Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

The Penn State Behrend campus houses both an Arboretum, with over 200 species of trees, and the Wintergreen Gorge. Both of these green space resources are utilized by faculty (for teaching classes) and by students groups, like Greener Behrend, for campus engagement events such as gorge clean-ups. SUST 200 is a project-based course aimed at engaging students in critical thinking around real-world sustainability-related problems and learning leadership skills through that process. At least one project within this course is always focused on the campus itself.

Civic and Community Engagement at Penn State Behrend connects students to the community and to the world. Students evolve in their role as citizens and develop the knowledge, skills, values, and motivation to be active participants in their communities through experiences such as:

volunteering at a local nonprofit organization
collecting items to donate
traveling on the Alternative Spring Break trip
taking a service-learning course or
participating in a student service club or organization

In March 2021, Penn State Behrend joined a cohort of other K-12 schools, colleges, universities, and faith organizations to focus one-day as a global collective on climate change and environmental justice. Started by the Bard College, the World-Wide Climate-Justice Teach-In is organized like a conference with concurrent break-out rooms each discussion a different aspect of climate change, book ended by welcome and close-out sessions. Given the success of our inaugural event, Sustainable Behrend has decided to make this an annual addition to campus programming.

Penn State Behrend currently houses 3 LEED-certified buildings: Metzgar, Trippe Hall and Federal House. These buildings include educational signage sharing tehri sustainability stories. Additionally, throughout all campus buildings we have water refill stations which include counters on the number of water bottles saved through the refilling option.

The Penn State Behrend campus includes a wind turbine that powers the scoreboards on the softball fields. Additional we have faculty (most notably in Physics and Engineering) that conduct renewable energy research, utilizing the campus as their living laboratory. Our engineering students also contribute annually to the Super-Mileage Car challenge.

The Sustainable Food Systems Program at Penn State, developed in 2016, stands on three legs: (1) a Food Systems Curriculum, currently in development, (2) a Student Farm that allows people with diverse backgrounds and interests to learn about where food comes from and apply their unique skills and experiences to a farm setting, and (3) an active engagement and outreach program that connects the campus community with the interests and needs of the broader community within which it resides.

Throughout the AY 2021-2022, the SFS program worked to secure funding and construct a season-extending high-tunnel on campus. This high-tunnel adds to our collection of growing spaces run by our Student Garden Club. Current efforts are focused on incorporating student grown items into campus dining, as well as our Lion's Food Pantry.

The Penn State Behrend campus includes Rain Gardens; Pollinator Gardens; Native Plants; Edible Landscaping; and Cover crops for soil regeneration. Most of these include signage for continual education about our sustainably minded grounds and landscaping; all are noted within our sustainability layer in our campus map.

HERO BX, an Erie-based biodiesel company, has opened a $1 million research lab at Penn State Behrend. Students work with the company's chemists to develop cleaner, cheaper fuels.

During the AY 2021-2022, dozens of students worked with Sustainable Behrend conducting Recycling Audits. This data is being used to re-envision how we deal with our waste on campus in the development of a comprehensive campus waste management plan.

Penn State Behrend hosts 99 water fountains on campus, of which 61 (62%) include a refill station with "water bottles saved" counter. Additionally our campus growing spaces utilize rain barrels (with signage) for watering. Our campus also has two rain gardens (with signage). The Wintergreen Gorge that runs along the west end of campus includes educational signage about gorge formation and the importance of keeping our water clean.

Both SUST 200 and Conservation Biology courses include projects focused on sustainability. These projects are specifically designed and utilized to help move sustainability ideas forward on campus. For example, the students in SUST 200 developed a cost-benefit analysis of converting from rock salt to salt bring for deicing during the winter months, and students in Conservation Biology conducted a campus-wide assessment with regard to bird deaths due to window collisions and from that information made recommendations for decreasing our campus impact.

Penn State Behrend has an entire office focused on Education Equity and housed prominently within the student union. Additionally our office of community engagement runs our campus Lion's Food Pantry, which provides free, anonymous food and personal care products to students. The commuter lounge and multitude of computer workspaces provide a space for students to bring lunches, cook food, do work and have access to resources they may not have access to otherwise.

The Black School of Business at Penn State Behrend has added 10 Bloomberg Terminal subscriptions to its finance lab in Burke Center. The Bloomberg Terminal provides real-time and historical financial data, analytics and market news for every asset class.

An 11th new Bloomberg Terminal has been installed in Trippe Hall, the college’s newest residence hall. That brings the total number of Bloomberg Terminals at the college to 12.

“In terms of business data, Bloomberg is the gold standard,” said Greg Filbeck, director of the Black School of Business. “There is no more comprehensive database of news, market data and financial information.”

Bloomberg was founded in 1981 and created an electronic network long before investors had access to the internet and 24-hour financial news networks. The platform integrates real-time data and research in every market and asset class, from fixed income to equities, commodities and derivatives.

Bloomberg’s color-coded keyboard allows users to quickly complete common actions. An early model was included in the “American Enterprise” exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Penn State Behrend was the first college in the region to have a Bloomberg Terminal, which is located in Burke 158.

“It was being used constantly,” Filbeck said. “People were coming in at all hours, including late in the evenings, to have access to it.”

The new Bloomberg Terminals will improve student access to the Bloomberg network: Faculty members will now be able incorporate Bloomberg data in their in-class teaching. Students also can earn a Bloomberg Market Concepts certification by completing an e-learning course, which consists of three sections: Core Concepts, Getting Started on the Terminal, and Portfolio Management.

Students in all majors will have access to the Bloomberg Terminals. The Black School of Business is offering four different Bloomberg Terminal seminars to students and faculty members this semester. Another five seminars will be offered in the spring.

Students who work with the Intrieri Family Student-Managed Fund, which currently has a value of more than $750,000, also will use the new Bloomberg Terminals, Filbeck said.

Students also will have access to a Bloomberg Terminal in Trippe Hall. That will benefit students in the college’s Global Boarders program, an international-focused community of students who want a culturally diverse living-learning environment. Global Boarders is open to first- and second-year students who intend to major in a business discipline, and to all students in the international business major.

Penn State Behrend offers many resources to students related to well-being and work, including on-site Personal Counseling, access to exercise classes, programming and equipment within the Junker Center, as well as housing incredible green spaces such as the Arboretum and Wintergreen Gorge (with its miles of hiking trails).