Barron reviews progress against six imperatives in final report to trustees

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – In his final remarks to the University’s Board of Trustees, Penn State President Eric J. Barron shared progress over the past 18 months and reflected on the work of his administration and units across the University to position Penn State for continued success. Barron will retire May 8 after eight years as president, to be succeeded by Penn State President-elect Neeli Bendapudi.

‘Six imperatives’

Introduced in 2014 as he prepared to take office, Barron’s six imperatives have served as a critical guidepost for his administration, acting as a lens to examine the state of the University and as the basis for defining broad, long-term planning. The imperatives are focused in the areas of excellence; access and affordability; economic development and student career success; student engagement; diversity and demographics; and technology and curriculum delivery. Throughout his presidency, he has maintained a focus on these strategic imperatives with collaboration and support from faculty, staff, students, alumni, community leaders, elected officials and friends.

In his remarks, Barron built on the update he delivered to the board in February 2021, in which he outlined goals for the remainder of his presidency.

Excellence:

Throughout his tenure, Barron has focused on advancing the University in core areas tied to overall excellence, including areas such as fundraising, research, rankings and expenditures, along with critical work to renew the physical infrastructure that supports the University’s academic and research missions in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and the arts and humanities.

In his update to the board, Barron underscored the University’s success in key areas:

• In late April, Penn State surpassed the goal for its current fundraising campaign, "A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence," announcing more than $2.1 billion raised in the six years since the campaign’s start and placing the University among just 15 institutions nationally that have raised more than $1 billion in philanthropic support in three or more campaigns.
• Barron also noted major groundbreakings and upcoming improvements to infrastructure that will advance Penn State’s excellence in academics and research, including Engineering Buildings West I and West II, and the new Palmer Museum of Art planned adjacent to the Arboretum at Penn State.
• He also reviewed accomplishments related to investment in enduring themes that impact the world, highlighting strong leadership and regular meetings of the University’s Energy Task Force, and infrastructure investments in health and science, as well as analysis of the relationship between the College of Medicine and Penn State Heath.

Access and affordability:

Since 2014, Barron has underscored the importance of a holistic approach to managing costs and providing students with an accessible and affordable high-quality education. The University’s collective efforts, unified under the "Achieve Penn State" initiative, are focused on helping students to borrow less, manage debt, build financial skills and graduate on time to avoid the cost of additional semesters of study. Along with longstanding efforts to control and monitor costs at the University, Penn State also has accomplished multiple years of tuition freezes for in-state students during Barron’s tenure, and has implemented targeted scholarship and award programs — such as the Open Doors Scholarship Program, Equity Scholarships and Discover Awards — that reach students beginning as early as high school and continue through graduation.

To that end, Barron said the University has so far raised $659.7 million in support for the Open Doors theme, and 952 scholarships were matched as part of the Open Doors and Educational Equity scholarship initiatives. In February, Barron provided the board with a comprehensive assessment of the five programs that comprise the Achieve Penn State initiative and that are supported by the Open Doors program, reporting on their positive impact on student debt and completion rates.

He also reported on ongoing efforts to advance recommendations from the University’s Food and Housing Security Task Force, established in 2020 to evaluate these student challenges at Penn State and devise solutions to help students focus on their goals and achieve academic success no matter their socioeconomic background. The task force completed its assessment and shared its recommendations in March 2021. On May 6, the task force released results of a survey taken by more than 2,000 students at University Park, which has helped to shed additional light on a challenge that impacts students at Penn State and at colleges and universities nationwide, and to inform next steps. Penn State is currently advancing a number of new initiatives as a result of this work, including LiveOn housing scholarships and improvements to the student-run Lion’s Pantry at University Park, and pantries at Commonwealth Campuses. The Barrons also have personally committed $525,000 to establish the Eric and Molly Barron Student Food Security Endowment, which will provide University meal plans for undergraduate students who encounter food insecurity. As a result of these and other ongoing efforts, students who may be facing challenges related to food and housing security have access to comprehensive online and in-person resources. Barron said these important efforts will continue.

Economic development and student career success: 

As a land-grant institution in service to society, a key focus during Barron’s tenure has been on advancing statewide economic development and providing career services to help students find jobs. Among its economic development initiatives, under Barron’s leadership the University launched and has grown Invent Penn State, a network of 21 LaunchBoxes and Innovation Hubs across Pennsylvania. Since its creation, Invent Penn State has engaged 13,151 students and faculty, supported 4,976 entrepreneurs, graduated 464 startups from accelerator programs, completed 309 product development projects, and helped start 218 new Pennsylvania companies, among other program impacts.

During his address, Barron updated the board on efforts to secure line-item funding for Invent Penn State from the commonwealth. In November 2021, Barron was joined in Harrisburg by program leaders and a panel of industry leaders and fellow entrepreneurs for a hearing with the Pennsylvania Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee titled “Improving Pennsylvania’s Innovation Economy: Invent Penn State.” In February 2022, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf included $2.35 million in funding for Invent Penn State in his proposed budget. The governor’s proposal will be considered by the Pennsylvania General Assembly as part of its annual budget cycle, which ends in June. Barron also highlighted the recently completed Penn State Innovation Hub, a six-story, state-of-the-art, multi-use building fully focused on innovation that now serves as the cornerstone of the Penn State entrepreneurial ecosystem. The building was renamed the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub Building on May 6, as part of a series of board actions to recognize Barron's contributions to Penn State.

