Board OKs property donation, welcomes new members, elects officers

Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Board of Directors on Thursday authorized the college administration to donate a Fifth Avenue property in Williamsport to Habitat for Humanity, approved parameters for the college’s 2024-25 state budget request, welcomed three new members and elected officers.

The property being donated to Habitat – the location of a former “nuisance bar” in the city, as designated by the Lycoming County District Attorney’s Office – will become the site of an energy-efficient home to be designed and built by Penn College students.

Planning has already included much of the academic community, including team members from building construction technology, as well as the concrete science; electrical construction; heating, ventilation & air conditioning technology; and heavy construction equipment technology: operator emphasis programs.

Patrick Marty, chief government and international relations officer, said the project presents great opportunities – to put a city property back on the tax rolls, to have students tap their technical skills on a real-world project, and to provide a home for a family that meets Habitat’s eligibility criteria.

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In other business:

The board-approved parameters for Penn College’s 2024-25 state appropriation request – submitted annually by Penn State on the college’s behalf – feature an operating appropriation of $33,081,400, an increase of $6.3 million from the 2022-23 appropriations, in order to better align with other colleges and universities receiving state funding. The college’s state appropriation for 2023-24 has not yet been approved by the Legislature.

The new Penn College Board members are:

• Margo DelliCarpini , vice president for Commonwealth Campuses and executive chancellor at Penn State
• Larry D. Terry II , Penn State’s vice president for outreach
• Randall E. Black , CEO and president of First Citizens Community Bank and a member of the Penn State Board of Trustees.

Retiring from the Penn College Board are:

• Robert N. Pangborn, who retired as vice president and dean for undergraduate education at Penn State in 2020. Pangborn has served on the Penn College Board since 2006.
• Blannie E. Bowen, who retired from Penn State in 2017 as vice provost for academic affairs. Bowen has served on the Penn College Board since 2016.
• Yvonne Gaudelius, who is returning to faculty at Penn State after serving as vice president for undergraduate education. She was appointed to the Penn College Board in July 2022.

The board elected its slate of officers for 2023-24. They are state Sen. Gene Yaw, chair; Abraham Harpster, vice chair; and Virginia A. Teachey, treasurer. Penn College President Michael J. Reed will serve as secretary. Serving as assistant treasurer will be Suzanne T. Stopper, senior vice president for finance/CFO. Valerie A. Baier, coordinator of president’s office operations, will serve as assistant secretary. (Secretaries and assistants need not be actual members of the Board of Directors.)

Yaw thanked the board for reelecting him to the leadership position. “Thank you for the confidence in electing me as chair again. It’s a real honor,” he said.

Stopper provided an update on long-term investments managed by Wilmington Trust and the intermediate investments managed by FNB Wealth Management. The balances in these accounts total approximately $29 million, which is an increase from the prior year, due to improved market performance and additions to the portfolio, she said.

Stopper also told the board that the college is the administrator for WEDnetPA (the Workforce and Economic Development Network of Pennsylvania), a job-training program sponsored by the state Department of Community & Economic Development. An audit is required for the period July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2023, and the engagement letter with Larson, Kellett & Associates, P.C. was provided to the board for informational purposes.

Joanna K. Flynn, interim vice president for academic affairs/provost, updated the board on new faculty at the college.

In August, the college oriented 17 new full-time faculty members to campus: 16 began full-time duties in August; one will start full-time duties in January, Flynn said.

She provided highlights for the new faculty:

• Twelve are alumni of Penn College, with a total of 19 degrees among them.
• Seven were previously employed by Penn College in another capacity – many as part-time faculty.
• Nine have prior teaching experience, either part time or full time; one comes with 30 years of teaching experience.
• Together, the new faculty members have almost 200 years of related industry experience.

Nicole Warner, chair elect of College Council, presented an executive summary on the 2022-23 activities of Internal Governance.

Notable highlights from the 2022-2023 academic year include:

• College Council provided unanimous support to the college’s diversity statement, which demonstrates the college’s commitment to supporting diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the community.
• College Council successfully completed the Governance self-study and will use the results to address issues and concerns moving forward, including implementing more communication and collaboration with the college community as a whole.
• Due to recent restructuring and reclassification of the campus community, College Council recognized the need for bylaws revision. An addendum was approved unanimously in the spring to take care of an immediate issue, but a full Bylaws Revision Committee was also established to begin work in the 2023-24 governance year.

Student involvement in Governance continues to be on the rise, Warner said. The Elections & Communications Committee worked closely with Student Engagement to ensure that all SGA officers were fulfilling their roles on Governance by regularly attending and participating in committee meetings.

In his comments to the board, Reed noted the college had its largest total enrollment growth this fall since 2008.

“Forty-five programs were waitlisted, and on-campus housing is 100% full. It’s a great problem to have, and I couldn’t be more proud of our team,” he said.

Reed told the board that nearly 500 companies were on campus recently to recruit students at Fall Career Fair, hoping to fill nearly 5,000 positions.

He also called attention to the 1,000-plus high school students and industry partners on campus on Thursday for the PA Build My Future event, helping those students preview sustainable, high-paying careers in applied technology and STEM fields.

The president also spoke of an upcoming dedication on campus. “Our automated manufacturing/engineering technologies lab has been transformed into the Gene Haas Center for Innovative Manufacturing, thanks to a generous grant from Gene Haas Foundation,” Reed said. “The lab will be officially dedicated on Nov. 6. You really need to check out this learning space. This was multiple years in the planning between College Relations and faculty.”

Reed called attention to the recent U.S. News & World Report 2024 Best Colleges rankings, in which Penn College recorded No. 1 rankings in Regional Colleges-North for Most Innovative Schools and Best Undergraduate Teaching (tied).

“We always do well in the rankings, and these are our strongest to date,” the president said.

The board also heard from Reed about the college hosting a prestigious international event in spring: Baja SAE, set for May 16-19 at the Schneebeli Earth Science Center. The competition requires schools to design, manufacture and build a single-seat, all-terrain vehicle. Following two days of technical inspections and presentations, the teams compete in a series of dynamic events, concluding with the toughest test of all: a four-hour endurance race.

In his closing comments, Yaw also touted the Baja event, joking that he’d like to volunteer to drive the all-terrain vehicle. Referencing the impressive list of schools that have registered to compete here, he noted, “It’s a big deal.”

Speaking about the ongoing negotiations in the Legislature to award the 2023-24 state appropriations for state-related colleges and universities, Yaw said, “We’re working very hard. … we’ll keep working on it.”

The next regularly scheduled Penn College Board of Directors meeting is Dec. 7.