Vision
President’s Report 2013
Office of the President
Carver Hall
Bloomsburg University
400 E. Second St.
Bloomsburg, PA 17815-1301
Email: president@bloomu.edu
Blog: bupresident.blogspot.com
www.bloomu.edu/president
Bloomsburg University Mission
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
is an inclusive comprehensive public
university that prepares students for
personal and professional success
in an increasingly complex global
environment.
inside
Economic Driver
Pg. 2
FROM THE PRESIDENT
Business Connections
Celebrating 175 years
Pg. 5
A Gateway to Culture
Pg. 6
Community Experiences
Pg. 8
A Healthy Partnership
Pg. 9
Committed to Serve
Pg. 10
STEM Partnership
Pg. 12
This year marks a milestone for Bloomsburg University as we commemorate
175 years of academic excellence. Our institution has grown throughout the
decades with name changes to reflect its expanding mission, from literary
institute and normal school to state teachers college and state college before
becoming Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania in 1983 when the Pennsylvania
State System of Higher Education was established.
Our observance of 175 years of academic excellence celebrates the values that
form Bloomsburg’s foundation: collaboration, community, critical thinking,
diversity, excellence, integrity, knowledge, opportunity, respect and personal
and professional growth. Now, as in 1839, Bloomsburg builds on these values,
establishing a strong reputation advanced by the faculty’s passion for teaching
and learning, hard-working students, staff, alumni and a strategic vision for the
future.
I hope you enjoy learning about Bloomsburg University’s role in furthering
the mission of public education in this annual report and at our website,
www.bloomu.edu.
Text: Jack Sherzer/Message Prose
Design and Photography: Eric Foster
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania is committed to affirmative action
by way of providing equal educational and employment opportunities for
all persons without regard to race, religion, gender, age, national origin,
sexual orientation, disability or veteran status.
David L. Soltz, President
Bloomsburg University
As Columbia
County’s largest
employer,
Bloomsburg’s
impact is also
felt in the daily
interactions of
students, faculty
and staff with
the business
community.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that the positive economic impact generated
by Bloomsburg University touches virtually every corner of the surrounding
community and region.
“The impact of the students, faculty and staff from Bloomsburg radiates out
and provides an enormous economic impact to the local community,” says
Jeffrey Mandel, the university’s procurement officer. “We have a really good
relationship with the town, as well. The town understands the impact that we
have and we understand the need to have a good relationship with them.”
The university’s direct presence is felt from the millions it spends annually on
goods and service. As Columbia County’s largest employer, BU’s impact is also
felt in the dollars spent on everything from housing to food and entertainment
by its more than 10,000 students, their families and approximately 1,500 fulland part-time faculty and staff.
But such direct spending only captures one part of BU’s economic importance.
Harder to quantify, yet just as significant, are the many collaborations
occurring daily between faculty, staff and students and the local business
community; partnerships that provide valuable advice and assistance to area
firms while, at the same time, giving students invaluable real-world training.
PART OF A LARGER EDUCATIONAL NETWORK
BU is one of 14 institutions in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher
Education (PASSHE) with a total enrollment of 112,000 students, 80 percent
of whom remain in the state after graduation. A 2011 PASSHE study found
that the more than 500,000 alumni from the system’s universities generate an
aggregate annual income of $7 billion.
Operating expenses generated by the 14 universities pump an estimated $1.6
billion a year into the commonwealth’s economy, according to the report.
Spending by students for non-college-related items is worth another $324
million annually.
Here’s a look at some specific ways Bloomsburg University contributes to the
local and regional economy:
BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY AND STUDENT AID
About 84 percent of Bloomsburg’s students received $105 million in student
assistance, grants and salaries from work study programs in 2012-13, says John
J. Bieryla, the university’s director of financial aid. Combining all sources, the
average student receives about $12,400 in assistance.
