New Board Member Attends First Meeting

The Pennsylvania College of Technology Board of Directors on Thursday approved a two-year extension of the employment contract with the Penn College Education Association, authorized the engagement of Wachovia Bank to provide college investment services and endorsed some mid-year budget adjustments.

The board also welcomed its newest member Robert N. Pangborn, who serves as vice president and dean for undergraduate education at The Pennsylvania State University to his first meeting.

The extension with the PCEA, which includes full-time teaching faculty, librarians and counselors employed by the college, will be in effect through the 2008-09 academic year. It calls for annual 4.5-percent increases for the salary-system pool in both 2007-08 and 2008-09.

It also prescribes that PCEA members will share the cost of health-insurance premiums with the college. In 2007-08, PCEA members will pay 10.75 percent of the per-employee premium cost; in 2008-09, they will pay 17 percent. The previous extension (which was ratified in 2004) calls for PCEA members to pay $504 toward heath-insurance premium costs in 2006-07.

Dental-insurance coverage provided by the college will increase in 2006-07 under the extension agreement.

This is the third two-year extension to the original agreement, which was approved in 2000. Penn College President Davie Jane Gilmour told the board the extension saves the college and the PCEA much time and expense.

"It's an excellent agreement for the institution and certainly an excellent agreement for the faculty," she said.

"Three extensions in a row is pretty extraordinary," agreed PCEA President James E. Temple.

The board approved the engagement of Wachovia Bank for investment services after an extensive review of 12 proposals submitted by area financial institutions. Factors considered included the firms' proposed asset allocation, fees, relevant experience, investment performance and local management services, said Vice President for Business Affairs Robert M. Fisher.

Midyear budget adjustments were approved for the Unrestricted Current, Restricted Current and Plant Funds. Adjustments to the Unrestricted Current Funds were precipitated mostly by changes in revenues and expenditures related to enrollment activity and transfers for construction of the Roger and Peggy Madigan Library.

The president provided an update for the board on the Madigan Library project, saying, "It's amazing inside." The project is on schedule for completion in summer.

All of the drywall has been installed, the walls in the first and second floors have received their first coats of paint, grids are in place for the ceiling tiles, and nearly all of the windows are installed, she told the board.

The landscaping, which has been designed by General Services staff, features a fountain with a 25,000-gallon tank for recirculated water, and one of the "falls" is about 4 feet high. Gilmour predicted the two-story reading atrium will be "the most popular spot on campus."

"Our longtime 'dream come true' is coming true," the president said of the new library.

State Sen. Roger A. Madigan, for whom the building is named, said Penn College students from the area near his home in Bradford County have been keeping him apprised of progress on the facility. "They are really interested in it," he said.

Gilmour also updated the board on progress for the new Center for Business and Workforce Development (the former BiLo building on West Fourth Street). Demolition of the structure has been completed, and the new facility's final design, which is being prepared by Benedict Dubbs of Murray Associates Architects, should be brought before the board for approval in late April or early May.

"I think it's going to make a brand-new presentation for the college on Fourth Street," the president said.

Veronica M. Muzic, vice president for academic affairs/provost, told the board there are two new academic majors to be instituted for the Fall 2006 semester: an associate degree in studio arts and a certificate in paramedic.