Academic Centers
Washington and Lee is home to a variety of academic centers that support interdisciplinary inquiry, global exploration, community engagement, and teaching and learning.
The Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship
The Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship is an interdisciplinary center intended to help students from across campus learn how to turn their creative ideas into successful business ventures. Recognizing that a liberal arts university is the ideal setting in which to foster entrepreneurship, students are immersed in a course of study that emphasizes analytical thinking, qualitative and quantitative reasoning, creativity and innovation. The Connolly Center provides them with the necessary tools to develop business plans that are both executable and fundable, and an extremely supportive faculty and alumni community helps shepherd students’ ventures from concept to business plan to launch and beyond.
The DeLaney Center
Established in 2021, the DeLaney Center is an interdisciplinary academic hub for the study of Southern race relations, culture, and politics. It serves as a resource for students and faculty in all three of Washington and Lee’s academic units. Taking full advantage of the university’s Virginia location and extensive archival holdings, the center provides unique opportunities for students, faculty, alumni, community partners, and higher education colleagues to ponder how W&L’s long and complex history intersects with the racial issues that have defined and continue to shape both the U.S. South and the entire country.
The Mudd Center for Ethics
The Roger Mudd Center for Ethics advances dialogue, teaching, and research about issues of public and professional ethics across the University. The center supports faculty who wish to develop new courses to enhance the study of ethics across the curriculum and engages in programming that fosters serious and sophisticated conversation about public and professional ethics at the University.
The Harte Center for Teaching and Learning
The Houston H. Harte Center for Teaching and Learning fosters deliberative, innovative conversations among students, faculty, and staff about meaningful ways to learn and teach in a liberal arts environment. Home to the Writing Center, Peer Tutoring, and several subject tutoring programs, the Harte Center’s services for students also include academic success coaching. The Center also supports faculty development through consultations and observations, technology consultation and training, and workshops.
The Center for International Education
The Center for International Education provides leadership, administrative oversight, and support for international learning and global engagement at Washington and Lee, including support for international students and scholars and assistance for students interested in studying abroad. Approximately 70 percent of our students participate in at least one experience abroad, whether it be through a full term abroad, a faculty-led Spring Term Abroad program, summer programs, international internships, international research opportunities, or service learning.
Office of Community-Based Learning
Community-Based Learning (CBL) is an educational approach that integrates learning and mentorship with community engagement through reciprocal community partnerships and critical reflection. CBL aims to benefit students, community partners, and the greater good. The Office of Community-Based Learning coordinates all Washington and Lee community engagement activities institution-wide. Resources are available for students, faculty, staff and community partners.
The Frances Lewis Law Center
The Frances Lewis Law Center is responsible for enriching the intellectual life of the Washington and Lee University School of Law community and for supporting the research and scholarship of its faculty. It carries out this mission by funding summer research projects and research assistants for faculty, sponsoring and supporting conferences and symposia organized at the law school, and hosting visiting scholars for workshop presentations or more extended visits. It also helps to promote the close faculty-student relationships so characteristic of Washington and Lee, notably through students working with faculty members as research assistants or collaborating on the planning of symposia.
The Transnational Law Institute
The Transnational Law Institute supports and coordinates teaching innovations, externships, internships, job opportunities, a speaker series, and visiting faculty to help prepare students for the increasing globalization of legal practice. The Institute, which was established in 2006, is committed to the integrated study of international and comparative law, as well as those aspects of U.S. law that involve cross-border issues.