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State attorney general signs agreement with the University and Geisinger
As planned, the Penn State Geisinger Health System was formally launched
July 1 at a signing ceremony in 
Danville between officials from
Geisinger and The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
Just one day before, the state's attorney general forged an agreement with the University and Geisinger. Over the next six months, the system will ensure accessibility to sophisticated health care services for consumers in central Pennsylvania. The Penn State Geisinger Health System must negotiate with all other health plans in a 20-county region of central Pennsylvania to provide tertiary care -- sophisticated procedures such as organ and bone marrow transplants.
"The attorney general is pleased we could enter into this agreement," said Sean Duffy, spokesman for that office. "We have had good conversations with all parties involved and this agreement protects consumers as well as remaining cognizant of Penn State's and Geisinger's desires -- allowing them to move forward and meet their self-imposed July 1 deadline."
The merger of the clinical enterprises of Geisinger and Hershey Medical Center into a new, non-profit, health system establishes a billion-dollar enterprise that is the third largest physician practice in the nation. The merger is the only one between a health system which includes an insurance organization and a school of medicine. The Penn State Geisinger Health Plan, formerly the Geisinger Health Plan, is the largest rural HMO in the nation.
The system will span 40 contiguous counties and will provide increased access to 1,000 physicians through its combined network of 77 clinics. The network also will efficiently serve large employers with multiple worksheets. According to leaders of the new system, providing physicians for rural areas with large populations of older residents is a major commitment of the Penn State Geisinger Health System.
"This merger ensures that a strong Pennsylvania health-care system will not only survive but will thrive as organizations consolidate to become more efficient and effective," said Dr. Stuart Heydt, chief executive officer of the Penn State Geisinger Health System. "As this new system matures and grows, we will continue to look for opportunities for partnership with other health-care organizations."
The new system will provide patient care from primary to the most complex specialty care, with support from research conducted in Penn State's College of Medicine and the Janet Weis Research Center in Danville.
Dr. C. McCollister Evarts, Penn State's senior vice president for health affairs and dean of the College of Medicine, recently told the Board of Trustees that the merger also brings the opportunity for population-based medicine, "enabling us to develop extensive programs focusing on wellness and fitness, behavior modification and outcome studies where part of our attention will be focused on populations as well as individuals."
Evarts noted the significance of education within the new system. "A system with its own health plan provides the opportunity for our medical students and residents to learn to practice in an environment that focuses on managed care. And, with Penn State Geisinger Health Plan being the largest rural HMO in the United States, students will get acquainted with rural medicine, as well as urban medicine in the more populated areas of southcentral Pennsylvania."
According to Evarts, the system's merged research programs will focus on identifying and solving health problems specific to Pennsylvanians.
Since January, employees at both Hershey and Geisinger have worked hard to ensure a smooth transition.
Frank Henry, chairman of the board of the new Penn State Geisinger Foundation, said, "I would like to acknowledge all of our employees who have shown their commitment to the new system by working diligently -- and often overtime -- over the past six months to effect a smooth transition. Many employees from both Geisinger and Hershey have participated on joint transition teams that have been meeting to plan the specific details of the new system. To everyone who has helped to get us here today, I simply say, 'Thank you.'"
Henry said that the teams, who have been planning the future of areas like patient care, personnel, finances and communications, will continue to meet in the months to come.
Citing Penn State's substantial name recognition, long-established academic reputation and high student quality, Moody's Investors Service recently upgraded the University's long-term bond rating from A1 to Aa3. The upgrade from the A rating is significant, in that Aa-rated bonds are generally considered to be of "high investment grade."
According to a recent ratings update from Moody's, the large size and scope of Penn State's enrollment "highlights strong student demand. The University generates statewide and even national demand for its instruction, research and public service programs." The update specifically notes that:
* The changeover to the Commonwealth College system, which took effect July 1, is "expected to bolster University-wide student demand."
* The recent merger between The Hershey Medical Center and the Geisinger Health System, which also took effect July 1, "reduces risk in a well-diversified revenue stream."
* Penn State's endowment has grown from $110.5 million to $426.6 million in the last decade, triggered by investment gains and successful fundraising campaigns led by strong alumni participation.
