Mountaintop Mondays elevate campus life

Mondays are being spiced up on Lehigh’s Mountaintop Campus with activities including movie nights, crafting events and evenings of yoga through a new project — Mountaintop Mondays. 

This collection of weekly events is part of a larger initiative, Transform Mountaintop Campus. The mission of the initiative is to make the campus more vibrant by supporting “growth, innovative pedagogy and community building,” according to the Office of Strategic Planning and Initiatives.

Ruth Traldi, the programs manager at Mountaintop Campus, said there are many students and faculty who spend their time on Mountaintop, but there’s a lack of events offered to them there. The event series, which began this semester, aims to improve that disconnect. 

“Trying to create a sense of community for those people who are spending time up there, I think, is a really important goal for me,” Traldi said. 

Traldi stepped into the role of programs manager this past fall. She created the event series while working in conjunction with the new Mountaintop Makers program. 

She said Mountaintop Makers is a student leadership council she founded last semester for students interested in working on Mountaintop-related challenges and projects. More than 30 students are involved in the council. 

She also said hosting events like the Mountaintop Mondays series allows the Lehigh community to utilize the campus’ venues, including the Stabler Observation Tower, in new ways. 

“The tower is such a cool space, and there are a lot of students who have never even been there or don’t realize that it’s a space that is open to Lehigh students,” Traldi said. 

Mountaintop Mondays offered its first event on Feb. 17, a movie night at Iacocca Hall open to the entire Lehigh community.

Dylan Bollinger, ‘26, a business student, attended the event with friends.

“We figured it would be cool to check out since they often don’t have social events up at Mountaintop,” Bollinger said. “We figured we might as well just take a look and see how it goes.”

Bollinger said he enjoyed the movie night, and it brought a good number of people together to hang out in a new way.

Following the movie night, the Mountaintop Mondays offered sunset yoga on Feb. 24. 

The yoga event was planned by Traldi and Genna Albano, the assistant director of fitness and instructional programs at Lehigh. It was also held in Iacocca Hall, offering sights of the sunset and a bird’s eye view of Bethlehem from the building’s tower. 

“I think it’s an exciting venue to draw people in, as well,” Albano said. “It’s exciting that people are gravitating towards that initiative.”

Albano said she’s helped coordinate events with other organizations on campus and Lehigh fitness instructors, and her participation in Mountaintop Mondays won’t end with yoga. She said she and Traldi will continue to work together to plan future fitness events. 

“Our goal is both to be able to offer events in different places across Lehigh that’s open to all students, faculty and staff, and see who our audience is at these events and then grow from there,” Albano said. 

Traldi said she and the Mountaintop Makers are currently trying out anything and everything to see what the community gravitates toward. They will then create the schedule of events for fall 2025, continuing to incorporate new events into the series that appeal to different audiences within Lehigh’s community, she said. 

Other Mountaintop Monday events this semester have included a game night on March 3, and a crafts and snacks event this past Monday.

Students who have classes on the Mountaintop Campus can find out about future events through emails they may receive. Additional students and community members can find more information about these events on Lehigh’s events calendar.