Reed Renovations Reinforce Student-Centered Approach
As part of its mission, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, is committed to providing a high-quality student-centered environment. On Friday, March 20, the University Board of Trustees were updated on the status of a two-story renovation and new construction project that will improve Penn State Behrend’s student union, the Reed Union Building.
“Reed Union Building is the hub of the Penn State Behrend campus,” said Dr. Jack Burke, chancellor. “These improvements are the first step toward making Reed an even more efficient, attractive and valuable resource for the college’s students.”
Weber Murphy Fox architects planned and designed the $1.8 million project. Weber Murphy Fox also led the design of Penn State Behrend’s $30 million Research and Economic Development Center.
The phased renovation and construction project includes revamping Penn State Behrend’s existing 7,500- square-foot bookstore to improve merchandising and its visual appeal. The new additions will include a separate pick-up window for students who place textbook orders online to better accommodate the high traffic experienced at the beginning of a semester as well as separate customer service and book information stations. The bookstore will also feature new display windows facing the Reed parking lot—currently an exterior brick wall—along with appropriate fixtures to improve how the store’s clothing, gifts and supplies are exhibited. The bookstore, which first opened in 1988, will continue to be operated by Barnes and Noble.
The bookstore project’s new construction phase is two-fold. It will include a two-story exterior addition that will house a new delivery loading dock—making building deliveries more efficient and less obtrusive to both vehicular and pedestrian traffic—as well as a newly constructed interior second floor, which will be achieved by decking the current bookstore’s two-story space.
The new 5,000-square-foot second floor will house Penn State Behrend’s Academic and Career Planning Center. The center’s suite will include 11 offices, three standard interview rooms and a video interview room since Penn State Behrend students increasingly are being interviewed by companies recruiting at the University Park campus. In addition, a new executive conference room will be located at the front of the suite and available for campus use.
“The bookstore project is the first step in transforming Reed into the modern, multi-use student facility of today,” Dr. Ken Miller, director of Student Affairs, said. “The bookstore renovation and second-floor construction translates into a substantial improvement in services for students and staff alike. We’re growing to meet the demands of our students and look forward to being able to provide those services in an atmosphere more conducive to that.”
The bookstore renovation and construction, including the new delivery dock, is expected to be completed by the end of July while the new Academic and Career Planning Center is expected to open after the start of the fall 2009 semester.
Upon completion of the bookstore project, the Penn State Behrend community will see additional changes to the student services offered in Reed as well as further physical renovations to the building.
First, once the Academic and Career Planning Center moves into its new second-floor suite, Penn State Behrend’s Office of Educational Equity and Diversity Programs will assume the center’s former space, one that also currently houses the college’s Personal Counseling office, which will remain in place. Future renovations to this shared space will ensure that students have more privacy when seeking either office’s services.
In addition, future construction and renovation projects in Reed will be determined based on recommendations from the Penn State Behrend Student Facilities Fee Committee. This committee, which includes six students plus six staff and administrators, recommends how the college’s new student facilities fee will be used.
In July 2008, Penn State’s Board of Trustees approved a $100 per student per semester fee for Penn State Behrend, beginning with the 2008-09 academic year. This University-wide initiative was seen as the best option to accommodate improvements to nonacademic, recreational and multi-use space. Students at each campus could approve a student facilities fee of $50, $75 or $100 per student per semester, or could vote to reject the charge altogether.
Penn State Behrend students voted in favor of the $100 fee, which will be used solely for improvements to student facilities—with a special emphasis on the Reed Union Building. Results from a recent college-wide survey indicate that Penn State Behrend students are most interested in seeing additional fitness space and a convenience store on campus, and Reed is the likely location for both.
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, is a comprehensive residential college offering 34 bachelor’s, six associate, four pre-professional and two graduate degree programs with 22 minors to more than 4,600 students. Focused on providing a student-centered environment, Penn State Behrend 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.