student Radio
KCNS26 – Student television
Saxifrage – Literary magazine
The Mast – Student newspaper
Matrix – Student issues-oriented magazine

Student-to-Faculty Ratio

15:1

Study AWAY Opportunities, J-Term 2008

PLU students, at least one time during their academic career, enroll in January for a four-credit J-Term course. While some are traditional classes and some offer great opportunities to volunteer locally, many students use J-Term to study abroad. Here are of some of the 2008 J-Term classes that are available to PLU students. For a detailed list of PLU’s many other global study programs, visit www.plu.edu/wangcenter.

Antarctica – “Journey to the End of the Earth”
Brazil - “Cosmopolitanism: Citizenship in a Globalizing World”
China - “Business Culture of China”
Costa Rica - “Spanish Language in Costa Rica”
Dubai/United Arab Emirates “Comparative Education”
Dubai/United Arab Emirates - “Peace Journalism: A Foreign Perspective”
Ecuador - “Comparative Ecology of Latin America”
England - “Business of the Arts in London”
England - “England and the Second World War”
Europe - “Ethics and the Good Life”
Germany/Austria - “Language and Culture in Germany”
Germany - “The Lutheran Heritage”
Honduras - “Service Learning in Mathematics”
Italy - “Banking and Art in Renaissance Italy”
Italy - “Investigating Economic and Environmental Change”
Martinique - “French Language and Caribbean Culture in Martinique”
Netherlands/Germany - “Intensive Organ Performance”
New Zealand - “Learning While Tramping on the Tracks of New Zealand”
Scotland - “Social Psychology of Ghosts and Hauntings”
Tanzania - “Kilimanjaro, the Great Game Parks, and Zanzibar”
Tobago - “Social, Educational, and Health Services in Tobago”
United States - “Christian Theology: Visions of Peace in Film and Art”
United States - “Environmental Ethics”
United States - “Makah Culture Past and Present in Neah Bay, Washington”
United States - “Natural History of Hawaii”
United States - “Urban Expressions: Photography in New York City”

Support Services

Although an extremely safe campus, PLU provides a Campus Safety staff that meets every student’s needs, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Walk-home escorts are available for all students, as well as vehicle services, emergency medical response and security patrol. www.plu.edu/campussafety

Health Services provides care to all PLU students – those living both on and off campus. PLU gives students accessible, quality heath care, and views health maintenance and promotion as essential to learning and growth. All services are confidential. www.plu.edu/health

Computers are located throughout campus. Computer centers with high-speed Internet access are located in the University Center and the library’s Haley Center. The Digital Media Center’s computers are for working with digital Web, audio and video technologies. Laptop ports and wireless computing are also available in the library. There’s also an espresso cart for a balance of comfort and technology. Many academic departments maintain other labs and technology-rich classrooms. Mortvedt Library allows students to do almost everything right from the Web: search the catalog for books, magazines, journals and other media; use databases like EBSCO, Lexis-Nexus, JSTOR, WorldCat and ProQuest; and link to online research material.

PLU offers specialized computer technology labs and software for specific disciplines: biology and geosciences (an open lab and W.M. Keck Observatory GIS lab); chemistry and physics (open lab, Keck Lab and the Chemistry Instruments Lab); computer science and computer engineering (19 student-only machines, a 25- machine advanced lab and an electronics lab); and mathematics (17 Macintosh computers in the mathematics lab).

The Morken Center for Learning and Technology is the new home for the School of Business, the Department of Mathematics, and the Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering. The state-of-the-art facility opened in February 2006 and has both fixed and wireless networks, a digital multimedia lab and department computing labs.

The W.M. Keck Observatory is PLU’s astronomical observatory. It features a 16-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain reflecting telescope (one of the largest in the region), a 17-foot retractable dome, a large-format digital camera for research activities and five 8-inch telescopes on permanent piers for educational use. It is on the Linux operating system. The Meade LX200 telescope and SBIG ST-8 camera can be operated from anywhere on the network.

Computer kiosks are accessible in public areas for quick e-mail and Web access. There are wireless network connections on campus for laptops.