Friday, April 24, 2009
from page 1
School of Nursing
Perhaps the easiest example
of an academic change at
Behrend is the School of
Nursing. This May, the
Nursing program at Behrend
will graduate its first class of
29 students. Though the
Nursing program at Penn State
has been successfully operat
ing for over 40 years, the pro
gram in Erie is still in its infan
cy.
Nursing Program
Coordinator, Jo Anne Carrick,
who has been at Behrend since
January 2006, has seen the
program grow from its roots to
the launching pad that it is
today. Carrick, who taught as
part of the Nursing program at
Penn State Shenango and
McKeesport, says that Behend
was a great choice for such a
major.
"Behrend wanted to add new
programs to diversify student's
choices," Caster says. "With
Behrend's strength in science,
math, and psychology classes,
it was a great choice. Having a
nursing program, too, allows
students to specify a degree
like biology by studying more
into nursing."
Already, the nursing pro
gram has responded to
changes in the market need.
The program has added critical
care nursing electives for stu
dents who wish to pursue that
type of health care - that
change was largely dictated by
an extreme need in local and
national health organizations.
Carrick says that one reason
that a nursing program was
brought was because of that
support in the community. "We
could really address the health
care needs out there," she says.
"Students who are graduating
from this program are getting
job offers very easily, especial
ly in places such as
Pittsburgh." Erie, she explains,
could become a flooded mar
ket with a large amount of
graduates entering the work
force at once. Even that, she
says, would even out; within
six months, she is confident
that more spots would open.
The program could use some
more growth to hit the spot
where it wants to be. Carrick
hopes that the program will
graduate 20 more students
next year on top of this year's
total of 29. She says that the
limiting factors could be the
physical space at the universi
ty, a limit to local internship
spaces, or a possible difficulty
in finding faculty with which to
expand the program. "The
growth may be gradual over
the next five years," she says.
"We hope to have a big growth
in the baccaleureate degree
here."
"We're Behrend," says
Carrick. "We are Penn State.
Because of that, we are com
mitted to that new graduate
being as prepared as possible."
School of Engineering
Director of the school of
Engineering at Behrend Dr.
Ralph Ford has been in his cur
rent capacity for 15 years.
Since then, he says, there have
been massive changes to the
college.
"Back then, we were 'Penn
State Who,'" he says. "Now, if
I'm sitting next to a person at a
conference and mention where
I teach, they'll know right away
the things we're doing up
here."
The changes to his School,
though, have consisted of
much more than changes to
the external reputation of the
program. Perhaps one of the
best examples of academic
innovation at Behrend comes
with the Engineering pro
gram's interdisciplinary degree
with the School of Business in
offering a Business with
Engineering Studies major.
Industry influence has made
a huge impact on Behrend's
engineering program, says
Ford, who meets with over 30
different firms per year. "We
want to see even more industry
participation," he says, "espe
cially within undergraduate
research. We're looking at sixty
percent of all senior projects
having an industry sponsor,
and another ten or twenty per
cent working with non-prof
its."
The advantages of the
Engineering program at
Behrend, Ford says, are many.
"We really benefit from small
class size," he says. "It's not in
our character to become a ten
thousand student university,
because we would lose that.
We've been able to raise our
enrollment here, but not at the
"We know that students don't want to sit in class for an
hour and listen to a lecture. People want to learn by doing
something, and they learn more by seeing it in front of
them."
cost of quality. Rather, our
requirements have raised, and
brought our quality with
them."
Possible areas of expansion
for the program include an
interest in biotechnology,
specifically within biomedi
cine. Electrical and Computer
Engineering could be expand
ed more to deal with , sissal
processing; the school is Cat:
rently sending a faculty mem 7
ber to a summer program to
develop teaching strategies
within that area.
Behrend also must be
responsive to changes in tech
nology alongside changes in
the workplace, Ford says. If a
certain new technology is
becoming an industry stan
dard, the school has a respon
sibility to train students on that
technology.
On the horizon for the pro
gram could possibly include an
offering of certificates in
biotechnology, though proba
bly not a full-fledged major.
Inter-disciplinary programs,
such as the business hybrid
degree, will continue to
mature, and perhaps expand
as the program gains notoriety
and has time to improve. The
school will certainly respond to
changes within the field of
study, too, looking at chal
lenges in the energy sector and
offering courses to students
who are interested in fixing
national and local problems.
