HERSHEY -- The state's release of $7.9 million to renovate the Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering West buildings at University Park will provide for the continued success of the College of Engineering, Lt. Gov. Mark Singel said at a Friday news conference.

"It will take two rather older buildings that are absolutely essential to the operation of this college and give them good-as-new facilities with new equipment," University President Bryce Jordan said at a news conference held during the Board of Trustees meeting at the University's Hershey Medical Center.

The University first requested funding for the renovations in 1984. The state reviews capital funding requests and sponsors projects as money becomes available. No deadline exists for the funding of each project.

With Friday's funding release, the state Department of General Services can begin seeking bids for construction of this project.

Plans for the renovations actually total $9.5 million, Jordan said. The additional funding has been raised from alumni and corporate donors, he added.

Singel presented Jordan with a mock check for the $7.9 million during the news conference.

The renovations became necessary because of the rapid growth in engineering at Penn State, Singel said. Since 1971, enrollment in the college has increased by 61 percent, he said.

In the past 10 years, the engineering faculty has grown by 65 and the graduate program has more than doubled, Jordan said.

"The growth was occurring despite the fact we had no physical expansion," Singel said.

The renovations will help ease the space problem, but do not replace plans for a new engineering campus west of Atherton Street, Jordan said.

"That's still in the works," he said.

The renovations include new lighting, laboratory equipment, energy efficient windows, insulations, roofs and partitions. An elevator will be installed in EE West and one will be replaced in Mechanical Engineering.