Editor's note: Most people know the history of Penn State as that of a school chartered in 1855 at the request of the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society to apply scientific principles to farming. Since that time, Penn State has grown from that one campus at University Park to 24 locations statewide, and each of those other locations has its own history. Intercom is continuing to highlight those stories.
In 1926, a young chemical engineer named Bill Allen moved to York to work for a metallurgy firm. He was told by his boss to determine costs for the firm's products, but Allen didn't have the background necessary to do the job. He contacted J. Orvis Keller at Penn State, and urged him to organize a business management course in York for 14 students, all of whom had engineering backgrounds.
Penn State set up a program in accountancy, conducted by Engineering Extension and taught by professors who commuted to York from State College, at the newly built York YMCA, and the beginning of a long relationship between Penn State and the York area began.
That relationship continued in 1933, when an advisory board of the York Center was incorporated and worked to bring more Penn State resources to the area.
In 1939, the federal government designated Penn State, the land grant institution of the commonwealth, to conduct engineering, science, management and defense training programs in York. Classes met at the William Penn Senior High School. The first graduates, 14 men, completed the program in the summer of 1941. A polio epidemic in the York area caused classes to be canceled during the fall of 1941, but classes resumed in February 1942 .
Enrollment swelled during World War II, and classes were held at both William Penn and York Junior College through June 1945. By the spring of 1946, several thousand people had completed or were in the process of completing their programs of study. These academic programs were conducted on a part-time basis, requiring five years to earn a diploma in one of several majors.
After the war, returning veterans, in addition to those already in the program, brought new pressure on the University to accelerate the programs. In 1949, a one year, full-time, day technical program offering a diploma to its graduates was instituted. Penn State York dates its official beginning from this time.
By fall of 1950 the York Center consolidated both its day and evening operations into the Wilson Elementary School on Carlisle Avenue, which it leased from the School District of the City of York, while Allen searched for a permanent location for the center.
Also in 1950, Edward M. Elias became the first full-time employee and faculty member at the Penn State General Extension Center in York. At that time the center served 25 daytime and 300 evening students. The York Center remained at Wilson until the fall of 1953, when it was moved into the Shiloh Elementary Building.
An important program change took place with the initiation of the two-year associate degree programs in engineering technology. The two programs originally offered were electrical technology, and drafting and design technology, the forerunners of today's mechanical engineering and electrical engineering technology programs.
Elias, considered one of the founders of the campus, recognized the need for a permanent facility. Elias saw that goal begin to become a reality in 1956, when the school's advisory board provided funds to purchase eight acres of land on Edgecomb Avenue and the construction of the first campus building.
As enrollment increased, a two-story, 100-by-75-foot, classroom-laboratory-administration building was constructed. In 1959, the York Center officially became the York campus as part of a general University reorganization which established the Commonwealth Educational System, now known as the Commonwealth Campus System.
Anticipating an increase in college students due to the arrival of the "baby boom" generation, the Penn State York Advisory Board conducted a local fund-raising drive to add a classroom wing. In 1966 the new facilities were opened and a limited bachelor's degree program was offered in engineering and science. By 1968 the first two years of almost all of the University's baccalaureate majors were available.
Throughout the years, Penn State York has continued to provide training and education for the local manufacturing community.
Elias served the campus until 1985, helping to bring Penn State York from a part-time extension program that rented space in old elementary schools to a complete undergraduate campus. Since then, York has had three campus executive officers: John J. Romano, Donald A. Gogniat and York's current leader, Joel M. Rodney.