The Pennsylvania All-State Lions Band, a program of the
Penn State Blue Band, draws youths from across the state to University Park
for competition. Shown practicing recently are, from left, Todd Sheerer
of Lancaster, Laura Smith of York, Mike Marsh of Green Castle and Mindy
Davidhizar of Johnstown.
Photo: Greg Grieco
Marc D. Abrams, forest ecology/ physiology
Michele Amateau, art
Sarah M. Assmann, biology
William G. Axinn, sociology
Ayoub B. Ayoub, mathematics, Penn State Abington
Lori J. Bechtel, biobehavioral health, Penn State Altoona
Robert C. Black, biology, Delaware County
S. Diane Brannon, health policy and administration
Susan L. Brantley, geosciences
Richard A. Carlson, psychology
Patrick G. Cheney, English and comparative literature
John M. Cimbala, mechanical engineering
Chitaranjan Das, computer science and engineering
Derek Elsworth, mining engineering
Robert M. Frieden, communications
Aaron D. Gresson, education
Jawaid Haider, architecture
Rod M. Heisey, biology, Penn State Schuylkill, Capital College
Charles Helou, mathematics, Delaware County
Charles A. Hughes, special education
Sanjay B. Joshi, industrial engineering
M. Arshad Khan, chemistry, Penn State DuBois
Joseph L. Kincheloe, education
Sanat K. Kumar, materials science and engineering
Lee R. Kump, geosciences
Akhlesh Lakhtakia, engineering science and mechanics
Dennis Lamb, meteorology
Les E. Lanyon, soil fertility
Mark Maroncelli, chemistry
Thomas J. McGarrity, medicine, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Sally A. McMurry, history
Kenneth M. Merz Jr., chemistry
Carl Mitcham, philosophy and science, technology and society
Victor Nistor, mathematics
Edward S. Podczaski, obstetrics and gynecology, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
R. Alan Price, English, Penn State Hazleton
William J. Rothwell, education
David W. Russell, electrical engineering, Penn State Great Valley
Victor E. Sanvido, architectural engineering
Dennis C. Scanlon, agricultural and extension education
John L. Selzer, English
Alok Sinha, mechanical engineering
Jill P. Smith, medicine, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Stephen M. Smith, agricultural economics
Paul E. Sokol, physics
Donald A. Streit, mechanical engineering
Stefan T. Thynell, mechanical engineering
Linda K. Treviño, organizational behavior
Christopher F. Uhl, biology
Judith R. Vicary, health education and biobehavioral health
Robert D. Weaver, agricultural economics
James A. Winsor, biology, Penn State Altoona
John V. Badding, chemistry
Donald D. Bergh, management
Ronald V. Bettig, communications
Gary E. Bolton, management science
Barbara A. Bremer, psychology, Penn State Harrisburg, Capital College
Barbara E. Bullock, French and linguistics
David J. Cannon, industrial engineering
Richard G. Caram, theatre arts, Penn State Altoona
Jon M. Carson, engineering, Penn State Wilkes-Barre
Kumkum Chatterjee, history
Zhibo Chen, mathematics, Penn State McKeesport
Robert E. Cilley, surgery, pediatrics, neuroscience and anatomy, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Peter B. Crabb, psychology, Penn State Abington
John E. Daniel, music
C. Leah Devlin, biology, Penn State Abington
Cheng Dong, bioengineering and engineering science and mechanics
Deborah R. Erickson, surgery, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Dorothy H. Evensen, curriculum and instruction
Mark A. Fearnow, theatre arts
Clarence W. Finley Jr., chemistry, Penn State New Kensington
Shelby J. Fleischer, entomology
Peter B. Flemings, geosciences
Katherine H. Freeman, geosciences
Konstadinos G. Goulias, civil engineering
Hassan Gourama, food science, Penn State Berks, Berks-Lehigh Valley College
Mark J. Guiltinan, plant molecular biology
Elizabeth A. Hanley, kinesiology
S. Blair Hedges, biology
Benjamin T. Hudson, history and Medieval studies
Timothy F. Hurtz, music
Timothy W. Kelsey, agricultural economics
Ronald P. Krahe, engineering, Penn State Erie, Behrend College
Jonathan P. Lynch, plant nutrition
Jeffrey S. Mayer, electrical engineering
Wayne J. McMullen, speech communication, Delaware County
Richard G. Mistrick, architectural engineering
Veronica Montecinos, sociology, Penn State McKeesport
David A. Morand, management, Penn State Harrisburg, Capital College
Daniel J. Nadenicek, landscape architecture
Michael J. Natan, chemistry
Jeffrey T. Nealon, English
Reiko T. Nemoto, comparative literature and Japanese
George J. Olt, obstetrics and gynecology, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Jorge A. Pullin, physics
Jean M. Sanders, art
Dhushyanthan Sathianathan, engineering
Jie Shen, mathematics
Zachary Simmons, medicine, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Thomas W. Smialek Jr., music and integrative arts, Penn State Hazleton
Mario Sznaier, electrical engineering
Diane M. Thiboutot, medicine, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Daqing Wan, mathematics
Howard N. Weiss, mathematics
Danny R. Welch, pathology, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Thomas Yahner, landscape architecture
Chengbo Yue, mathematics
Xingguo Zhang, physics, Penn State Hazleton
Nancy J. Butkovich, collections and reference services
Kevin R. Harwell, collections and reference services
Bonnie A. Osif, collections and reference services
Helen M. Sheehy, collections and reference services
Diane L. Shenk, collections and reference services
Mila C. Su, information access services, Penn State Altoona
Ram B. Bhagat, Applied Research Laboratory
Brenda M. Bernatowicz, Erie County
J. Lee Miller, Beaver County
Gary L. Sheppard, Westmoreland County
Daniel L. Brockett, Venango County
Mary R. Ehret, Luzerne County
Donna L. Foulk, Monroe County
Jeffrey T. Fowler, Venango County
Marlene O. Nash, Bucks County
Pamela L. Paletta, Washington County
Janice E. Stoudnour, Bedford County
Delbert G. Voight, Lebanon County
Melanie E. Barkley, Bedford County
Ryan L. Hockensmith, Lawrence County
Walter E. Whitmer, Juniata County
Summertime is grammar time for English educators from across the country who plan to gather at Pennsylvania College of Technology for the eighth annual conference of the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar (ATEG) on July 18 and 19.
The conference attracts nationally recognized grammarians who will serve as featured speakers including Penn College's own Edward A. Vavra, associate professor of rhetoric; Connie Weaver, author of Teaching Grammar in Context; Rei Noguchi, author of Grammar and the Teaching of Writing; Bill McCleary, editor of Composition Chronicle; and Martha Kolln, president of ATEG and author of Rhetorical Grammar.
The event's keynote speech will be delivered by Art Whimbey, author of Analyze, Organize, Write and Blue Print for Educational Change. Whimbey, an educational researcher and consultant, also will give a workshop titled "Improving Writing, Reading and Reasoning with Cooperative Learning and Text Reconstruction."
Separate from the conference, he will offer a three-hour workshop for English, math, science and social studies teachers titled "Teaching Reasoning for Reading, Writing and Math Skills."
Registration is open to all educators. For more information on registration fees and events, contact Vavra at (717) 326-3761, ext. 7736 or (717) 327-4503, or via e-mail at evavra@pct.edu.
More than 100 mathematicians and others from around the world will gather at University Park for the conference Topics in Number Theory, from July 30Aug. 3.
The conference will feature an international lineup of speakers who are
leading researchers in additive number theory, arithmetic geometry, combinatorics,
computational number theory, automorphic forms and
q-series.
The conference will highlight recent number theory advancements, especially those related to modular forms and q-series, and the interactions between these two topics.
The conference is a continuing and distance education service of the Eberly College of Science, Department of Mathematics.
For conference information, contact Ken Ono at (814) 865-6642 or through e-mail at ono@math.ias.edu. For information about registration, contact Roberta Moore at (814) 863-5120 or through e-mail at ConferenceInfo1@cde.psu.edu. You also can call (800) 778-8632, or visit the Web at: http://www.cde.psu.edu/C&I/NumTheory.
The extent to which Penn State and other American universities are caring, humane and responsive to employees and students is the topic of the next edition of "To the Best of My Knowledge," President Graham B. Spanier's monthly call-in program on WPSU-FM (90.1, 91.5 and 106.7), airing at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 15.
