Spanier to name new dean

University Board of Trustees members will consider the acting dean of the honors college in March.

Cheryl Achterberg will be recommended as the new dean of the Schreyer Honors College by University President Graham Spanier.

Achterberg, the acting dean of the college, was chosen from four finalists in a University-wide search. The appointment will be voted on by the University Board of Trustees at the March meeting, according to a news release.

"We had a particularly outstanding group of finalists, any one of whom would have served us well in this position," Spanier said in the news release. "But Cheryl Achterberg brings to it a unique blend of attributes and experiences that we believe will help us to establish the Schreyer Honors College as the best of its kind in the United States."

As acting director, Achterberg has already begun to establish the college, said Robert Pangborn, associate dean for undergraduate studies in the College of Engineering.

"She has done a wonderful job in getting the new college off to a good start," said Pangborn, who is also an honors adviser.

The Schreyer Honors College is an expansion of the University Scholars Program. William and Joan Schreyer donated $30 million to the University in September in order to expand the services the program can offer and also to bring more students into the program.

As part of the expansion, the college will work with the Schreyer Institute for Innovation in Learning and will be integrated into all aspects of the University to raise the quality of teaching and learning.

John Cahir, vice provost and dean for undergraduate education, said Achterberg will help make the college a vital and beneficial part of the University and encourage the students to take leadership roles in the campus community.

"Her vision for the college is exactly what we want, that of a lively, outward-looking enterprise that would impact on the whole of Penn State," Cahir said in the release.

The other finalists of the search were Eliza Pennypacker, head of the department of landscape architecture; Paul Schwartz, director of academic affairs at the Wilkes-Barre Campus; and Daniel Weedman, professor of astrophysics and astronomy.