Eleven years after its founding in 2001, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology is to its supporters a success story that is growing and evolving as any new university, particularly in an era driven by constant technological change.
In a region with dozens of traditional colleges and universities, HU, they say, has raised the bar, graduating students well-trained in their fields of endeavor, compelling other schools to increase their emphasis on math and science.
“I think it’s made everyone better,” said Robert Scaer, president and chief operating officer of Gannett Fleming in Camp Hill and a HU board of trustee member.
At the local liberal arts college in his Lancaster County town, Robert Dolan, chairman of Conrad Siegel Actuaries and HU’s board, said, “In just the last few years I’ve seen them emphasize their math and science education.”
Despite its academic success and growing enrollment, the university’s finances are “fragile,” which school’s administrators readily admit, but say is not unheard of in this economy – most schools are strapped, particularly a new institution like HU.
Critics, though, think otherwise, challenging whether HU can succeed.
“It’s not a question of the need for the project,” said Eric Papenfuse, a former board member of the Harrisburg Authority and owner of Midtown Scholar Bookstore. “It’s about the financing of the project.”
In June, Papenfuse conducted a public forum about the university that featured a fierce critic of HU, Steve Barrows, who had been blogging anonymously. He revealed that his wife was a university faculty member whose job was recently eliminated.
The forum’s audience included current and former HU staff who challenged the assertions made about the school’s finances including claims of deception made by Barrows. Barrows defended himself, but acknowledged his information could be wrong.
In a city teetering toward bankruptcy after years of financial mismanagement, HU officials believe that some of their critics unfairly lump them with such things as Harrisburg’s costly incinerator and struggling school district.
“I think we’ve been included in other issues,” Dolan said. “I think if they knew the complete picture they would feel very proud of what’s been going on at HU the last 10 years.”
The mission that business, academic and government leaders set down for HU zeroed in on what the university’s former president, Mel Schiavelli, called a curriculum for the 21st century: science, technology, engineering and math – the STEM subjects.
From U.S. presidents to high school principals, STEM is viewed today as the curriculum needed to build the nation’s economic competitiveness.
“Central Pennsylvania thought up this idea before George Bush and [President] Obama heard of STEM education,” he said. “I’ve never been to a place that lives its mission as much as we do.”
Schiavelli’s departure to become executive vice president at Northern Virginia Community College, one of the largest such institutions in the nation, signals HU is progressing, Dolan said.
“Mel’s done a terrific job for us; he’s really put the structure of what the business community and the broader community wanted for the university,” Dolan said. “We’re evolving and it’s time to take us to the next level.”
Over the next year, the university’s board will seek Schiavelli’s replacement, but for the interim, Dr. Eric Darr, formerly the provost, will serve as president. Darr said his plan is to carry on: “Do more, produce more graduates in science and technology fields.”
As president, Schiavelli oversaw construction at 4th and Market streets of HU’s 16-story tower, acquire housing downtown for 180 students, and build an education program in which more than 75 percent of the students land jobs after graduation.
That’s largely because HU’s non-traditional teaching methods – it doesn’t require SAT scores for student entry – include internships in the field the student is majoring. Often students are hired by the companies in which they interned.
“For Gannett Fleming, it’s been very helpful,” Scaer said, noting his engineering firm, which first went to HU in need of students skilled in geospatial fields, has hired some of its interns upon graduation. “One in particular is a rock star at the firm,” he said.
This year, HU has 320 full-time undergrads out of 440 total students, Darr said.
In the seven years since classes began – and in the five years since its first graduating class of nine students – HU has contributed economically and academically to the city and the region, Dolan said.
“We have provided workforce, shown by the high percentage of students who have gotten jobs,” he said. “I think it has benefitted the city of Harrisburg by attracting students who live downtown.”
For more information about Harrisburg University, visit www.harrisburgu.net.
