Penn State's Board of Trustees met on Friday, May 16, 2003, on the University Park campus. The following items were presented to the Board for action or informational purposes:
Penn State Board of Trustees meets today; President Spanier's remarks
Penn State's Board of Trustees is holding its regular, bi-monthly meeting today (May 16) on the University Park campus. In his opening remarks to the board, President Graham B. Spanier noted that this weekend's commencement ceremonies will include 9,464 graduating students at Penn State locations across the Commonwealth. He also talked about the closing of the seven-year Grand Destiny Campaign, which raised $1.36 billion for University programs; the status of various building projects, the University budget and student applications trends; Penn State's economic impact on the Commonwealth; and recent student and faculty achievements, among other topics. Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/3050
Task force identifies more than $14 million in savings, will ease tuition increase
Penn State has identified $11.4 million in budget reductions and more than $3 million in non-tuition income enhancements for the University's 2003-04 budget, the latest step in an ongoing process to further streamline the efficiency of the University's administrative, academic, and outreach functions. This aggressive internal cost savings effort will directly benefit students in the form of a tuition increase avoidance of 2.7 percent -- or more than $200 per year for all full-time students. Rodney Erickson, Penn State's executive vice president and provost and co-chair of the University's Cost Savings Task Force, outlined the recommendations of the task force for the upcoming budget year for the University's Board of Trustees today (May 16). Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/3055
Schreyer Honors College earns stellar marks in independent review
Top students are choosing Penn State because of its Schreyer Honors College -- the best honors program in the Big Ten, according to a recent independent evaluation that left reviewers with a very positive impression of the five-year-old College's progress. "Penn State can rightly claim that it has the best honors college among the CIC institutions, and it is likely one of the best of its kind in the country," cites the review, highlighted by Penn State President Graham B. Spanier for the University's Board of Trustees today (May 16). Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/3051
Leadership development an integral part of a Penn State education
Increasingly, today's employers are looking beyond degrees, majors and interviewing skills to find students who will be tomorrow's leaders in the workplace. Penn State considers leadership development an integral component of a quality education, and there are numerous ways for its students to pursue their professional interests while developing their leadership potential, the Board of Trustees was told today (May 16). Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/3052
Outreach partnership disseminates Penn State knowledge to millions
The Penn State outreach partnership between cooperative extension, continuing education, distance education and public broadcasting is stronger than ever, the Board of Trustees learned at its meeting today (May 16). The collaboration between Penn State's major outreach units enables the public to draw on the vast expertise available at the University and strengthens the University's land-grant mission. The partnership also engages all of Penn State's colleges in the greater outreach and cooperative extension mission. Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/3053
Students' changing expectations spur Faculty Senate efforts
In the midst of rising student expectations that faculty members will pay more individual attention to them, the University Faculty Senate closed the 2002-03 academic year having successfully managed a years-long overhauling of Penn State's general education requirements, among other projects. In a report on Faculty Senate activities to the Board of Trustees today (May 16), immediate past chair of the Senate John W. Moore, Jr., associate professor of English and comparative literature, said, "Students are telling us in many ways that the 1970s are over. They want us -- faculty, staff and administrators -- to listen more closely to their expressed needs, ambitions and confusions." Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/3054
SALA building to bear name of Stuckeman family
Penn State's Board of Trustees today (May 16) approved naming the new home of the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA) the Stuckeman Family Building, in recognition of the generosity of University alumnus H. Campbell "Cal" Stuckeman of Pittsburgh, and his late wife, Eleanor Stuckeman. The Stuckemans donated $10 million toward the structure's projected cost of $23.5 million. They also have been generous supporters of programs in the College of Arts and Architecture. Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/3056
Trustees approve interim budget; Penn State awaits approval of state appropriation
Penn State adopts an interim budget each year so that it has an approved fiscal operating plan from the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1, until the next year's actual budget is approved by the University's Board of Trustees. Today (May 16), the Board approved the interim maintenance and operating budget at the level of the current 2002-03 total operating budget of $2,402,717,000. This budget supports all Penn State operations and enterprises throughout the Commonwealth. No action on changes in tuition, salaries and wages, employee benefits, or other necessary expense increases will be taken until after the 2003-04 state appropriation has been reviewed and approved by the Board of Trustees in July. Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/3057
Board approves outreach innovation and business buildings, parking deck
Penn State's Board of Trustees today (May 16) approved final plans for a new outreach innovation building, Smeal College of Business Administration building, and east parking deck and chilled water facility at the University Park campus. The outreach innovation building will be the new home for Penn State Public Broadcasting and the World Campus in Innovation Park. The business building and east parking deck will be among the new structures in the east subcampus. The Trustees also were informed of the demolition of two structures on the Penn State DuBois campus and the construction of a new HazMat Building on Big Hollow Road on the University Park campus. Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/3058 and see artists' renderings of the buildings at http://live.psu.edu/still_life/05_16_03_bot/index.html
Trustees appoint three to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center Board
The Penn State Board of Trustees today (May 16) approved the appointments of David M. Joyner and Barry K. Robinson and the re-appointment of Edward P. Junker III to the Board of Directors of The Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Each appointment is for a three-year term ending June 30, 2006. Joyner and Robinson will be filling the seats being vacated by Carol Herrmann and William L. Weiss, whose terms expire this year. Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/3059
The Village at Penn State to open its doors in August
The Village at Penn State will become home to its first residents this August, when the inaugural group of residential units in the continuing care retirement community (CCRC) open for occupancy. "Currently, we have advanced deposits on 82 percent of the planned 150 independent living residences in the CCRC," Peter Weiler, president of the board of The Village at Penn State, and associate vice president for development and alumni relations at the University, told the Board of Trustees today (May 16). The community is not Penn State-owned or operated, although it is on 80 acres of land leased from the University. The project does not involve any investment by the University, nor the use of tax dollars. Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/3065
Penn State announces election of Board of Trustees members
Penn State alumni, delegates of agricultural societies, and delegates elected by the Board representing business and industry endeavors elected seven incumbents to serve on the University's Board of Trustees. University alumni re-elected incumbents David R. Jones, David M. Joyner, and Anne Riley. Delegates of agricultural societies re-elected Charles C. Brosius and Carl T. Shaffer, and the Board representing business and industry trustees re-elected Edward R. Hintz, Jr. and Robert D. Metzgar. The term of each trustee elected is three years, beginning July 1, 2003 and expiring on June 30, 2006. Read the full story at http://live.psu.edu/story/3159