UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — To say the tenure of Rodney J. Reed as the sixth dean of the Penn State College of Education was impactful would be an understatement. Reed’s eight-plus year stewardship, from 1990 to 1998, was one that saw great change in the college, and the University as a whole, from reorganization to strengthening the college academically, to the embrace of the latest technology.
But perhaps his biggest legacy came on his first day: On Jan. 2, 1990, Reed made history by becoming the first person of color to ever serve as dean of an academic college at Penn State.
At that time, the University was making a push for more academic diversity, according to Penn State historian and former faculty member Roger Williams. Reed was recruited to be dean from the University of California, Berkeley where he had been working previously. Leading the initiative to bring Reed to Happy Valley were then-Penn State President Bryce Jordan and then-Executive Vice President Bill Richardson.
“Bryce brought him here, recruited him, and they did a lot toward the end of the 1980s to begin putting more emphasis on diversity and trying to do what they could to make the University a little more representative of the American people,” Williams said. “They really started to open it up. And so, one of the things they wanted to do was to begin looking at the ranks of the academic deans at Penn State. That in itself was a coup for Penn State to bring someone here, let alone an African American dean, from Berkeley.”
Reed hit the ground running by initiating a reorganization of the college into six departments: Educational and School Psychology and Special Education; Adult Education and Instructional Systems; Counselor Education, Counseling Psychology and Rehabilitation Services Education; Administration Policy, Foundations and Comparative/International Education; Curriculum and Instruction; and Vocational and Industrial Education.
However, soon thereafter, as the economy hit a downturn in the early 1990s, then-Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey asked colleges and universities to accept cuts to their appropriation from the state. Reed was faced with a huge challenge to navigate relatively early into his tenure as dean, but that did not stop him from doing the job he was hired to do, explained Williams.
“He did a number of things here,” Williams said. “He put an emphasis on diversity, certainly, and that's one of the reasons he was brought here — to help diversify the college, and the University, for that matter. The commitment toward racial diversity in the college and the University strengthened.”
The academic profile of the college began a noticeable upward trend during Reed’s time as dean. By the midway point of his tenure, nearly one in every five undergraduate students enrolled in one of the college’s majors had graduated in the top 10% of their high school class, including 15 valedictorians and 23 salutatorians. Students in the college had scored as high as 1450 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).
This led to the College of Education gaining notoriety nationwide as an academic heavyweight, Williams said.
“In 1995, the College of Education in one ranking came out among the top 10 colleges in the U.S. and U.S. News and World Report ranked it in the top 25,” Williams said. “So, Rodney did a lot, I think, to bring in faculty and to ensure that academic standards were improving.
“In 1998, six college programs were ranked in the top 10 in the nation,” Williams continued. “Higher education was No. 1 in the country; adult education, No. 1 in the country; counseling psychology, No. 8; educational administration, No. 8, rehabilitation counseling, as it was called, No. 4; and vocational education, which is now workforce education and development, No. 3.”
Another place Reed really pushed for change was in the technological realm. In the nine years Reed led the college, new policies were instituted, including supplying all professors with a computer connected to the University’s network, establishing the Office of Instructional and Technological Support — a precursor to the present-day Carrara Education Technology Center — and completing a Technology Demonstration Classroom and Faculty Development Center.
Additionally, for the first time, College of Education courses were available online and videoconferencing technology was available for faculty use.
“Penn State has always been on the more innovative side of information technology going way back,” Williams recalled. “But while Rodney was here, the college reformed dramatically in technology-related activities, issuing a computer — which now seems like a no-brainer to everybody — where all offices are connected to the University back then. That’s a different world. For the time, he moved, he did the right things.”
A College Administrative Council was formed, comprised of representatives from all major programs and administrative areas, including students, staff and members of the Faculty Council. Working with the Staff Support Council, planning and communications were enhanced. Reed’s tenure also oversaw the establishment of the college-wide Strategic Planning Committee.
Under Reed’s leadership, despite guiding the college through a recession, the college’s endowment nearly tripled from approximately $2.5 million annually in 1990 to more than $7 million in 1998 when Reed retired from Penn State.
His time goes down as one of the more influential deanships in the College of Education’s history.
“From technology to continuing education, academic quality and reputation, diversity, these were all very important,” Williams said. “He accomplished a lot in eight years. I think Rodney's tenure in the college was quite successful.”