Specifically, aid categories break down as follows:
n $72 million in loan assistance
n $29 million in grants and tuition waivers
n $4 million in compensation paid through work study programs or graduate assistantships
}
Economic Driver
VISION: Bloomsburg University President’s Report 2013 — Page 3
By the
numbers
TOTAL EMPLOYEES:
APPROXIMATELY 1,500
TOTAL STUDENTS:
10,000
LIVING ALUMNI:
63,000
ANNUAL INSTITUTIONAL
PURCHASES
WITHIN 75-MILE RADIUS:
$39.2 MILLION
{
VISION: Bloomsburg University President’s Report 2013 — Page 2
VISION: Bloomsburg University President’s Report 2013 — Page 4
Economic Driver
Continued from previous page
“From grants and academic scholarships to tuition
waivers, financial aid plays a big role,” Bieryla
says. “We would not be able to enroll the type of
students we want without this kind of assistance.”
PUTTING BU’S EXPERTISE TO WORK
HELPING THE LOCAL ECONOMY
“Many businesses, nonprofits and volunteer groups
have a need for data to help them make decisions,
from what kind of events to hold to the kind of
advertising that works,” says Heather Feldhaus,
director for the university’s Center for Community
Research and Consulting, which opened in 2012.
“Roughly 200 student volunteers work with faculty
on any number of studies,” says Feldhaus, also
assistant dean in the College of Liberal Arts. “Our
students have the opportunity to gain real research
experience and our communities are able to get
high-quality information that is truly local.”
For example, students are working with the
Danville (Pa.) Business Alliance to assess the
economic benefits of a planned bike trail that
will eventually run to Bloomsburg. “Students are
reviewing literature to see how area businesses
might take advantage of the trail. They found that
nearby restaurants can get more customers just by
installing bike racks.”
Among the center’s ongoing projects are:
n Economic impact studies of the Bloomsburg
Fair, the Covered Bridges Festival at Knoebels
Amusement Resort and Danville’s Spring Fling.
n A comprehensive parking study of downtown
Bloomsburg in partnership with local police,
the planning commission and the Bloomsburg
University Foundation. “We’ve coded every
parking spot downtown and are tracking every
two hours to see whether the same cars are
staying or rotating out. We will be able to give
the town a report on where the parking issues are
and what time of day,” says Feldhaus. The center
is charging $2,000 for the study and Feldhaus
says other firms would charge $5,000 or more.
n Working with the Columbia County Court system
to study the effectiveness of special courts for
drug and driving under the influence offenses and
evaluating the impact of alternative sentencing
to treatment programs on recidivism. National
studies suggest such courts can lower the
incidence of repeat violations from 60 percent to
about 20 percent, Feldhaus says.
“While in most cases we don’t contract directly
with small businesses, a great deal of what we are
doing is about helping to economically develop the
region,” she says.
BU’S OPERATIONS SUPPORT LOCAL
AND REGIONAL BUSINESSES
“We have a huge impact on the local economy,”
says Mandel. “Just for the general purchase of
goods and services we deal with numerous local
vendors.”
Between July 2012 and June 2013, for example,
Bloomsburg spent $39.2 million buying goods and
service from firms within a 75-mile radius covering
28 counties.
Bloomsburg students conduct a study of downtown
parking through the university’s Center for
Community Research and Consulting.
“Whether it’s landscaping materials, electrical
supplies, food, fuel, you name it … we source a lot
of it locally,” Mandel says. Recently the university
spent more than $85.8 million on a series of oncampus construction projects, and much of that
work was completed by local contracting firms.
VISION: Bloomsburg University President’s Report 2013 — Page 5
Business connections
When major equipment at the nearby
Kawneer aluminum plant needed to
be changed, management expected
production to be idled while the work
was completed. Instead, two professors
from Bloomsburg University’s math
department figured out how the work
could be accomplished without halting
production at the Alcoa subsidiary and
saved the company millions of dollars,
says Jim Hollister, BU’s assistant vice
president for external relations.
The center, located in a historic mansion
that once housed the town’s Elks lodge,
is ground zero for assistance to fledgling
companies. The building is owned by
the Ben Franklin Technology Partners,
which helps budding technology firms
with funding and other support. It’s
also the headquarters for the Greater
Susquehanna Keystone Innovative Zone
(GSKIZ), a state-sponsored program that
provides tax credits and grants for new
firms.
“That’s just one example of the kind of
activities that are going on every day
between our professors and students
and the business community,” Hollister
says. “Our professors are able to use
their expertise to help and our students
benefit by getting the experience. These
relationships also allow our students to
receive internships and open the door to
career possibilities after graduation.”
The GSKIZ is a cooperative venture
between the state and BU, as well as
Bucknell and Susquehanna universities,
which have their own local zones.
Bloomsburg’s zone has spurred the
development of eight companies in
addition to OPTiMO and the entire zone
helped to create 63 new jobs and retain
176 jobs in the past year.
Bloomsburg plays a vibrant role in
the region’s economic life — from
involvement with individual companies
to supporting a downtown business
incubator that gives entrepreneurial
students the opportunity to create
businesses.
“It provides opportunities to link our
students with companies that are just
starting out,” Fletcher says. “When
we talk about what the university can
do for the community, this is a real
example of how we can help and, at
the same time, teach our students about
entrepreneurship.”
In 2012, BU opened its Entrepreneurial
Leadership Center (ELC), dedicated to
providing guidance and encouragement
to students interested in forming their
own businesses. Also located in the
technology center, the ELC helps students
assess whether their idea is viable and
gives them a chance to seek funding and
open in the GSKIZ. The ELC also offers
programs for area high school students
and in June 2013 hosted 31 students for
an “Entrepreneurship Boot Camp.”
Funded by a three-year grant from the
Pennsylvania State System of Higher
Education (PASSHE), the ELC is run
by Fletcher and Karl Kapp, professor of
instructional technology.
“It’s a way to stop ‘brain drain’ and give
students the chance to have success
here,” Fletcher says. “If they can draw
support from the local region, they’ll be
more likely to stay in the area and create
their business here.”
HELPING NEW BUSINESSES
When Tom Fletcher, associate vice
president for extended programs,
talks about how BU helps to support
and create new businesses, he points
to Michael Miguelez of OPTiMO
Information Technology LLC.
Miguelez, who graduated from BU in
2000 with a computer science degree,
had an idea for a digital forensics firm.
With the help of his professors and
support available at the universitysponsored Bloomsburg Regional
Technology Center, OPTiMO now
has offices near the university and in
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; Washington D.C.; and
Vienna, Va.
Bloomsburg University sponsored the
creation of the Bloomsburg Regional
Technology Center on Market Street.
VISION: Bloomsburg University President’s Report 2013 — Page 6
{ }
A gateway
to culture
Each year, Bloomsburg
University’s Department of
Music, Theatre and Dance
provides more than two
dozen concerts, plays and
recitals that are open to
the public for free or at a
nominal charge.
Cuban jazz? A Broadway show? Classical music? Classical
dance? Classical music and dance together? How about a
chance to sample dishes from around the world?
For students and area residents, Bloomsburg University offers a window
into many cultures and points of view through events and lectures, as well
as an opportunity to experience entertainment usually not available in rural
communities.
“The majority of our students and visitors come from our immediate region,”
says Jim Hollister, assistant vice president for external relations. “We have
the ability to bring in people from other countries and backgrounds and give
people a firsthand look at something they may otherwise see only on TV or in
a magazine.
“Hopefully, these activities help people expand their knowledge of people
by broadening their perspective,” Hollister says. “Promoting this kind of
understanding is one of the roles of an institution of higher learning.”
VISION: Bloomsburg University President’s Report 2013 — Page 7
The touring production of
Spamalot brought Monty
Pythonesque humor to the
Bloomsburg community as
part of the Celebrity Artist
Series.
From folk to Spamalot
Eight to 10 times a year, Bloomsburg University
delivers a taste of big-city entertainment through
its Celebrity Artist Series.
“We do a Broadway show or two every year, as
well as bringing in different artists and genres,”
Hollister says. Among the musical performances
in 2013 were Grammy Award-winning jazz singer
Luciana Souza with Brazilian guitarist Romero
Lubambo; the sound of 1970s soul by Motown and
More; and the acoustic folk music of Dala, which
won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Vocal
Group of the Year.
