News about President

Retired faculty member Darla B. Logue has established a scholarship for first-generation college students at Pennsylvania College of Technology in honor of retiring President Davie Jane Gilmour.

The James E. and Darla B. Logue Scholarship also honors Darla Logue’s late husband, who taught for 49 years – 39 of them at Penn College – and was the recipient of the institution’s highest teaching honor: the Veronica M. Muzic Master Teacher Award.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology President Davie Jane Gilmour has made a substantial commitment to the college’s Legacy Campaign for Penn College fundraising effort. The donation will benefit several key scholarship initiatives for students.

Gilmour, who recently announced plans to retire as president on June 30, 2022, is making a six-figure gift that will support the existing Tomorrow Makers Scholarship, as well as two new endowed funds she is creating: the Gilmour Global Experiences Endowment and the Gilmour Student Competition Endowment.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology has appointed the Presidential Search Committee charged with coordinating the selection of a successor to longtime President Davie Jane Gilmour, who announced recently that she will retire next year.

Gilmour, who has served the college in a variety of roles for 44 years – including the last 23 as its president – announced to the college community on May 13 that she will retire on June 30, 2022.

The 17-member Presidential Search Committee consists of four members of the Penn College Board of Directors, seven faculty members, five administrators and one student.

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Punctuating the ultimate celebration of student achievement, Pennsylvania College of Technology held a dizzying dozen commencement exercises from May 14-16 to provide a memorable occasion for students and their families while adhering to federal and state guidelines. The proceedings – four on Friday, five on Saturday and three on Sunday – simultaneously honored Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 graduates and featured speeches by a rotating trio of class representatives: Joseph M. Morrin, of Morrisville, graphic design; Ethan M. McKenzie, of Muncy, software development and information management; and Olivia C. Ferki, Richboro, plastics and polymer engineering technology. (Each of the three spoke at his or her major’s assigned ceremony; recorded versions of their remarks were rotated among the other nine.)

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Pennsylvania College of Technology bestowed two Distinguished Teaching Awards on faculty during an event held on main campus.

Mark E. Sones, instructor of diesel equipment technology, was presented with the Veronica M. Muzic Master Teacher Award, the highest honor accorded to a faculty member at the college.

Bridget E. Motel, instructor of dental hygiene, received an Excellence in Teaching Award.

Both presentations were made during an Employee Recognition Week event held in Bardo Gymnasium and livestreamed across campus.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology recently paid tribute to noteworthy staff, a part-time instructor, success in student advisement and assessment; honored the longtime service of a number of employees; and showed appreciation to those who retired during the just-ended academic year.

President Davie Jane Gilmour recognized the honorees during a May 13 all-college meeting, held before a pandemic-limited gathering in Bardo Gymnasium and livestreamed for the benefit of others.

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After nearly a quarter century leading Pennsylvania College of Technology, President Davie Jane Gilmour informed the college community Thursday of her intention to retire next year.

Gilmour, who has spent her entire career in higher education at Penn College – 44 years, the last 23 as president – told faculty, staff and stakeholders that she plans to retire in June 2022, to be succeeded by a new leader who will be selected after a nationwide search.

Fittingly, Gilmour also announced plans for a legacy fundraising campaign that will invest in students as they continue to transform tomorrow throughout the workforce, in hopes that her legacy will reflect the boundless opportunity a Penn College education represents for students.

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An alumnus’s investment in the next generation of innovators, the literal future of American manufacturing, was spotlighted during the April 27 dedication of the Larry A. Ward Machining Technologies Center at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Last year’s $1 million-plus donation from Ward, a 1966 graduate in engineering drafting technology, monumentally reshaped the expansive laboratory – one of the oldest on campus, dating to the benefactor’s days as a student at Williamsport Technical Institute and Williamsport Area Community College, the institution’s predecessors.

“A strong advocate for the future of manufacturing in America, Larry is committed to enhancing our automated manufacturing and machining curriculum, lab space and opportunities to prepare students for successful and sustaining careers,” college President Davie Jane Gilmour said. “It is this commitment that has transformed our machining lab, but Larry’s generosity does not stop there. He has donated materials and equipment, sponsored a commencement award for mechatronics students, and hired Penn College graduates and interns as his business grew.”

