For some Penn State professors, marriage is an institution of higher learning.

"In some ways, we're never working," said Laurie Mulvey, an instructor of sociology, speaking about living with a husband who is also her colleague. "We're just doing life together."

Mulvey and husband Sam Richards, senior lecturer of sociology, are one of several married couples that teach at Penn State. However, they are the only married couple at Penn State to teach a class -- Sociology 300 (Preceptorship in Sociology) -- together.

"The general perception is that it's a bad idea to work with your significant other," Richards said. "We have a good relationship and we get along extraordinarily well."

According to a recent report by the Chronicle of Higher Education, there are 19 faculty members in the English department alone married to colleagues at Penn State.

Cheryl Glenn and Jon Olson are one such couple.

Glenn, an associate professor of English, and Olson, the director of the Center for Excellence in Writing, met as graduate students attending different universities. After teaching at Oregon State University, both received offers to teach at Penn State in 1997.

"Positions for both of us were available, so it wasn't like one of us was trailing the other and looking for a job," Olson said. "We matched up well with Penn State's needs."

Glenn said they are very lucky to be able to work and live together.

"Many academic couples can't find jobs in the same city that are both good jobs," she said. "It was a smart decision and we're happy."

Six years later, they still enjoy sharing elements of the teaching experience.

"We understand one another. We don't think exactly alike, but that's a good thing," Olson said. "We have a lot in common but our differences make us unique individuals in the department."

Other married couples, such as Penn State President Graham Spanier and his wife Sandra, professor of English and women's studies, bridge the gap between faculty and staff.

And they're not the only ones.

Vice Provost Robert Secor and associate head of the English department Marie Secor are another tie between administration and education.

The Secors also met in graduate school, and they taught together in Chicago before accepting positions at Penn State, both, not surprisingly, in the English department.

"We wanted to be in the same place," Robert Secor said. "We're able to share our professional lives."

His wife agreed that it was a beneficial situation.

"It's very helpful and very enriching to have someone to talk to about teaching and one's work," she said.

After more than 25 years of working in the same department as his wife, Robert Secor took his current position in Old Main. Both say the switch had a positive impact on their marriage.

"We still talk about the [English] department, he just brings other subjects to the table," Marie Secor said. "Now I get more of an Old Main perspective I didn't get before."

Her husband added that they are careful not to spend too much time talking about work while they are at home, which can be difficult for couples who work in the same location.

"We talk as other couples do about our days, but we also forget our professional worlds and talk about other things," he said.

Both Richards and Mulvey said it can be even more difficult to balance their professional and private lives, since they work together on so many projects.

"The biggest thing is that a lot of our work is very administrative and involves lots of tedious things," Richards said. "We could talk it to death."

He said they sometimes have to make a deliberate effort to avoid talking about their work when they are together at home.

Mulvey agreed with her husband.

"We're always working at making the balance work for us," she said. "We define time to be together, and we mostly just talk."

Richards calls this their, "hang time."

"We sit face to face and cut everything else out," he said, adding that since they have no children there are fewer distractions to worry about.

He said they have also gone on two sabbaticals together, during which they spent much of their time writing books.

Olson said the best way he and his wife have found to get away from work is to leave State College.

"We have offices at home and we have a lot of work, so we take trips," he said. "We try to visit our kids and grandkids on the West Coast when we can."