Traffic sucks so bad around here and it's amazing to me how the Commisioners in Cumberland Co. can still be against such a thing. I guess they don't drive on roads like Wertzville Road, Carlisle Pike, etc., in their own county to see this crap, huh?
Here's some great news!!! I am REALLY proud of the Mayor and HBG for pulling this one off. A high school AND a University downtown, w/ the curriculum being the only kind in the state?!? It's going to put HBG on the map for sure.
FRESHMAN YEAR
New school braces for a 'bumpy' ride
Sunday, August 21, 2005
BY JAN MURPHY
Of The Patriot-News
Harrisburg University of Science and Technology founders see a lot of Lewis and Clark in themselves.
Like the famed explorers traveling west across the unknown Louisiana Territory in 1804, the university's leaders know generally what direction they are going in but are uncertain of the obstacles they will encounter.
Harrisburg University will begin its journey Aug. 29, when it will welcome 175 students in what the university calls its pioneer class.
University officials know what courses will be taught in the first year. They have faculty with extensive credentials and experience. They know they will be housed in the Harrisburg School District's SciTech High School for at least two years. And they have enough money in the bank to keep the doors open for a couple of years.
But the years that follow are not as clear-cut. They have to acquire accreditation, construct buildings, raise money, attract students and create an identity.
It's a journey that university officials say is exciting, but other college officials warn that it requires courage, patience and adaptability.
"It's going to be bumpy," said Karen Oates, Harrisburg University's vice president for academic and student affairs. "We're going to be surprised by things we can't even imagine right now."
Building a future:
The new university expects to occupy space in SciTech High through 2006-07.
In the meantime, it is planning a $30 million high-rise that will sit at the corner of Fourth and Market streets in Harrisburg, just down the street from SciTech High. The university has received a $15 million commitment from the state toward its construction.
University officials continue to talk with the U.S. Postal Service about buying the post office property on Market Street to provide space for housing and more buildings.
"That is our long-term site, and I believe this year we will see that come to fruition," said Mel Schiavelli, Harrisburg University's president.
So far, most of the college's money has come from government, said David Schankweiler, the chairman of the university's board of trustees.
"Now we've got to hit the road with the road show," he said. "It is time to start raising serious money."
Money matters most:
Fundraising by far tops the list of the university's challenges, national higher education experts say.
The $14,000 tuition alone won't keep the doors open, let alone expand the university's degree program offerings, they say. And the university has no alumni base to tap, said Rae Goldsmith, a spokeswoman for the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, a Washington, D.C.-based organization for college fundraisers.
A 2004 CASE report shows alumni provide 27.5 percent of gifts. The Harrisburg University must seek corporations, organizations and foundations to fill this void, she said.
It has. So far, Schiavelli said, the university has attracted about $2 million in private commitments, including donations from the Harrisburg Young Professionals and the Harrisburg-based Reynolds Construction Management.
"The key is clearly defining the institutional niche and then connecting that niche to the people most likely to care about it," Goldsmith said.
Tom Ritchey, Harrisburg University's vice president for university development, said the school is trying to engage groups and corporations in the university's life. "Fundraising will be the end result of developing those mutually beneficial relationships," he said.
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering didn't have the same financial concerns that Harrisburg University faces when it opened in Needham, Mass., three years ago, said Duncan Murdoch, the school's vice president for external relations and enrollment.
Olin College was a vision of the Franklin W. Olin Foundation, which provided $450 million to open the school and start an endowment, Murdoch said.
Without an endowment, college experts said, the ability to attract top-notch faculty and research money becomes a huge hurdle. That is especially true for a university focused on science and technology, where the faculty command greater salaries and equipment costs are expensive, they said.
"The bar is extremely high for a startup campus because competition for faculty is incredibly fierce right now," said Travis Reindl of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C.
This is another reason why identifying a niche and cherry-picking faculty is so critical, he said.
"If you have a bunch of good programs but no great program, it's hard to establish the toehold you need," Reindl said. "Money follows opportunity."
Harrisburg University officials heeded this advice. When they hired Oates, she brought along her involvement in a National Science Foundation-funded project to integrate science into the community.
Accreditation is crucial:
A milestone that Schiavelli awaits is winning candidate status for accreditation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
"It is critical to us," he said.
Until the university receives recognition that it is working toward accreditation, its students are ineligible for federal and state student aid. That's a problem because the school's target audience is students who are "relatively needy," he said.
The earliest that Schiavelli anticipates the school could achieve candidate status is June 2006. Full accreditation takes two to five years, said commission spokeswoman Margaret Robbins.
Students attending unaccredited schools can have difficulty having credits transferred, Robbins said. And officials from Olin College, which is working to earn its accreditation, said it also can be an obstacle in placing students in internships.
The lack of accreditation "may affect their ability to go on to graduate school," said Claire Van Ummerson, a vice president at the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C.
Fulfilling a promise:
Once Olin opened, the challenge its administrators faced was making sure they delivered an education to students that they promised.
"If we fall short of that, they go back to tell their parents and friends, and word spreads quickly that Olin College came up short," Murdoch said. "So far, that's not happened."
The next test comes this spring when Olin graduates its first class. Murdoch said their success in finding graduate schools and jobs "will cast the die for the future incoming classes."
Oates agrees that ensuring Harrisburg University students have a great experience is its best marketing tool.
Although academics take priority, she said the first-year students will play a critical role in developing the university's student life and traditions. They'll get to pick a mascot, perhaps pen an alma mater, create a student government and start clubs.
The type of students a new university attracts are those who want to leave a mark, Oates said. "They are not ones to sit back in a class and not participate," she said.
They are unafraid of the unknown, Ritchey said. They are pioneers, like Lewis and Clark, he said, with one exception: Lewis and Clark's journey ended after about 28 months.
"The dream here is that it will never end," Ritchey said.