Shows included Ballroom with a Twist, a
Broadway-style adaptation of TV shows Dancing
With the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance?;
the zany fun of the National Broadway Tour of
Monty Python’s Spamalot; and L.A. Theatre Works’
presentation of The Graduate.
Learning about different cultures
Every February, BU hosts civil rights speakers
who share their message at the Martin Luther
King Jr. commemorative program. The 2013
keynote speaker, former NAACP Chairman Julian
Bond, discussed how race shapes history; the
February 2014 speaker is Myrlie Evers-Williams,
widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
Past speakers included Bishop Desmond Tutu’s
daughter, Naomi Tutu, and Mohandas Gandhi’s
grandson, Arun Gandhi.
BU’s Multicultural Center sponsors about 30
programs a year, including the King program, to
expose students and the community to a wide
range of viewpoints and beliefs. Guest speakers
included Candace Gingrich-Jones, who talked
about her work as an LGBT activist; writer Marta
Aponte Alsina, who spoke about Puerto Rican
literature; and MSNBC commentator Keith Boykin,
who discussed politics and LGBT issues within the
black community.
Opposite page: The Ahn Trio
performed live with the
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
last spring. For more than
a decade, Bloomsburg
has consistently brought
innovative classical
musicians and dance
companies to campus.
Madelyn Rodriguez, director of multicultural
affairs, says she doesn’t measure success solely
on how many attend. “If students share the
information they have learned from an event, I
have done my job.”
“When employers give us feedback about our
students, one of the things we want to make
sure they can say is
our students are wellrounded people,” says
Dione Somerville,
vice president for
Student Affairs. “We
want employers to
say our students can
communicate, have good
interpersonal skills,
and embrace diversity
Video Bonus: Jazz at Bloomsburg
and the values of the
Stephen Clickard, chair of the department of music, theatre and
organization.”
dance, talks about his own career in music and the significance of
jazz and its role in music education. See the video:
www.youtube.com/user/BloomUniversity
VISION: Bloomsburg University President’s Report 2013 — Page 8
VISION: Bloomsburg University President’s Report 2013 — Page 9
very fortunate
‘toWehaveareaccess
to a large
medical center that also has
a children’s hospital and a
women’s clinic where students
get experience that many
other schools can’t offer.
’
International students
and community
members from
China perform at
Bloomsburg University’s
International Banquet.
Community experiences
From lectures about religion and health topics to
showcasing the art of various cultures, Bloomsburg
University offers a wide array of experiences that
are available to the community. Here’s a look at just
some of what BU offered in 2013:
Speaker Series: Speakers included noted civil
rights leader Julian Bond; Rebecca Funk Campbell,
a BU alumna and president of the ABC-Owned
Television Station Group; and Drug Enforcement
Agency agent Michael Levine, who talked about
life undercover.
Taste of the Arts: Held in downtown
Bloomsburg, the annual spring event draws more
than 500 people for four hours of free student
entertainment. “We have performances every 15
minutes and it’s almost like a fair in some ways,”
says James Brown, dean of the College of Liberal
Arts. Performances run from poetry readings to
dance, and art activities are offered for children.
“We want the community to come to programs on
campus; hopefully, this gives them a taste of what
we have to offer.”
Conversation on Religions: Over the course
of the year, Bloomsburg offered free seminars
exploring the major religions — Islam, Judaism,
Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. “We want
our students to be global citizens, so they need to
be informed,” says Nawal Bonomo, assistant to the
dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “It’s important
that as a university we enrich the intellectual life of
the community.”
Health Sciences Symposium: From suicide
prevention to overcoming obesity, BU offers annual
symposiums each April that explore the important
medical issues of the day. The 22nd annual Health
Sciences Symposium and Wellness Fair focused on
Alzheimer’s disease and featured a performance
and talk by Grammy Award-winning singer Kathy
Mattea.
International Banquet: Each spring the
more than 100 international students at
Bloomsburg host a banquet that brings campus
and community leaders together. The banquet
features international cuisine, music and dance
performances and a fashion show of clothing from
around the world.
