PENNSTATE
.PlLMHarrisburg
CAPITAL TIMES
Vol. 25, No. 3
PSH Proposes Expansion Plans
Victoria Cuscino
Capital Times Staff
Penn State University officials
recently announced on September 19 that
they are prepared to expand the
Harrisburg campus from a two- to a
four-year institution within two years if
they acquire the necessary resources.
PSH Provost Dr. Ruth Leventhal
testified last month before the House of
Representatives' select committee
studying the feasibility of a four-year
institution in Harrisburg and told
legislators the university wants a clear
indication from the public that
expansion of PSH is needed and desired
before investing money and resources
into the project.
PSH and other local colleges began
studying expansion possibilities after the
Harrisburg Patriot published an editorial
in January 1990 about construction of a
new "Harrisburg University." The
editorial concentrated on requests by the
State System of Higher Education
(SSHE) for funds to provide additional
student capacity by rehabilitating
existing facilities.
The Patriot suggested that the SSHE
should consider building its first urban
campus to accommodate minority
students and let students take advantage
of the government resources close-by.
Following the Patriot and other
editorals on the issue, the House of
Representatives established a select
committee to study the feasibility of
building a four-year institution in
Harrisburg while local colleges studied
expansion possibilities.
"Penn State Harrisburg has been
responsive to the increasing need for
providing a more comprehensive
presence in this part of the state,"
Leventhal testified before the House
select committee.
She cited acts of legislature in other
states that added lower divisions to
formerly two-year schools, "in order to
be more responsive to economic
development needs of that state."
Expanding PSH does not require an
act of legislature but the university needs
new resources, which Leventhal sees as
the major obstacle standing in the way
of an expansion decision.
"The will and the way is there, we
just need the resources."
The actual initiation of the project
depends on where the resources are
coming from and when, she said.
An increasing number of mid-state
students continue to leave Pennsylvania
to attend college and only 200 of nearly
Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg
9,000 Harrisburg Area Community
College (HACC) continue their
education at PSH, Leventhal said.
Minorities and non-traditional students
have unmet educational needs that could
be met by a lower division expansion of
PSH, Leventhal said.
If PSH expands, the institution will
accommodate a mix of traditional and
non-traditional students as it presently
does.
"It is important not to lose focus on
the non-traditional student and transfer
student," Leventhal said.
Penn State Harrisburg has also
studied other needs assessments and
demographic studies from the State Data
Center which indicate targeted needs for a
four-year research university presence at
the state capital, she said.
"...despite the fact that there are nine
private colleges, three two-year colleges
and two state system universities, we are
experiencing an overcrowding and an
out-migration of young people in
Pennsylvania, and this is
demographically projected to continue
and get worse."
She cited needs that are not being met
by current institutions, such as a four
year research institution for economic
development in the region.
Other needs include an institution
where Harrisburg residents can easily
access college degrees•. retraining for
future jobs as technology changes and
present jobs become obsolete, and
additional space at a four-year low-cost
institution
"Our studies indicate that these
expressed needs and desires could be met
very economically, very expeditiously
and at the highest level of quality by
lower division expansion of Penn State
Harrisburg," Leventhal said.
Penn State University is preparing a
feasibility study on the issue of
expansion to a four-year institution,
which is expected to be completed in
January 1991, testified Gregory Knight,
vice provost and dean of undergraduate
studies at Penn State.
Knight also told the the House select
committee that PSH could begin
offering classes to a freshman class of
about 300 students within the first two
years of a decision to expand.
The committee also heard testimonies
from Messiah College and the Dauphin
County Office of Economic
Development. They presented findings
of a needs assessment survey on
education and job training in the
midstate area, which found justification
for an education and training resource
center in the Harrisburg area.
Expansion takes two years to
completely implement and consists of
four stages--acquiring resources,
planning, recruiting new faculty, and
recruiting new students, Leventhal said.
If PSH decides to expand, the campus
will offer the same majors as it presently
has.
Professors Speak...
ussein Must Go
Pat Byers
Capital Times Staff
Three Penn State Harrisburg
professors, born in the middle east, have
a vested interest in what is happening in
their homeland.
Through personal experience,
engineering professors Alireza Rahrooh
and Alex Aswad and marketing professor
Kaynak have felt a presence of war few
can receive from the Associated Press or
the BBC.
The three agree on one matter, Saddam
Hussein must be stopped. His
stronghold on Kuwait, his insistence
upon destroying the Persian Gulf oil
fields, and the economic turmoil in the
Middle East must soon become a thing
of the past.
October 5, 1990
"We would meet the regional needs as
we assess them," Leventhal said in
regard to the possibility of additional
majors being added to the PSH offerings.
She said PSH would continue to expand
over time and faculty would continue to
make academic decisions.
Leventhal said PSH could begin
offering classes to freshman and
sophomores with the present facilities
but "in the long run we clearly need the
new library learning center," she said.
"There are a number of services
offered on a limited basis or not at all
that would be needed for freshman
activities," said Dr. James South,
Associate Provost for Administrative
operations at PSH. He said academic
support services, an advising center for
students with unclaimed majors, and
physical education programs to fulfill
university requirements are examples of
such programs and services.
"We're doing what good managers
should do and looking at the situation
strategically," said Glenn Knight,
Director of Community Relations at
PSH. He said expansion of PSH has
been addressed by different people for the
past eight or ten years, but never did
anything because of the relationship
with HACC.
The reason PSH offers only upper
division curriculum presently is because
See Expansion on 6
"Hussein needs to be stopped now
before a lot of innocent people are
killed," Rahrooh said.
A native of Kourdistan, an area
populated by four million between Iran,
Iraq, and Turkey, Rahrooh is concerned
that his homeland will be victimized
once again by the gunfire between its
warring neighbors especially if it
involves the chemical warfare threatened
by Hussein.
Rahrooh added that if Hussein is not
stopped he will probably do the same
thing to Saudi Arabia that he is currently
doing to Kuwait.
Professor Aswad said that since
Hussein came to power, he has sent
See Mideast on 3