Student engagement:

Even before he officially took office in 2014, among Barron’s key focuses has been the drive to help students take advantage of the many rich opportunities at Penn State — those that can augment classroom-based learning with experiences that include international scholarship, internships, undergraduate and graduate research, entrepreneurship, leadership and service — all aimed at helping students to develop into global citizens and prepare them for success in life after graduation.

To promote the effort, the University launched the Student Engagement Network (SEN) in 2017 to connect students with experiences that empower them to make a positive impact as citizens and future leaders. The SEN Grant Program, a core pillar of the SEN, supports students in breadth of engagement experiences. In his remarks, Barron said that although the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the number of program applicants, there has been a steady year-over-year increase in the percentage of applicants awarded SEN grants. Since its inception, SEN has funded more than 1,000 student experiences with more than $1 million in awards for students from all economic backgrounds to participate in out-of-classroom learning experiences.

Barron said efforts to enhance cross-disciplinary collaboration among the Student Engagement Network and academic colleges continue, centered on a set of formalized goals to enhance the student experience, and highlighted the Penn State Student Engagement App, which is designed to provide a centralized experience to connect students with engagement experiences and resources. The app will be launched University-wide for the fall semester.

Diversity and demographics:

As a moral, educational and business imperative, Barron has led Penn State in making ongoing investments in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across every campus. As incoming students continue to be more diverse, he has worked with students and a broad range of stakeholders to advance equality and foster a more welcoming and inclusive campus community through services and support; education and scholarship; recruitment and training; dialogue; and awareness. During Barron’s tenure, DEI efforts have served as a core component of the Penn State Strategic Plan, and much of the work to foster and support DEI is detailed in the University’s Action Together website. While important progress has been made in this area, Barron also has maintained that there is more work to do.

In his update, Barron reviewed progress against goals shared with the board and community last year.

Efforts continue to establish an enterprise approach to issues of diversity, equity and inclusion that seeks to assess and focus Penn State’s investment in DEI programs and staff, discover gaps in investments and create more effective programs. This includes plans to create a chief diversity officer position reporting to the president, and an effort to conduct a University-wide inventory to identify individuals who already have advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion as an official focus of their position. The effort identified more than 80 individuals University-wide, and efforts to coordinate their important work will continue.

Barron also reviewed work underway to formalize DEI as part of Penn State’s education and scholarship mission. This includes the recently announced pilot program for BUILD @ Penn State, which is intended to provide anti-bias education for employees starting in the fall of 2022; the formation of the University’s Center for Racial Justice and a national search for its founding director; and advancing national leadership in anti-racist scholarship spearheaded by Penn State Dickinson Law.

Efforts continue, too, to establish best-in-class programming in the areas of employee onboarding, mentoring and retention. Barron said the University has developed a New Employee Onboarding program that sets a welcoming tone and creates a consistent experience for all employees; hired a new diversity, inclusion and belonging program manager within Human Resources; rolled out a DEI training series for Human Resources recruiters to increase their knowledge and skills related to developing more diverse candidate pools for faculty and staff positions; and launched a pilot diversity mentoring program for employees from underrepresented groups in Penn State Finance and Business.

Technology and curriculum delivery: 

At Barron’s direction, for the past eight years Penn State’s leaders have engaged in an ambitious rethinking of the University’s approach to technology and curriculum delivery. Barron’s vision has been to structure learning and technology to provide students with a seamless, 24/7/365 online experience while making the University more integrated and flexible, allowing students, faculty and staff to achieve their goals regardless of their location in the world. Under his One Penn State 2025 vision, the goal is to provide students with access to lifelong learning that allows them to return to the University as their educational needs shift through time, efficiently meeting professional and societal needs in a timely manner.

Barron shared information about continued efforts to make the vision a reality, including the creation of "Elevate," a web-based tool to help faculty and advisers proactively identify students who may benefit from outreach, to keep them on track and boost success; implementation of a pilot test-optional admissions process through the next two years; and introduction of efficiencies into LionPATH, the University’s student information system. He also discussed efforts to coordinate and deliver responsive learning through micro-credentials, including production of a comprehensive report on the topic; improvements to the Penn State Go mobile app and implementation of Starfish analytics to provide insights and improve student success; and progress toward launch of an enterprise client relationship management system to enable Penn State to deliver on the goals of Penn State 2025 and the University’s strategic plan.

Final meeting

“My time as Penn State president has been the most rewarding phase of my career, and I am grateful for the support of so many from across the University and community, from students to faculty and staff, and to my administrative team,” Barron said. “Together, and with the support of our trustees, we have been able to achieve so much. While I am retiring, the University’s important work will continue under the leadership of President-elect Neeli Bendapudi, who I am confident will lead Penn State with integrity and intelligence.”

“I’m extraordinarily proud of all that we have achieved together,” wrote Barron in his farewell entry on his blog, Digging Deeper. “(Penn State has) a top 1% world ranking; a comprehensive approach to access and affordability, 18 research fields in the top 10; record research expenditures that topped $1 billion; a decade of ranking in the top five for corporate recruiting; an enviable bond rating; an all-time record for philanthropy; a truly remarkable success in entrepreneurship and innovation, and so much more.”

“Molly and I are grateful for the support and spirit that we have experienced at University Park and on Penn State campuses across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” he wrote. “Thank you to all of you – the Penn State family – who have all been part of my family’s journey. We are better for knowing you and lucky to have been part of a place that makes saying goodbye so very hard.”

Barron’s full presentation is available to view online.