Remembering Lee’s devastation: The close
bonds forged in the wake of the extensive flooding
caused by Tropical Storm Lee were explored in
Flood Stories, Too, a two-act play written and
directed by Gerald Stropnicky, emeritus member of
Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, and performed at
the downtown Alvina Krause Theatre. Characters
ranged from students to victims to volunteers, and
included BU President David Soltz and former
Bloomsburg Mayor Dan Knorr.
A healthy partnership
Cooperative agreements between the university
and Geisinger Health System are designed to help
meet the Commonwealth’s increasing need for
highly qualified nurses.
Before 2013, Bloomsburg’s nursing program
could accept just 80 new students each year, says
Michelle Ficca, chair of the nursing department.
An arrangement to use Geisinger Medical Center’s
campus now allows the program to accept another
40, who complete freshman science and general
education courses at the Bloomsburg campus and
all courses during their sophomore through senior
years at the Danville, Pa., site.
Beginning next year, the Danville center also will
host the university’s accelerated nursing degree
program, enabling students with undergraduate
degrees and the prerequisite science courses to
earn a nursing degree in 18 months.
Additionally, Geisinger and Bloomsburg are
partnering to offer nursing master degrees,
including a Master of Science in Nursing for nurse
anesthetists and nurse practitioners. Bloomsburg
will also offer a two-year Doctor of Nursing
Practice (DNP) program for nurses interested in
improving their clinical skills. The DNP program
will begin in 2015 and be conducted mainly
through online instruction.
As Geisinger has expanded throughout the state,
Bloomsburg nurses and nurse practitioners
have gained clinical experience and full-time
employment opportunities with the health system.
“We wouldn’t be able to offer our program if we
didn’t have this relationship with Geisinger,” Ficca
says. “The clinical experiences the students receive
are fantastic. We are very fortunate to have access
to a large medical center that also has a children’s
hospital and a women’s clinic where students get
experience that many other schools can’t offer.”
VISION: Bloomsburg University President’s Report 2013 — Page 11
VISION: Bloomsburg University President’s Report 2013 — Page 10
Helping to meet medical needs
BU students help
clean up a home after
flooding in September
2011.
Committed to serve
Ask Tim Pelton about Bloomsburg University’s
relationship with the surrounding community and
he immediately points to the devastating flooding
caused by Tropical Storm Lee in September 2011.
“The campus was closed for seven days, but many
of the students who remained, as well as staff
and faculty, went through the town and helped
clean up after the flooding,” says Tim Pelton, the
university’s civic engagement coordinator.
“I was a flood victim and all the wet and muddy
carpeting in my house was torn out by the
professors in the environmental, geographical and
geological sciences department,” he says.
“I remember looking at the mess and trying to
figure out how I was going to get it out, and then
they came and did it for me.”
A good neighbor
From fundraisers for worthy causes, playground
cleanups and home repairs for those in need,
Pelton estimates Bloomsburg contributes about
68,000 hours of service every year, with an
estimated value of $1.4 million. Many of those
hours come from activities organized by the
school’s fraternities and sororities and another
15,000 hours come from academic classes in which
students work with various nonprofit agencies.
The university’s SOLVE office — SOLVE stands
for Students Organized to Learn through
Volunteerism and Employment — organizes some
of the charitable efforts and serves as a resource
to connect students with organizations that need
their help. The annual Empty Bowls Banquet,
where donated gourmet soups are sold to raise
money for the Bloomsburg Food Cupboard, and
the National Day of Service are good examples
of SOLVE’s organized activities. The most recent
day of caring, coinciding with Nelson Mandela’s
birthday, involved more than 230 students
who helped nonprofit agencies throughout the
community.
Another major volunteer effort each year, The
Big Event, is sponsored by BU’s Community
Government Association. On a Saturday morning
in April 2013, about 1,700 students spread out
across the town to complete spring clean-up
projects as a way to say “thank you” to their
home-away-from-home. Projects during the fourth
annual Big Event included painting, raking leaves
and helping with small repairs.
