Priorities for Excellence: The Penn State Strategic Plan 2009-10 through 2013-14

Actions:

The University has invested heavily in both the construction of classroom and laboratory facilities and the renovation of existing facilities to accommodate new modes of teaching and learning and the greater use of technology. Too often, these facilities are not fully utilized—and the University constructs additional facilities—because of lack of use outside of certain “prime time” class periods or times of the day. Classroom space at University Park, for example, is near fully utilized between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on a typical day, but much capacity is under-utilized at other times of the day. While a notable reduction in classroom utilization has occurred at 8:00 a.m., in response to student (and some faculty) preferences, mid- and late-afternoon scheduling remains significantly lower.

Penn State must invest in a state-of-the-art master scheduling system, particularly for use at University Park, in which classes can be better spread across the day between 9:00 a.m. and, at the least, 6:00 p.m. The offering of additional evening classes should also be explored and offered, if sufficient demand exists, as they regularly are at the campuses.

Similarly, specialized research facilities should be better inventoried than they are at present, so that additional core facilities used by multiple investigators can be established. The increased cost of highly specialized equipment is straining University financial resources, and maximum utilization of such facilities is imperative. Many core facilities have already been established in research centers and institutes such as the Huck Institutes for the Life Sciences, the Materials Research Institute, and the Penn State Institutes for Energy and the Environment, and this model is one that should be spread throughout the entire University. Again, scheduling of access is critically important to research investigators. Both central and college/campus allocations for equipment must be tied to collaborative use and access to increasingly costly facilities and equipment.

Penn State clearly has a huge investment in physical plant and equipment that is fully performing only when it is heavily used. The two semesters of the academic year leave the period from mid-May to mid-August with considerable excess capacity all across the University, well beyond that which is taken down for maintenance or renovation during the summer months. This situation represents an opportunity to capture additional revenues for the University and its academic and other units.

The approach to Summer Sessions is fairly unsystematic. Offerings are too often dependent on individual faculty members’ interest in teaching (and in teaching particular courses) and their schedules rather than student course needs and time preferences. A well-planned program would be more responsive to student needs and market demands, make greater and better use of blended programs merging online and face-to-face instruction, and reflect better coordination between continuing education and resident instruction. Programs in the Summer Sessions should be more deliberately built around a few key priority foci such as (perhaps) General Education, LEAP, intensive languages, and a few other special fields (e.g., certification of teachers and principals).

The budget model for the Summer Sessions has been in place for many years, and is under-performing both in terms of the revenue generated and the range of programs that could potentially be offered. The incentives for academic programs to participate broadly are clearly not sufficient, and it appears to be increasingly difficult to offer more than a limited set of General Education and a few graduate independent study courses, aside from some professional programs such as teacher education. In addition, other important activities such as the World Campus and extramurally funded research increasingly compete for faculty resources. On the demand side, students find it increasingly necessary to work during the summer to help pay for their education, and other lower-cost alternatives for summer courses often abound in the vicinity of students’ permanent residences.

The Vice President and Dean for Undergraduate Education has recently charged a task force to examine broadly the many issues concerning the Summer Sessions, including the budget model and the pricing that supports it. The outcomes of this task force must produce change that will revitalize the Summer Sessions so that the facilities and staff resources are better utilized and more closely match student needs across all Penn State campuses.

Leadership: