At 3 p.m. Sunday, President Graham B. Spanier will be on the road again when two busloads carrying about 80 passengers pull away from the curb at University Park as part of the president's annual Road Scholars Tour of the state.
The Road Scholars Tour, started by Spanier in 1995, takes new faculty members to various parts of the state to experience first-hand Penn State's wide-ranging impact and influence on the Commonwealth. The tour also provides participants with an opportunity to meet faculty outside their disciplines. Each year participants visit different regions of the state, stopping at University campuses, centers, research facilities and local businesses and corporations, along with stops at various points of interest.
During the 1998 tour participants will visit an old growth tree stand in Cook Forest, known as the Forest Cathedral, and hike on the Longfellow Trail. The group will then move on to Titusville for a short stop at Drake Well State Park and Museum, and then on to Penn State Erie, where they will stay overnight in a residence hall.
At Erie, the visitors will have a tour of campus and visit Erie's Plastics Technology Deployment Center and Larson Text Inc. They will also take a tour of General Electric Transportation Systems Co., a leading worldwide supplier of surface transportation systems. After lunch, the group will visit Welch's Production Center and the Lake Erie Regional Grape Research and Extension Center. The visitors will move on to Port Erie Plastics, a custom molder of plastic products, and then head for Presque Isle State Park, where Penn State Erie faculty and students are involved in rare studies of plant life, aquatic biology and more.
On day three of the trip, the group heads to Allegheny National Forest and a tour of Kane Hardwoods. The buses will drive through powdered-metal country and later tour Windfall Products, a powdered-metal firm in St. Marys. From there, the group will head to Penn State DuBois for a walking tour and dinner and arrive back in State College at around 9 p.m.
There is no cost for participants to take part in the Road Scholars Tour. Transportation, meals and lodging are provided by the Office of the President.