School of Engineering and Engineering Technology (SEET)

Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, is a comprehensive and growing university campus of 3,500 students with four-year and graduate programs. Situated in the hills overlooking Lake Erie and the sand beaches of Presque Isle Bay, the inspiring campus encompasses over 700 acres of natural wooded beauty. Metropolitan Erie is an attractive, renascent area of about 260,000 located on the Pennsylvania shore of Lake Erie, approximately two hours drive from Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Buffalo. There are abundant cultural and recreational opportunities, and housing costs are quite reasonable.

The current director is retiring, after coming from the University of South Carolina seven years ago.

Research at Penn State Erie is about $3 million, 80% of it in the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology. The School's annual operating budget, excluding salaries, is about $300,000 and non-research external funding is typically $150-200,000 per year.

Some of the leading members of the Erie industrial community are: GE Transportation Systems (transportation equipment and supplies, motor & generator manufacturing, trucking transportation and railroad equipment manufacturing), Lord Corporation (fuses rubber with metal to reduce vibration), International Paper, Plastek (manufacturers consumer product containers), and Modern Industries (manufacturers differential gears for Saturn automobile). Thirty percent of the jobs in Erie are in the manufacturing sector.

The provost, SEET director and SEET faculty, currently 34, have built an excellent School within a short period of time. SEET has a dynamic faculty with a shared vision for the future, dedicated to maintaining a balance between teaching and research and integration of teaching, research, and outreach activities. This is an opportunity for an energetic leader to make a significant contribution to furthering the high-quality engineering education SEET provides. SEET seeks a candidate who, like the faculty, values a strong undergraduate education integrated with high-quality research and technology transfer activities, and one who is interested in faculty development as well as planning new facilities.

There are high-quality accredited programs in EE, EET, ME, MET, and Plastics Engineering Technology, enrolling over 1,000 students; Computer Engineering started Fall 1998.

The School is housed in a state-of-the-art engineering facility which opened in 1996. There is approval for a planned expansion to a new $30 million facility within five years.

A part of the campus is a 200-acre research and development park, Knowledge Park, established in 1998 to integrate the School's academic, research, and technology transfer efforts. The companies in Knowledge Park are within walking distance for students who have internships there. For additional information, visit: (www.pserie.psu.edu/res-econ/kpark.htm).

A federally-funded Plastics Deployment Technology Center and nine industry-sponsored consortia are also part of the School.

There is strong financial support from the region the School serves.

Reports To:Provost and Dean (equivalent to campus president/chancellor), in parallel with three directors of the Schools of Business, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Science, respectively.

High-caliber students, as documented by their admission to leading graduate schools. Penn State Erie offers a technologically-advanced academic environment characterized by close faculty/student interaction and a strong commitment to undergraduate research.

Penn State Erie's programs in Mechanical Engineering Technology and Plastics Engineering Technology are known nationally.

There is an opportunity for the next director to move the School to a higher level, and to lead the decision-making on graduate-level programming.

SEET, Penn State Erie has more equipment for undergraduates than most engineering schools. The laboratories are not over-crowded.

The School's faculty, as a rule, work together to further improve programs and facilities.

The School wants to continue its strong link with industry, as evidenced by the near completion of Knowledge Park, a part of the campus, modeled on Research Triangle, North Carolina.

The School has a continuing and distance education program. Please visit for more information: (www.pserie.psu.edu/cde/Cdeindx.htm).

Penn State Erie is the model of the Penn State System, with its balance of research and teaching.

The provost (president of Erie Campus) is an excellent fund-raiser.

A rating from U.S, News & World Report puts Penn State Erie among the top 10 regional public universities in the North.

Although research funding is important and encouraged, there is no minimum "quota" on amount of faculty research dollars obtained.

Decisions need to be made about graduate programs.

Must understand the needs of industry.

The director needs to understand the needs of both engineering and engineering technology.

Accreditation in 2000. All programs received maximum (6 years) at last accreditation. The new director needs to know the process, especially Volume I and Volume II. Volume I is prepared by the director, Volume II is prepared by the programs. The new director might have to write parts of Volume II for some programs.

Penn State Erie has grown very fast. Some of the faculty have noted that SEET is now suffering from "growing pains." The new director needs to evaluate new opportunities and assure resources are available for those opportunities which are pursued. When the current director arrived in 1992, The School was about one-half the size it is now.

Some programs know where they are going. Others need help.

The new director needs vision. The faculty are committed to continuous quality improvement and the new director must be able to lead the School to a new level.

Current School faculty need to make tenure without graduate students.