Career Services is anticipating a big move — across campus. The new MBNA Career Center is scheduled for construction sometime this year.

Plans for the building finalized when Penn State alumnus Ric Struthers and his wife, Sharon, contributed $250,000 to the cause. Ric Struthers graduated from the Smeal College of Business Administration in 1977 and is a member of the Smeal College Board of Visitors. He is senior vice chairman of the Wilmington, Del.-based MBNA America Bank.

"It's my understanding from having talked with him (Ric Struthers) that he . . . felt like there ought to be more and better services available," said Jack Rayman, director of Career Services.

Currently, Career Services is split between the fourth floor of Boucke building and the basement of McAllister building. The division is inefficient and confusing, said many employees, and some students don't even know where Career Services is located.

The three-story building will be located across from McCoy Natatorium on Bigler Road, and will run east and west, aligned with the Eisenhower parking garage, Rayman said. No buildings will be torn down to make room for it, he added.

"Pretty much what will be lost is the parking lot and part of that vacant lot that's there," Rayman said.

The center will have areas for career programming, placement services and 44 interview rooms.

Rooms for the more than 20,000 on-campus interviews a year are in the basement of the McAllister building, which has only one window, Rayman said.

Krista Jolley is a receptionist in the career center in the Boucke building. Interviewers often come to the Boucke building when they are supposed to go to McAllister, she said, and having everything under one roof will be easier for people to locate.

"Instead of them trying to find us, we're going to be on the first floor," she said. "We're going to have a receptionist right there."

Rayman agreed.

"We do a lot of back and forth and up and down and we've been doing that for years," he said.

The building will also have a special suite for alumni career services.

Mike Bezilla, director of development communications, says the alumni section will offer resume help and post listings of job vacancies. It is not only to help unemployed alumni, but those who are considering a career change.

"I think the alumni career development is a growing aspect of Penn State's entire career services," Bezilla said.

Bezilla added it might not even be necessary for alumni to come to campus because the center can conduct business electronically.

Rayman said the building will be fully wired with cable TV, video conferencing rooms and data and voice ports in all of the interview rooms.

The center will be financed by the Struthers gift and other corporate donations, Rayman said, so students do not need to worry about an increase in tuition to fund the project. Students can also look forward to a patio with a café that will have coffee, tea, sandwiches and soups.

"We'll be in (our own) building and so we will have our own identity," Rayman said, "rather than sort of being hidden in the basement."