Increasingly, colleges and universities are adopting such progressive business and industry features as flextime, on-site day care and ombudsman programs. Combine these with traditional benefits like tuition remission and reasonably priced medical plans and you have an ideal work setting. Or do you? Why is discontent so prevalent at so many levels of higher education? And why did more than a quarter of Penn State faculty and a third of the University's staff say in a recent survey that they would leave to get another job with equal pay, benefits and working conditions?
Listeners with opinions about these issues are invited to join Spanier and his guest, Robert Hemenway, chancellor of the University of Kansas, by calling 1-800-543-8242 during the one-hour program. Internet users worldwide will be able to link to sound and pictures from the program at http://www.psu.edu/ur/tech/tech.html; and they will be able to submit questions and comments via e-mail to response@psu.edu.
The following programs are being offered for faculty and staff by the Human Resource Development Center. To register, complete the form found in the back of the Spring/Summer HRDC catalog, and fax to (814)865-3522.
* Continuous Achievement: How to Increase Effectiveness at Work -- PRO 020
July 17, 9 a.m. to noon, 319 Rider Building. Cost: $35.
* Managing Your Career in the New World of Work -- PRO 097
July 30, 9 to 11 a.m., 319 Rider Building. Cost: $25.
As part of the University's telecommunications infrastructure upgrade project, access to private fiber networks and the data backbone at some University Park buildings will be interrupted between midnight, July 25, and 8 a.m. July 27. The outage is required to splice and relocate fiber bundles into a new telecommunications room that is being created by the project. The move will enhance the reliability of network connections.
On each given day, according to the Office of Telecommunications, the following buildings will experience an intermittent outage during the associated timeframes listed below. Please note that not all buildings mentioned during a particular timeframe will be down for the entire duration. For example, while one fiber bundle is being cut and re-spliced, the other buildings scheduled for that timeframe will most likely still have service. Once the service is restored, work will commence on the next bundle.
Although all attempts will be made to keep the outage to a minimum, the longest outage during the weekend is expected to be six hours. All other outages should be approximately three hours. The planned outage schedule follows:
* Between midnight Friday, July 25 and 8 a.m. Saturday, July 26: Old Main, EE West, EE East, Steidle, Hosler, Reber, Noll Lab and Power Plant;
* Between 3 p.m. Saturday, July 26, and 8 a.m. Sunday, July 27: Sackett, Hammond, engineering units, Sparks, Hammond, Deike, EE West, Carnegie, Old Botany and Schwab.
A representative from OTC will contact network administrators about when their particular network will be back online. If you have questions, please contact your network administrator or the OTC Network Management Center at (814) 863-HELP (863-4357).
For more information, see the OTC Web site at http://www.otc.psu.edu/.
Registration forms are now available for the ninth annual Chris Poster Memorial 5K run set for Saturday, Aug. 16, at Penn State York. The event is held in memory of Chris Poster, a York Suburban High School runner, and awards scholarships to deserving high school seniors. To date, a total of $15,000 in scholarship aid has been awarded as a result of the race.
For more information or for a registration form call York campus at (717) 771-4126.
News editors, newsletter editors and Penn State fans can now download art and photographs 24 hours a day, seven days a week from the Department of Public Information's newest service. Computer illustrations, graphs and photographs that accompany daily and breaking news stories are now available, as are those items specially requested by editors and reporters. Public Information also offers a photo archive with a Penn State theme, including President Graham B. Spanier's most recent portrait; shots of Old Main; Beaver Stadium; and general campus shots. More will be added, and your suggestions are welcome.
There are two ways to get to the site. One is to point your Web browser (such as Netscape) at ftp://murrow.oud.psu.edu/ART/
You also may use an FTP client directed at
Host: murrow.oud.psu.edu
User ID: news (all lowercase)
Password: NEWS (all caps)
Directory: /ART
If you are looking for an Intercom article on someone you know, want to read about faculty research or want to find out if a particular issue was covered by Intercom or Public Information, you can search for it on the Web. All issues of Intercom and most Public Information press releases since 1995 are archived on the University Relations home page.
The page address is http://www.psu.edu/ur/. To go directly to the search engine, the URL is http://www.ur.psu.edu/eg.acgi.