School of Business
In the Sam and Irene Black
School of Business, many of
The Behrend school of nursing office
CAMPUS NEWS
the largest changes Behrend
can expect within the next few
years will largely come from
two areas. An increase in inter
disciplinary degrees, like the
Business with Engineering
Studies major, is almost
inevitable, says Director Dr.
John Magenau. Another area
which will grow, he says, is the
emphasis on online and hybrid
courses.
Online programs, primarily
at the graduate levels, have
been growing dramatically.
The college plans to offer a
System Analysis and Program
Development (SAP) certificate
online, as quickly as within the
next five years. "We want to
reach a national audience,"
Magenau says. "This kind of
certificate is only offered
online by about a dozen
schools in the nation - Penn
State Behrend is one of them."
Like other schools, much of
the change rolling through the
School of Business originates
with faculty needs and
requests. Most of it, though,
deals first with what students
want. "Demand for majors
changes all the time,"
Magenau says. "Accounting
was declining rapidly, not too
long ago; now, it's the largest
degree here."
Much like the Engineering
School at Behrend, the
Business School is very reac
tive to industry requests.
Dr. Roger Knacke
Director of the School of Science
One example, he says, is
General Electric (GE), who
approached Behrend regard
ing their outsourcing costs.
According to Magenau, GE
said that costs of labor in for
eign countries was rising, and
the firm wanted to bring
Information Technology (IT)
jobs back to the United States.
"We tried to turn that into art
oprfOrtdnity for our students,"
Magenau says. "By bringing
their business back here, it
could have brought a huge
number of jobs. The moral of
the story is that when we see
an opportuniy arise in busi
ness, we pursue it as much as
possible to give our students
the best chance at succeeding."
Though industry can dictate
some changes, Magenau says
that the fundamentals of effi
ciency remain in the forefront
throughout the process. The
school won't jump at a major
or new area of development
without proven need.
Interdisciplinary expansion
is something that is exploding
right now within the school,
and that trend will not end any
time soon. The Business with
Engineering Studies major was
brought about as a faculty ini
tiative, and drew upon good
relations between the engi
neering and business pro
grams at Behrend. It took
about five years to create,
Magenau says, and any future
majors would likely follow the
same timeline. "In general,
University Park was very sup
portive of the major," Magenau
says. As to the future, the pro
gram might expand, but it will
DANIEL SMITH / Th:
certainly offer a "different type
of students," especially those
with a strong background in
math.
School of Science
For the School of Science at
Behrend, changes in academic
programming is often dictated
not by industry, but by chal
lenges within individual fields
of study. Dr. Roger Knacke,
Director of the School of
Science, says that responding
to needs of the scientific com
munity presents a constant
battle for the school.
Figuring out the most effi
cient type of teaching strate
gies to get concepts across to
students, even if the concepts
are long-standing fundamen
tals, also gives a chance for
innovation. Knacke, who has
been the Director of the School
of Science since 1992, points to
"scale-up" teaching techniques
currently used in several
ptlySicrelAtse's as an example
of 'neW iNtruction strategies.
"We know that students don't
want to sit in class for an hour
and listen to a lecture," he
says. "People want to learn by
doing something, and they
learn more by seeing it in front
of them." The scale-up teach
ing strategy will engage stu
dents with guided experiments
and computer simulators,
Knacke says.
The science programs at
Behrend are also making use
of online deliverance systems
for courses. One meteorology
course in the school is com
pletely online, and many more
classes feature a hybrid ele
ment mixing online elements
into traditional classes. These
technological developments
allow teachers to provide simu
lations of experiments.
"Letting students experiment
in simulations allows them to
try more." Knacke says.
The school, like most others
at Behrend, does respond to
changes within industry.
Knacke says. "Group work is
something that we've been
hearing from about a lot.
People like working together
to learn and industry is call
ing for teamwork education."
For many areas within science,
a group element has had a
great effect on student success.
Within the physics program,
students who either withdraw
or get a D or F have fallen from
40 percent to 28 percent,
Knacke says. "It lets students
retain more information, and
prepare them for working with
colleagues in industry. There
are no more excuses in the
work world."
On the horizon for the sci
ence school could be a further
ing in science secondary edu
cation as a four-year degree.
