Penn State Behrend Celebrates 60 Years of Growth
As Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, celebrates its 60th anniversary with the start of the 2008-09 academic year, the college hosted the Penn State Board of Trustees’ bimonthly meeting. In his remarks, Chancellor Jack Burke gave a snapshot of Penn State Behrend—10 years after the Board’s last visit to campus. Burke addressed student life and enrollments, research and outreach initiatives, faculty achievements, academic progress, athletic successes and the college’s sheer physical growth.
Penn State Behrend has experienced record enrollments and has more than 4,400 students in more than 40 degree programs. This includes 250 students enrolled in Penn State’s online World Campus pursuing master’s degrees in project management or inter-college master’s of business administration degrees. More than three-quarters of Penn State Behrend students who graduate with Penn State degrees complete those degrees at the college.
Many students participate in Penn State Behrend’s Undergraduate Student Research and Creative Accomplishment Conference, which has become a model for institutions across the country. Annually, the college provides more than $200,000 in funding for undergraduate research, often giving Penn State Behrend students a competitive edge when applying to graduate schools.
Notably, Christopher Suprock, a 2007 graduate in mechanical engineering, earned first place for his research presentation at last year’s North American Manufacturing Research Conference. Suprock was the only undergraduate student to present at the conference, which focuses primarily on master’s and doctorate-level research.
Faculty members play an integral role in the success of undergraduate research as well. The college now employs more than 650, including 275 full- and part-time faculty members. This includes Dawn Blasko, associate professor of psychology, who recently completed her term of service as chair of the University Faculty Senate, the representative body for Penn State’s 5,500 full-time faculty.
Within the University, Penn State Behrend is home to a number of unique academic programs. These include a B.F.A. in creative writing, plastics engineering technology, which is one of only four accredited programs in the country, and software engineering, an accredited program that, University-wide, is only offered at Penn State Behrend. In the physics program, SCALE-UP is a new approach to teaching introductory physics courses that replaces lectures with learning in hands-on student teams. With SCALE-UP in place, Penn State Behrend students’ national test scores are comparable to those of Harvard University honors students.
In addition, the college’s two-year nursing program has been successful due, in part, to the comprehensive simulation lab and its high-fidelity mannequins. Penn State Behrend recently added the R.N. to B.S in nursing program to help meet regional and national shortages in this field. The nursing lab was recently named a best practice by the Pennsylvania Center for Health Care Careers.
Penn State Behrend fields 21 NCAA Division III sports and just completed an unprecedented season of success—earning 10 of a possible 13 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference championships and five subsequent NCAA tournament appearances as well as the conference’s Presidents’ Cup for the seventh time in the eight years it has been awarded.
The college’s growth in academic and athletic stature is matched by its growth in physical size, from its original 400 acres to 725 with 51 buildings, including a new side to campus east of Jordan Road. The Junker Center, Smith Chapel and Carillon, and Research and Economic Development Center are among the latest additions.
Another facility that is new to the Board is the Mehalso Observatory, situated behind one of the college’s first buildings, Otto Behrend Science. The observatory was made possible by a gift from Robert Mehalso, who began his education at Penn State Behrend, and his wife, Elizabeth.
Burke also discussed what will be the newest addition to campus—the Robert and Sally Metzgar Admissions and Alumni Center. This freestanding facility is being made possible, in part, through a contribution by University Trustee Bob Metzgar and his wife, Sally, of Warren, Pa.
Throughout his remarks, Burke highlighted a number of Penn State Behrend student accomplishments.
Two students have received Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships. Michael Long, a political science major from North East, Pa., received the college’s first Gilman International Scholarship to spend the 2006-07 academic year studying in China. Krystle Bell, a biology student from Brooklyn, N.Y., spent the spring 2008 semester studying in Australia thanks to her Gilman scholarship.
Fellow biology student Amy Sahlmann visited Africa on her own, raising funds for the two-week humanitarian trip to orphanages in Kenya. Hooked on volunteering, Sahlmann is currently raising funds for her next trip to the Congo; she leaves July 25.
Finally, Meghan Bool ’08 received a GE student intern/co-op award for her work at Erie’s GE Transportation. The award is given to only the top 3 percent of the company’s interns nationwide.
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, is a comprehensive residential college offering 34 baccalaureate, six associate, four pre-professional and two graduate degree programs with 22 minors to more than 4,400 students. Focused on providing a student-centered environment, Penn State Behrend is the link that connects its students to a major research and land-grant institution on a campus enriched by more than 110 clubs and organizations, 21 NCAA varsity teams and 19 intramural sports.
Penn State Behrend is named in recognition of a donation by Mary Behrend, widow of Ernst Behrend, who founded the Hammermill Paper Co. in Erie in 1898. The Behrend family lived on the 400-acre Glenhill Farm, which is the core of the Penn State Behrend campus today.
For more information, visit behrend.psu.edu.