University Park -- When freshmen arrive in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Dean Eric J. Barron wants them to be imbued with a sense of community. The new Ryan Family Student Center on the University Park campus will have them well on their way.
The center's goal is to integrate teaching, tutoring, advising, student work areas and museum space into a communal area that brings the students closer to one another and to the faculty.
"I want them to be have the sense of community of a small liberal arts college embedded in a powerful research university," he said.
The Ryan Family Student Center opened at the close of the spring semester. It is part of a bigger renovation project going on on the first floor of Deike Building that is bringing updated, wireless classrooms, the expanded student center and the EMS museum to the area. New galleries are being constructed for the museum, which is being moved from Steidle Building, that will afford the museum better display space and allow for interactive exhibits. The museum will open in early September. Total cost of the renovation is $1.8 million.
The center was named to honor the legacy of the John T. Ryan family. The Ryan Family Foundation pledged $250,000 for its construction. John T. Ryan Sr. was a founder of the Mine Safety Appliance Co. His son John Jr., a Distinguished Alumnus, served as president of the Penn State Alumni Association and as the first editor of the Mineral Industries Bulletin.
With about 350 faculty and staff members and about 1,000 undergraduate students, Earth and Mineral Sciences is not the University's biggest college. "The college is a discovery college," Barron said. "We want to capture the good students."
To that end, Barron's philosophy of a community of scholars starts with freshmen. Before they enter the college, students participate in TOTEMS — Total Orientation Trip for Earth and Mineral Science. Incoming freshmen are loaded up for a three-day trip to Raystown Dam where they sleep in cabins, participate in potlucks and play midnight miniature golf. By the time they get to the University, they are on their way to being well acclimated.
The Ryan Student Center takes over from there. EMS students can find tutors in writing, chemistry and math, as well as quiet study rooms next door to their tutors' offices where they can do their homework and get some coaching. "We have a writer in residence," Barron said, "because we believe every student has to communicate well."
The college's message to the students, Barron said, is: "We want you to take the challenging classes. But we also are willing to make the investment in tutors to make sure that you do well in them."
The college has invested in a computer lab where students can work and research, a private conference room and a small coffee bar area complete with microwave and refrigerator. Every Thursday, there's free pizza available for the students. "We already have some alums who have promised to man the coffee bar during finals week," he said.
Along the wall are a bank of offices for professional advisers, tutors and for the college's student council. The center has a number of tables where "students can debate their homework in a collegial fashion." Not too far from them are a comfy sofa and stuffed chairs arranged in a living room environment where students can just hang out.
Across the hall from the student center is the freshman seminar classroom. "It has 18 chairs in it," Barron noted. In this college, freshman seminars are taught by full professors and the dean. Barron pointed to the wall-to-ceiling blackboards, the circle of tables and padded chairs, noting the room does not have a podium, a nod to the interactive nature of the seminar. "In a big university students can get lost; in EMS you don't get lost at all," Barron said.
Down the hall are more of the renovated classrooms, which have been refurbished with cabinets and lockers for students to store microscopes and other equipment.
Erin Manion, a senior majoring in geosciences, is interning in the college this summer. She has been working out of the center for about a month.
"I think it's amazing," she said. "I think the students are really lucky to have this. I wish I were a freshman so I could enjoy it for about four years."
She said she likes the computer lab best because of the access to scanners and printers for her work.
"We enjoy our students, that's for sure," said Linda Spangler, the student center office manager. She oversees all the operations of the student center, assisting students and the advisers, arranging tours for the prospective students and their families and is a mentor to the student council.
It is a pleasant space. Spangler's desk inside the door is backed by a wall of windows filtering sunlight across the center. The space is decorated in neutral tones with black accents. Spangler's desk, the chairs and bookshelves all are constructed from wood finished in blonde tones. The coffee bar features cafe-style tables with wicker-backed chairs. Eventually, the center will extend outside with a patio or deck constructed along one wall, Barron said.
The philosophy of community first extends to the wall outside the study center where a message has been carved into a black wall above the names of faculty, staff and alumni: "More than a century: Earth and Minerals Sciences graduates welcome the next generation."
For pictures of the center, go to http://live.psu.edu/still_life/2004_07_08_ryancenter/index.html