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Pennsylvania College of Technology President Davie Jane Gilmour has been reelected as vice chair for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education – a nonprofit association performing peer evaluation and accreditation of public and private universities and colleges – and its Executive Committee.

Middle States serves higher education institutions in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and other geographic areas in which the Commission conducts accrediting activities.

Seven members (including officers) comprise the Executive Committee, which is elected annually by the Commission. The Executive Committee has authority to act on behalf of the Commission as necessary between meetings to continue operations of the corporation, as well as to take action on accreditation and institutional membership. It includes administrative, faculty and public representatives.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology President Davie Jane Gilmour, who also serves as vice chair of the Middle States Commission of Higher Education and its Executive Committee, recently hosted the inaugural episode of MSCHE’s “Pillars of Change” podcast series.

In the podcast, Gilmour interviews Katherine S. Conway-Turner, president of SUNY Buffalo State, who also serves as an MSCHE Executive Committee member.

The 30-minute session, which is accessible to the general public, focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion as they relate to the conversation at individual colleges and universities, the role college presidents play on campus and in their communities, the most significant challenges and opportunities, lessons learned from the events transpiring in 2020, and the overall impact on students.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology President Davie Jane Gilmour recognized exemplary faculty and staff during an all-college address Thursday morning, then used “some very plain language” to emphasize for all of her co-workers the inherent personal accountability of starting the 2020-21 academic year amid a global health crisis. “It is critical that we all follow the expectations and model the behaviors we want our students to follow. If we do not, one careless act by a group of students or employees could shut us down,” she said in her remarks, traditionally held in the Klump Academic Center but moved online to avoid a crowded gathering. “If you are not feeling well, please stay home. Wear your mask and enforce mask wearing in your labs and classes. Your personal health and the health and welfare of your fellow employees and students depend upon your vigilance. Our lives in 2020 are forever changed. Let’s be certain we manage that change to the best of our ability.”

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Pennsylvania College of Technology remains committed to reopening for hands-on, face-to-face instruction in Fall 2020, rolling out a map for safely and responsibly – and collaboratively – navigating the road ahead. “We continue to be guided by a moral obligation to reduce the spread of COVID-19, an ethical obligation to provide the best possible educational outcomes for our students and their families, and a professional obligation to provide future workforce leaders,” President Davie Jane Gilmour said Thursday afternoon. “To deliver on our mission-driven promise, we will be unfailingly diligent in our efforts to safely educate, house and feed students during these extraordinary times.”

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A Pennsylvania Cable Network conversation with President Davie Jane Gilmour will air at noon and 8 p.m. Monday, June 15, on PCN’s “Coronavirus Impact” program. Among the topics discussed during the interview – which will be available online for a week after broadcast – were the president’s Tuesday testimony before the state Senate Education Committee, enrollment impacts across higher education, Penn College’s plans for the Fall 2020 semester and campuswide protocols for reopening. (The president’s interview with PCN’s Francine Schertzer comprises the first eight minutes of the video thumbnailed with a photo of state Rep. Bryan Cutler.)

President Davie Jane Gilmour appeared before the state Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, assessing COVID-19’s impact on fulfillment of Penn College’s mission. In both written and oral testimony, she highlighted the extraordinary challenge of moving technology education from in-person, hands-on instruction to one of remote delivery – along with responsible and reassuring communication throughout a very fluid situation. Despite those arduous times, she said, “the irony was never lost on us that, across our 100 certificate, associate, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, all were directly aligned to essential, life-sustaining services, and that more than 80% of our graduates remained in Pennsylvania, largely working in fields considered essential during pandemic.” The president also outlined the comprehensive protocols in place, along with unique characteristics that allow the college to better mitigate risk for returning students: rural location, proximity to UPMC Susquehanna, large labs and small class sizes, on-campus medical services, and a considerable number of faculty and staff who are health care and/or emergency management professionals.

Fifty-five years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called for all Americans to stand up to injustice, Pennsylvania College of Technology’s leader – reflecting on a beloved nation again riven by social unrest – urged a renewed embrace of that civic responsibility. “Now is not the time for silence or inaction,” President Davie Jane Gilmour said in a campuswide email to students and employees. “Now, more than five decades later, it is again time for action. We must call out racial injustice and inequality, whenever we encounter it, in clear and unequivocal terms.”

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