Record Enrollment, New Academic Options Await Students in Fall

Record enrollment and new academic options are among the exciting aspects of the coming academic year at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

For the Fall '97 semester, Penn College anticipates enrolling a record 4,300 or more full-time students. Full- and part-time numbers are expected to near 4,900.

Among its many new initiatives for the 1997-98 academic year, the College is putting forth extra efforts in the areas of evening and weekend classes and distance education. This added focus is intended to make education more convenient and accessible to many individuals.

Evening, Weekend Classes
Students will have the opportunity to take all required classes for a number of majors on evenings and weekends. The College identified programming in which many working individuals had expressed interest and focused on those majors for the coming year.

Students can customize an evening and weekend program of study in the following bachelor-degree majors: accounting, applied human services, business administration, computer science, dental hygiene, legal studies, and nursing and technology management. Associate-degree majors that will have evening and weekend coursework available are: accounting, business management, computer studies, human services, and legal assistant and office technology. Penn College will look to add programming in the future.

As well, during the Fall '97 semester, all offices associated with student activities and services will be open until 7 p.m. Thursdays.

Distance Learning
For individuals who prefer distance learning, Penn College this fall will offer the following courses via video-based technology: Principles of Business, Principles of Management, Personal and Community Health, Nutritional Pathways, and Introduction to Cinema.

Eventually, the College plans to provide students the option of completing degrees via distance education.

Internet-based coursework in Human Resources Management also will be offered this fall. The College first fielded this course last year; it was the initial Internet course delivered by the institution.

Videoconferencing
In addition to the educational opportunities opened up by the Internet, the College is actively utilizing videoconferencing to bring new interaction in both education and industry settings.

For example, utilizing videoconferencing PictureTel ("PicTel") units, Penn College has already conducted a dental hygiene course at Penn College and Penn State's Wilkes-Barre campus, delivered plastics technology coursework to plastics engineering students at Penn State's University Park campus, received pharmacology coursework for its physician assistant students from Penn State's College of Medicine at the Hershey Medical Center, and delivered a health arts course to students at the Penn College North Campus in Wellsboro.

On the industry side of this activity, a number of outreach initiatives have taken place including a partnership with AMP Inc. that resulted in a six-week plastics training course delivered from Penn College to the Fortune 300 company's headquarters in Harrisburg and another corporate site in North Carolina.

New Bachelor, Associate Degrees
Other fresh offerings at Penn College are new bachelor degrees in accounting, civil engineering technology, and printing and publishing technology, as well as associate degrees in banking, printing and publishing production, diesel technology/Mack emphasis, and heavy construction equipment/CAT emphasis. New competency credentials, all in the School of Hospitality, are available in dining room service, professional baking and professional cooking.

Student Housing
In addition to the new academic options, the coming year at Penn College will bring further enhancement in campus life and student activities. This fall, the College's new student residence facility, The Village, will be filled to its 320-bed occupancy for its first full year of operation. Additionally, Penn College is acquiring Campus View Apartments, located on the south rim of the campus. The three-building facility houses about 330 students. College officials view owning and operating student housing as an important factor in reaching the institution's goal of 5,000 full-time students by the year 2000.

Along with the acquisition of Campus View Apartments, Penn College recently announced it will be purchasing the former PBI property on Maynard Street. The College plans to construct a "gateway" to the campus through the PBI site. A beautifully landscaped entrance on the property will potentially change the character of the Penn College campus and increase its marketability.

Demolition of the former steel-manufacturing firm is expected to begin about Jan. 1. Among the buildings under consideration for the 13- to 14-acre site include a College services center, and an instructional design and delivery center.

Classes Begin Aug. 19
Orientation for students is set for Saturday, Aug. 16, through Monday, Aug. 18. Numerous academic and social events will be conducted during that time for students, their parents or special guests. Classes start Tuesday, Aug. 19, and various "welcome back" activities will continue throughout the first few weeks, including a dance, movies, comedy nights, musician performances and athletic team tryouts.