“For the past four years in a row, Bloomsburg has
been named in the President’s Higher Education
Community Service Honor Roll for the amount of
community service we do,” Pelton says. “I think
our students learn important lessons in improving
quality of life. They see the difference they can
make.”
Some of students’ out-of-classroom activities
offer opportunities for them to gain experience in
their fields while providing an important service
to the public. Nowhere is that more evident than
the Audiology Hearing Clinic, where faculty and
students help those with speech and hearing
problems.
The clinic sees more than 500 audiology-related
patients a year, providing services from testing
newborns’ hearing at Geisinger-Bloomsburg
Hospital, located across the street from the
campus, to diagnosing balance issues, such as
vertigo, and fine-tuning Cochlear implants. Speech
pathology students and faculty work with patients
on issues ranging from stuttering and swallowing
disorders to helping individuals speak with the
aid of specialized devices. The clinic also provides
speech-language pathology services to students in
two nearby school districts, Southern Columbia
and Central Columbia.
Jorge Gonzalez, the clinic’s director, says the
experience is required as part of the certification
process for students in the audiology and speech
language-pathology program. “We are able to
provide services you might find in other clinics in
the area, as well as specialized services not locally
available, such as the balance clinic,” he says. “We
offer Bloomsburg residents services normally
found in larger cities or at research facilities.”
Also looking out for the health of Bloomsburg
area residents is a partnership between GeisingerBloomsburg Hospital and BU’s exercise science
department, which established a cardiac
rehabilitation program for adults 18 and older who
have known stable heart disease. The program is
designed to reduce patients’ risk for heart disease
by increasing their level of regular exercise and
physical activity.
Exercise science graduate students work with
participants to develop individualized programs
and supervise the hour-long workout sessions, held
Monday through Thursday. Participants pay $120
per semester for the program, which also provides
information about exercises they can do at home.
‘Green’ Campus
From sponsoring an oncampus farmer’s market
every Friday in the fall and
organizing tree plantings
throughout the town to
holding talks on Marcellus
shale drilling and climate
change, the university is
focused on a number of
ongoing “green” initiatives,
many supported by the Green
Campus Initiative (GCI).
Recent projects include a
solar array panel in a kiosk
outside Ben Franklin Hall that
gives details of the campus’
energy use; an enhanced
recycling system, part of an expanded agreement
with the Town of Bloomsburg Recycling Center;
and installation of LED lighting in the tri-level
parking garage and classroom buildings hallways
and stairwells as part of an effort to reduce overall
energy consumption by 20 percent.
So far, the cardiac rehabilitation exercise program
has assisted 25 patients, says Timothy McConnell,
chair of the exercise science department and
director of the program, including one person who
lost 30 pounds.
Many of the university’s green-related activities,
such as the ongoing environmental-related
talks held at the downtown Moose Exchange,
are intended to bring students, faculty and the
community together, says Jeff Brunskill, associate
professor of environmental, geographical and
geological sciences and co-chair of GCI.
“On average the participants have increased their
exercise capacity by 70 percent,” McConnell says.
“The average weight loss has been 8 pounds.”
“It gives the community the ability to see how
great our students are and the positive things that
are occurring on campus,” Brunskill says.
Top: A graduate student in
the Speech, Language and
Hearing Clinic conducts
a hearing evaluation for
community members.
Above: A kiosk outside Ben
Franklin Hall allows visitors
to see how much energy is
being produced by the solar
panels on campus.
VISION: Bloomsburg University President’s Report 2013 — Page 12
Bloomsburg University Profile
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania is one of
the 14 public universities in the Pennsylvania State
System of Higher Education. It was founded as the
Bloomsburg Literary Institute in 1839.
Students in the STEM
program have the
opportunity to work with
instruments like this in
BU’s science labs.
Enrollment: About 10,000 undergraduate
and graduate students.
STEM partnership gives
high school a taste of college
At the same time area high schools were looking
for ways to challenge their top students, local
companies were decrying the lack of qualified
engineers. Bloomsburg University provided the
perfect solution to both problems: allow gifted
students to take the courses necessary to create the
skilled workforce sought by the region’s employers.
