PSH to become 4-year school
By KAREN PLOTT
Staff Reporter
Fall 2004 will be the beginning of a
new era for Penn State Harrisburg. The
campus has finally opened its doors to
lower division students, transforming
the campus into a 4-year school.
Freshmen will be able to begin their
Penn State experience in any of Penn
State Harrisburg's 26 programs,
and continue on any campus he or
she desires
Currently, the campus has about
370 lower division students, with
approximately 62 freshmen in the
programs that allow underclass-
men. The number of freshmen is
expected to escalate to roughly 200
by next fall when all majors will be
4-year programs
"For the first time students will be
able to start here and continue in
any major in any PSU campus
The same courses will be offered at all
the campuses to ensure programs and
transitions will become seamless,"
Penny Carlson, academic advisor of the
Division of Undergraduate Studies.
"The students will have more flexibil
ity and will have all access to any
resources the university offers, which is
exciting."
Incorporating lower division students
into the university is an exciting accom
plishment for the Harrisburg area and is
being embraced by much of the faculty.
"We aren't afraid of change. We look
forward to it because it is an opportuni
ty for us to be better than we are now,"
said Dr. William J. Mahar, associate
provost and senior associate dean for
academic affairs.
This long-anticipated change is occur
ring for several reasons. A tremendous
amount of students have been leaving
the area to attend college and many
within the University think it is time for
them to have an opportunity to attend a
4-year school locally.
"Most colleges around the area attract
mostly regional and national students.
We are targeting students who may not
otherwise be able to go to school," said
Mahar. For this reason little competi
tion is expected between local colleges.
Students can cut down the cost of
attending school with the luxury of
staying at home while at the same time
receiving top quality education. This is
projected to attract a large number of
students.
Also, a group of senior leaders known
as Project Envision have an educational
inspiration to keep top students in
Central PA. Project Envision goes by
the motto, "grow our own, keep our
own."
"There are many promising jobs here
in Central PA that are waiting for young
intelligent minds, and we feel by keep
ing top students in the area we can help
stimulate local growth," said Mahar.
Through the implementation of the
change there will be more labs, wireless
technology, and educational materials
needed for efficient educational sup
port. There will also be additional fac
ulty hired whose sole responsibility is
to teach the general education require
ments that will be offered.
"We did hire about a dozen new facul-
ty already in areas such as biology,
physics, and math," said Mahar. "We
make it necessary to provide the top
quality faculty."
The number of general education
classes added is not official.
"We are working on that now. What
we are doing is using the other Penn
State campuses as models. We are care
fully analyzing what they will be doing
and looking at our size," said Carlson.
"Our goal is to have our decisions to
Academic Leadership by the end of
the month "
The programs will change to include
more courses that are a part of the uni
versity catalog. This will help accred
it some programs such as education,
criminal justice, and business.
"We are somewhat losing our indi
viduality to become part of the broad
er university," said Mahar. "But a
strong advantage we still have is the
small classroom size."
There will be a first year seminar for
all freshmen to start out in a baccalau
reate program. This will create oppor
tunity for small classes to help guide
students to become more adjusted to
college life, specifically classroom
experiences as well as extracurricular
experiences.
"My office will provide the First
Testing, Counseling, and Advising
Program (FTCAP), which will be the
academic orientation to Penn State,"
said Carlson.
There will be an activity orientation
as well. For instance, this year
Student Affairs had a student orienta
tion team to meet new students as
they arrived on campus move-in day.
The team worked with students to get
them acquainted with campus activi
ties.
"We are looking to expand the pres
ence of the Orientation Team as a way
to quickly encourage students to
come out to campus events," said
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Janet Widoff, director of student life.
First year students are also encouraged
to become involved in Student
Government affairs as well.
"In the recent SGA elections, the stu
dent voters approved additional work
ing in the SGA constitution that pro
vides for the elected representation of
first year students," said Widoff.
The future looks even brighter as
Mahar does not foresee any major
problems in the future as a result
of this change.
"We will not have any startup
problems, because we are model
ing ourselves off of the Schuylkill
campus, which has been doing
this for about fifty years. We are
also heading off other potential
problems by being positive on the
way we approach things," said
Mahar.
"For the juniors and seniors, they
will have the chance to show a greater
sense of leadership and there will be
more tutoring and mentoring opportuni
ties," said Carlson addressing the
upcoming need for more intense learn
ing support.
Parking should be no problem, due to
the adequate amount the campus has.
There is one new dormitory already in
planning, which will house 72 addition-
al students, however, there will not be a
significant amount of new available
housing since most of the new students
will commute from home.
As for the first year students ,as well as
the other students, who reside on cam
pus there were opportunities this
September to get better acquainted with
college life, such as In Your Living
Room, which offered the students tips.
There is even a "Mall Trip" series that
provides the students transportation to
go shopping.
"The Mall Trip series is offered
because we realize that a lot of our first
year students don't have their cars,"
said Widoff.
This transformation is also expected
to be positive for transfer students.
"I don't see any barriers," said
Mahar. "HACC students will be able to
transfer sooner and the flow will be
seamless. Admissions are ready to
answer any questions."
"There will be a much greater course
selection for transfer students, especial
ly in gen-ed," said Carlson.
"HACC is our oldest partner and they
are cheering us on," said Mahar.