It's hard to predict, Knacke
says, because so much is being
suggested and requested by
members of the school. Other
possible expansions could
include a biology focus on
genetics, a geology major (a
personal interest for Knacke),
and a deeper focus into chem
istry and biology.
Whatever comes to Behrend,
Knacke feels that Behrend
offers the right qualities for a
great science program. "Most
working scientists got their
education at a primarily under
graduate university like
.hrend Beacon
The Behrend school of ennineenng offie
Behrend: he says. "We re well
poised to fill that need with an
excellent education in science:
were not just trying to imitate
University Park. We are our
own program...
School of Humanities and
Social Sciences
Filling gaps in the curricu
lum is much of the School of
Humanities and Social
Sciences' major challenge
heading into the new decade.
Dr. Richard Aquila, the
school's Director. says that
those gaps deal mainly with
multi-culturalism and diversity.
History in many new areas,
such as Asian. African, and
Middle Eastern studies, have
proved to be an area of interest
for Behrend. They are all either
being expanded now, or in the
process of being added to the
docket on places the school
can expand.
THe'sthool has als(v seen a
"We're Behrend. We are Penn State. Because of that, we
are committed to that new graduate being as prepared as
possible."
growth in classes with a hybrid
online-classroom mix. Aquila
says. "The issue is not whether
the online element will contin
ue to grow," he says. "It is a
question of whether or not we
can efficiently and effectively
use that element to enhance
learning. The technology will
be used, it's just a matter of
resource to do it."
If courses launch online,
there is an effort to make sure
that they are as high-quality as
classroom courses. That can be
difficult, Aquila says. "We want
a course that is both challeng
ing and worthwhile," he says.
Limited resources are also a
large question in bringing new
majors to the school. Aquila
says. New programs and ideas
must he evaluated on the net
benefit they would bring to the
school.
With regards to expansion,
Aquila says that the benefit
that the school offers to all stu
dents is something that cannot
be underestimated.
"[Humanities and Social
Sciences] sees itself as a foun-
dation for every student," he
says. "We offer students a
basic understanding of the
world around them, whether
they re an engineering major
or an English major'
The school clues have their
eyes towards the future,
though. With creating new
majors, Aquila says that he and
the school must make sure that
the degree is "cutting edge."
Also, Behrend has a preference
towards degrees that find nich
es both nationally and locally.
"Our competition
University Park," Aquila says
in his fifth year as the Director
of the School of Humanities
and Social Sciences. "Our com
petition is other colleges.
When we build on a foundation
of where we have our
strengths, and the qualm , of a
Penn State degree, ).‘c feel that
we can offer a great product.-
The Behrend Beacon 5
Preparing Students
for the Future
Though each school at
l3ehrend offers its own unique
ways to prepare students for
entering the work world, that
process of finding a job is
essential to any college gradu
ate.
For many students, that
effort goes straight through the
office of Career Development.
Andrew Wailers, who has been
working as an Associate
Director there for eight years,
says that despite changes in
society and industry, the
demands from employers have
remained relatively the same
over recent years.
"The underlying set of char
acteristics and grad schools
want hasn't really changed," he
says. "Communication skills
are first, every year.
Technology and non-technolo
gy majors alike still have a
huge demand for that."
Student activities provide
excellent resume builders for
college graduates. Most stu
dents seem to be aware of the
fact that participating in stu
dent organizations will set
them apart in the job market;
\Vatters might say that stu
dents need to take that a step
further. "Being in extracurricu
lar activities is great," he says.
"But what can really set you
apart is leadership in that
group.
Wailers also notes how an
online and digital element have
revolutionized the way that the
Career Development office
operates. "We really started
using an online system three
years ago." he says, "called
Nittany Lion Recruiting.
Before that, our system was
eight file cabinets."
That innovation in the office
has led to useful new offerings
for students wanting to find a
career. One of the greatest
options they will have is
expanded video conferencing,
which will allow students to
conduct interviews in other
states. Watters says that face
to-face element combined with
new technology makes a stu
dent s application even more
attractive.
Perhaps the most useful
addition to the program has
been the advent of e-portfolios,
which allow students to collect
evidence and prevent it profes
sionally, with reflections on
lessons learned. "It's easily
accessible, easy-to-use, and
will be accessible for all four
years that students are attend
ing the university," Watters
says.
Jo Ann Carrick
Director of Nursing