In 2013, 17 high school juniors took part in
the university’s new STEM Magnet Program,
which challenges the students with collegelevel instruction in the STEM fields — science,
technology, engineering and math.
“These are the students their teachers call the
‘high fliers’ who are at the top of their classes and
benefit from interacting with other students in the
area who are also high achievers,” says Elizabeth
Mauch, dean of the College of Education. “We
challenge them by giving them university-level
courses so they are prepared for the rigorous
workload when they go to college.”
The program also links students with mentors
from the business community, connections that
could lead to internships and job offers. In 2014-15,
year, the plan is to expand the program to include
both juniors and seniors and open it to about 40
students, including the 17 now enrolled.
“We found many of the students don’t realize
there are high-paying jobs right here,” Mauch says.
“Putting them together with business mentors
helps the students see what opportunities are
available and the mentors can spur them on as they
go through their college career.”
Area businesses including PPL Electric Utilities,
USG Corp., Merck & Co. Inc. and Kawneer, part
of Alcoa, donated funds to underwrite the annual
cost of $3,500 per student. Moving forward, Mauch
says, students will likely bear some of the cost with
scholarships awarded based on need and merit.
Students who remain in the program for two years
can earn up to 30 college credits. These credits will
allow the students to take slightly lighter course
loads when they enter college full-time or to
complete their college degrees sooner.
There’s another aspect to Bloomsburg’s program
that sets it apart from similar efforts elsewhere:
location. “The innovation in this program is that
it’s sitting in a rural area,” Mauch says. “This is the
kind of program that wouldn’t be possible without
a university presence.”
Indeed, the STEM Magnet Program underscores
Bloomsburg’s mission. “We are here to be a
resource to this region and prepare students
for personal and professional success. And that
includes the area’s high school students,” Mauch
says. “We see this as our contribution to the
region.”
Programs: 54 undergraduate programs and
17 graduate programs.
Faculty: Nearly 400 full time, most with doctoral
degrees
Campus: 282 acres, 54 buildings, a short walk from
downtown Bloomsburg. Seven modern residence
halls and three apartment complexes on campus,
six dining facilities, student union, recreation
center, university store, library and intercollegiate
sports facilities.
Accreditations
Middle States Commission on Higher Education,
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business,
National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher
Education, Council on Education of the Deaf, Council
on Social Work Education, American Society of Exercise
Physiologists, Educational Standards Board of the
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association,
Audiology and Speech Pathology/PSB/ASHA Certified,
The National Association of Schools of Theatre, The
National Association of Schools of Music and National
League for Nursing. Programs have been approved by the
Pennsylvania Department of Education, State Board of
Nursing, the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education
and the American Chemical Society.
Board of Governors, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education
Guido M. Pichini, Chair
Laura E. Ellsworth, Vice Chair
Ronald G. Henry, Vice Chair
Senator Richard Alloway II
Representative Matthew E. Baker
Jennifer Branstetter, Designee for Governor Corbett
Marie Conley
Governor Tom Corbett
Sara J. Dickson
Carolyn C. Dumaresq
Christopher H. Franklin
Representative Michael K. Hanna
Jonathan B. Mack
David M. Maser
Joseph F. McGinn
Harold C. Shields
Robert S. Taylor
Aaron A. Walton
Senator John T. Yudichak
Frank T. Brogan, Chancellor, Ex Officio
Council of Trustees, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Robert N. Dampman, Ringtown, Chair
Patrick W. Wilson, Williamsport, Secretary
Ramona H. Alley, Berwick
Mary Jane Bowes, Pittsburgh
LaRoy G. Davis, Feasterville
Joseph J. Mowad, M.D., Danville
Charles E. Schlegel Jr., Sunbury
Kenneth E. Stolarick, Pine Grove
Nancy Vasta, Langhorne
John E. Wetzel, Mechanicsburg
Shannon Phillips (student), Bloomsburg
Frank T. Brogan, Chancellor, Ex Officio
www.bloomu.edu