SHARON -- Although tuition increases and the University's 1989-90 operating budget were the foremost items on the agenda, the University's Board of Trustees faced other issues when they met Friday and Saturday at the Shenango Campus in Sharon.
Other business included:
-- The dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Hart Nelson, is returning to a faculty position for the 1990-91 school year. A committee will be assembled to search for a replacement, Nelson said in a telephone interview. "I miss (teaching) -- I miss the interaction with students . . . I'm looking forward to being in the classroom," he said.
-- Undergraduate applications to the University decreased by 8 percent this year but paid accepts -- those students who have reserved a place in the freshman class -- show a slight rise, reported Executive Vice President and Provost William Richardson. A national drop in the number of college-bound high school graduates is probably responsible for the lower application rate, Richardson said.
-- The board consented to purchase property at three Commonwealth campuses. The University will purchase the Downtown Harrisburg Center, 234 N. Third St., for $425,000. The University now leases the building, which is directly across from the state Capitol Building. The Shenango campus will have a new library when the University purchases a building at 45 Reno St., in Sharon for $200,000. The University is buying 23 acres of land at the Behrend College in Erie for $67,500.
-- The board voted to use prototype plans for apartments for construction at the University's Behrend Campus in Erie. The plans were first used for construction of apartments at the Berks Campus and can be adapted when apartments are built on any campus, said Bernard Hankin, head of the board's Committee on Physical Plant. Using the same plans at different locations will cut design costs in half, Hankin said.
-- Sanford Thatcher, former head of the Stanford University Press, will head the Pennsylvania State University Press. The press publishes educational journals and textbooks.