During its annual 21-hour telethon May 31 through June 1, the Children's Miracle Network raised $1,037,500 for the Penn State University Children's Hospital, at The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Hershey Foods employees were the largest employee group, having raised $122,000, followed by the medical center employees who raised $80,000. The Children's Miracle Network's corporate sponsors raised more than $500,000 and community organizations raised over $100,000.
All funds raised by the telethon locally will support pediatric services at Penn State University Children's Hospital.
The merger of The Dickinson School of Law and Penn State benefits both institutions. Penn State gains a prestigious law school, and Dickinson gains administrative assistance. In addition, Dickinson is now nationally more visible as a Big Ten law school.
By Kimberley Yarnell Bierly
Public Information
Fourteen days ago, Penn State added legal education to its curriculum
when The Dickinson School of Law in 
Carlisle officially became
The Dickinson School of Law of The Pennsylvania State University.
The law school is the oldest law school in Pennsylvania, having been founded in 1834 by Judge John Reed, and was the oldest independent law school in the nation.
There are approximately 530 students, including those enrolled in the master's program in comparative law, at Dickinson. The incoming class this fall will have about 175 students. Dickinson's Dean Peter G. Glenn is proud of the fact that the 1997 entering class will have stronger academic credentials than the class that entered in 1996, despite a nationwide decline in law school applicants.
Glenn is also proud of the fact that Dickinson is probably the only law school in the United States that won't raise tuition this year. Tuition at Dickinson is $14,500, and the cost for on-campus housing is $3,000 for the 60 students who live in on-campus residences; and a meal plan, at a cost of $2,680, is available to all students through the Dickinson College food service. Students also will have $175,000 more in financial aid available this fall than last year, the dean said.
The July 1 merger with Penn State, which will not be fully accomplished until the year 2000, is only the latest cooperative venture for the two institutions. Last year, the law school implemented a master's degree in public administration/juris doctorate program in cooperation with Penn State Harrisburg. This summer, Dickinson is collaborating with the College of Agricultural Sciences to begin an Agricultural Law Research and Recourse Center at the law school. It is hoped that this center will provide research, outreach and service to the Commonwealth.
Officials also are considering expanding degree offerings to include a combined law degree and MBA with The Smeal College of Business Administration, and a law degree combined with a master's degree in environmental pollution control, along with joint programs with other Penn State colleges.
"From the law school's perspective, this merger will provide Dickinson's students with enriched programs and cross-disciplinary education and an improvement in technology available for research and learning," Glenn explained.
The dean is anticipating two new programs, one that would allow highly skilled undergraduate students at Penn State to earn their bachelor's degrees and juris doctorate degrees in six years and a second that would include those degrees along with an MBA to be earned in seven years.
"I think Dickinson will broaden Penn State's offerings by providing a first rate law school. For Dickinson, it will enable the school to concern itself more intensely with providing a top quality legal education by having some of the administrative responsibilities handled by Penn State, which has a larger staff, more technology and more experience in administrative areas. Penn State has a first rate administrative staff," said Carlisle attorney and Dickinson graduate Robert Frey, who proudly serves as president of the law school's Board of Trustees and who will serve as trustee emeritus of Penn State.
Frey calls Dickinson a "little gem" and thinks the merger is a "win-win" situation for both institutions.
"Penn State is a vigorous, rapidly advancing institution and its goals are not different from Dickinson's in the area of quality," he said.
Dickinson publishes one of the oldest law school publications in the country. The first issue of The Forum was published on Jan. 15, 1897. In 1909, its name was changed to Dickinson Law Review.
In the early years of the school, law degrees were awarded under the auspices of Dickinson College, a nearby four-year liberal arts college. The law school's incorporation in 1890 made it independent of the college and the first woman graduated from the law school nine years later, while the first foreign student was from Japan and earned a degree in 1892.
Judge Reed's stated goal in founding the law school was "to prepare students thoroughly for the practice of their profession." Dickinson has been a pioneer in the teaching of legal skills. The forerunners of today's advocacy courses were developed at Dickinson in the 1930s, and the school introduced legal clinic-type activities in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The law school also was an innovator in providing comparative law programs for foreign lawyers when it established a master's degree program in comparative law in 1968.
Among Dickinson's many well-know graduates are former governors Andrew Gregg Curtin, Arthur James and John Fine; current Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge; U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum; and president pro tempore of the Pennsylvania Senate Robert C. Jubilirer.
