Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Teaching, Research, and Service

An Interview with Dr. Graham B. Spanier, President, The Pennsylvania State University

EDITORS’ NOTE Graham Spanier is one of the nation’s major research penn state’s football team), who is the most was appointed Penn State’s 16th universities – last year, we had $765 senior employee of penn state, having served president in 1995. His prior posts in- million of research expenditures. we’re here for 60 years. we’ve enjoyed great success. clude Chancellor of the University of also one of pennsylvania’s largest em- we rank very high every year in the director’s Nebraska-Lincoln, Provost and Vice ployers with 46,000 employees. cup, which is the rating of schools by how President for Academic Affairs at Is your student base primarily they do overall across their sports, and we have , and Vice from the Pennsylvania area, or is it among the highest graduation rates of any in- Provost for Undergraduate Studies much broader? tercollegiate athletics program. this year, our at the State University of New York it’s much broader. we are the most student-athletes had a graduation success rate of at Stony Brook. He previously served popular university in the united states, 89 percent, and we’re very proud of our com- Penn State from 1973 to 1982 as a receiving over 110,000 applications mitment to the concept of a student/athlete. member of the faculty and in three for admission each year, and we’re in- we’re also one of only a handful of athletic administrative positions in the College Graham B. Spanier creasingly international: 4,400 of our programs in the country that operate intercol- of Health and Human Development. students this year are from outside the legiate athletics on a completely self-supporting He holds academic appointments as professor of u.s. our undergraduate population is about two- basis – no taxpayer dollars, no student tuition human development and family studies, sociology, thirds in-state and one-third out-of-state. so we dollars, no university funds, and no legislative demography, and family and community medi- have primarily pennsylvania residents, but we support. we’ve been able to do that because of cine. He has more than 100 scholarly publications, also have thousands of out-of-state residents. the success of our program, through television including 10 books, and was the founding editor Are there specifi c programs within your contracts, our share of and of the Journal of Family issues. Spanier serves as offerings that you’re most known for? ncaa revenue, ticket sales for athletic events Chair of the National Security Higher Education particularly notable would be the fact that we like football, and philanthropic support. Advisory Board. He earned his Ph.D. in sociology are one of the two largest producers of engineers This university has a very engaged from and his bachelor’s in the united states; we have the largest college board of trustees. How critical has that been and master’s degrees from . of communications in the country; we have thou- to the success you’ve been able to have? sands of students in our smeal college of business; one of the most important features of this INSTITUTION BRIEF The Pennsylvania State and we have great strength in fi elds like educa- presidency, and one of the greatest attractions University (www.psu.edu) is one of the nation’s tion, health and human development, agriculture, to the job, was the opportunity to work with a largest and most comprehensive universities, with fi ne and performing arts, and the sciences. stellar board of trustees. the way our board op- 46,000 employees on 24 campuses, an annual This is a university that is very engaged erates functionally and how we are constituted budget of $4 billion, and a physical plant of 1,700 in the community. How critical is that to structurally are great assets, and our system of buildings. Founded in 1855 as an agricultural the culture of Penn State, and has that been governance is often held up as one of the best college, the school admitted its fi rst class in 1859 a focus from the early days? models in higher education. we have 32 mem- and has since awarded more than 650,000 de- it has been a fundamental part of our mis- bers of our board, and they come from many grees. Penn State is a multi-campus research uni- sion since the day we were founded. penn different constituencies: business and industry, versity that educates students from Pennsylvania, state has the largest unifi ed outreach effort in agriculture, our alumni, gubernatorial appoint- the nation, and the world, and improves the well- american higher education. under the vice ment, and government offi cials, and together, being and health of individuals and communi- president for outreach, we offer everything from this is a very committed board that has been ties through integrated programs of teaching, public broadcasting – both television and radio – highly supportive of its president. it’s also a research, and service. Their instructional mission which we operate for a very large geographical board that operates independently and is able includes undergraduate, graduate, professional, part of pennsylvania, to the cooperative exten- to make very good decisions with a minimal and continuing education offered through both sion service, which includes things like nutrition amount of political interference. resident instruction and online delivery. programs, community development, agricultural With things happening all the time at development, 4-h, conferences, institutes, and the university, do you have the ability to How do you defi ne what has made Penn our world campus, which is our online web- ever get away from it? State such an attractive university? based university college that has 33,000 course not really. i never try to turn it off because we were founded in 1855 as pennsylvania’s enrollments alone this year. this is a seven-day-a-week/24-hour-a-day kind land-grant university with a three-part mission of You are well-known for the strength of of job, and anyone who is in the position under- teaching, research, and service, and that com- your athletic teams. How critical has that stands that. i deal with it by building my fun and mitment has grown over the years to the point been to the success of the university, par- relaxation into the job. i do a lot of events with where we have become one of the largest and ticularly one that puts education fi rst? students – i’m a magician and i play in bands, most comprehensive universities in the world. the theme of our athletic program is and we often get invited to perform for student penn state’s contributions span more than 200 success with honor; we put a very high value groups. it’s about mixing personal and pleasure, different fi elds, and we have more than 50 pro- on integrity in our athletic programs, and that but that is the way jobs like this are, and i like grams ranked in the top 20 nationally. penn state is exemplifi ed by Joe (head coach of it that way.• 130 Leaders posted with permission. copyright © 2010 leaders magazine, inc. volume 33, number 2