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History of Mechanical Engineering - Chapter 8

1995 - 2005
Richard C. Benson

Departmental Accomplishments
Under the Leadership of Richard Benson

Richard C. Benson was appointed department head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State in July 1995. He received a BS in mechanical engineering from Princeton, a MS from the University of Virginia and a PhD from Berkeley in 1977. Prior to coming to Penn State, he worked for the Xerox Company and joined the faculty of the University of Rochester in 1980.

During Benson’s tenure at Penn State, the department experienced extraordinary changes and challenges. Despite the circumstances, the department witnessed a leader who was able to provide a vision and guide people toward a shared understanding of that vision, combined his technical qualifications with a broad intellectual outlook, held a high sense of honor, had the ability to take substantial risks with reasonable equanimity, and possessed the mental and moral strength required for an appreciation and understanding of human relationships. All of these skills demanded poise, wisdom, courage, energy and determination, and the ability to keep going under frustration and disappointment. Below are a few examples of many accomplishments under his leadership.

Merger of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering

One of the most complex challenges Benson faced early at Penn State was the merger of the Departments of Nuclear Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. In January 1997, Dean David N. Wormley announced plans for merging the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Nuclear Engineering into one administrative unit effective for the Fall Semester 1998. This administrative consolidation was a result of the College’s five-year strategic planning process and an analysis of enrollment trends based on a decline in Nuclear Engineering enrollments to a level significantly below that department’s capacity and capability.

In making this announcement, Dean Wormley said,
“A principal foundation of the merger is to maintain and continue the significant contributions the College of Engineering has made to the Nuclear Engineering profession and discipline. It is planned to continue the ABET accredited undergraduate and the graduate degree programs in Nuclear Engineering and the education, research and service activities of the Breazeale Nuclear Reactor facility. Both departments have strong research and education programs with faculty who interact extensively with industry and government in effective partnerships. The historic relationships the departments have with industry and government agencies will be maintained and benefit from the complementary capabilities of the two facilities.”

The Dean further indicated that the College will conduct a strong recruiting effort and will continue to admit new students into Nuclear Engineering at all levels. Thus, the College of Engineering at Penn State is wholeheartedly committed to supporting and enhancing the teaching, research and service activities in Nuclear Engineering. By placing this merger into effect, it is intended to continue the existence of this program and to strengthen its contributions to the Nuclear Engineering profession and discipline.

The Dean appointed a merger transition committee consisting of mechanical and nuclear engineering faculty, staff, and students to recommend procedures to implement the merger. Below is a summary of the many recommendations that the committee made to the Dean:

Both programs had undergone tremendous change during the first few years of the merger. But many years later, it is safe to conclude that the merger has been very successful and both sides have benefited immensely by it. The fact that the merger was successful is extremely unusual in university circles, but the success is a testimony of Benson’s dedication and commitment to rise above self-interest and work for the good of both programs in the newly-formed department.

Budgetary Recycling

Beginning in the late 1990’s, the university experienced a period of financial constriction. It was apparent that in the foreseeable future, the state appropriations and student tuitions would not be able to keep pace with the increasing operating expenses of the university, let alone provide enhancements for new activities to improve teaching, research and service. Beginning in the 1996-1997 fiscal year, the department was required to return 1% of its permanent operating budget except for the 0.75% cuts in 1997-98 and 1998-99, and the 2% cut in 2003-2004. These monies were to create a pool of money the where university administration would recycle “enhancement funds” for new initiatives and/or to cover budget cuts enforced by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the university’s operating budget. Departments were to propose enhancements annually where funds could possibly be recycled back to the department. The impact of this plan was enormous. Never before had the department been forced to make plans to cope with such uncertainty in expenditures. All aspects of the department’s operations were affected. Because faculty salaries dominated departmental spending, salaries were the principal place to absorb cuts where open faculty positions would go unfilled. However, with the increasing undergraduate enrollment levels, vacant faculty positions increased the department’s dependence on adjunct teaching expenses until the vacant positions were filled.

To adjust for the recycling cuts, the department reduced its spending on operations, teaching assistants and adjunct teachers, and let its most recent retirement go unfilled. The reduction in teaching assistants and adjunct teachers has resulted in reducing the number of sections of required classes, scheduling lightly enrolled graduate courses and technical electives less often, and by not offering courses, no matter how popular, that did not have at least one tenured or tenure-track faculty member interested in teaching the course.

From 1995-2005, the department recycled $558,185. Due to Benson’s determination and persistence, he was successful in recovering $248,008 in enhancement funding for the department that included support for a computer support position, a joint faculty hire in mechanical engineering and industrial engineering, and graduate stipend and tuition waivers.

New Faculty Hires, Research and Productivity

In 1995 there were 41 tenure-track faculty and 25 staff in mechanical engineering, and 9 tenure-track faculty and 5 staff in nuclear engineering. During the course of 1995-2005, 16 faculty positions became available. The interests of many existing faculty were sufficiently broad. A philosophy of hiring new faculty to satisfy “critical strategic points” in the emerging technologies rather than trying to hire several individuals to achieve a “critical mass” was considered a prudent way to develop the department’s capability. The faculty turnover allowed the department to hire 18 new faculty with talents in critically strategic points to enable the department to compete in the emerging technologies of information technology, nano/microscale science and technology, biotechnology, and energy and environment. As of 2005 there are 51 tenured or tenure-track faculty and 29 staff in the department—another amazing feat—given the budgetary constraints where often times vacant positions go unfilled.

During the hiring process, the department has was able to improve faculty diversity. In 2001 8.7% of our faculty members were female. In 2004 that percentage is 10.4%. Among all Big Ten universities, 8.0% of all mechanical engineering faculty members are female. In 2001 2.2% of our faculty members were Americans or permanent residents from under-represented minority groups. In 2004 that percentage is 6.2%. Among all Big Ten universities, 2.4% of all mechanical engineering faculty members are under-represented minorities.

The mechanical and nuclear engineering faculty members have also been very active in research. Under Benson’s leadership, there has been a 104% increase in research expenditures rising from $12,776,584 to $26,042,901. The mechanical and nuclear engineering faculties executed spending in excess of $400,000 per FTE during the 2002-03 fiscal year—placing the department as the third highest in research spending among the Big Ten universities.

During the period 1995-2005, the faculty have provided leadership to some of Penn State’s most important research and educational programs. The directors of the Breazeale Nuclear Reactor, Center for Acoustics and Vibration, Electrochemical Engine Center, Learning Factory, Leonhard Center, Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, Propulsion Engineering Research Center, and Teaching and Learning Consortium are all members of the mechanical engineering or nuclear engineering faculty. MNE leadership has been provided to many other collaborative teaching and research projects, college and university committees, inter-college programs, and professional activities too numerous to list.

Faculty productivity metrics in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering continues to be very impressive. Based on the most recent data for course offerings (2004-05), research spending (2002-03), papers published (2003), and graduate students produced (five year average for 1998-2002), we can state that:

The average faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering annually:

Growth in the Number of Undergraduate Students

The large undergraduate enrollments led to a number of program changes between 1995 and 2005. In 2000, the university discarded caps on the enrollment of undergraduate students. Previously the mechanical engineering major had a cap of 230 entering juniors, with slightly more than that usually being offered admission. With the removal of the enrollment cap, growing mechanical engineering enrollment continued to put a strain on instructional resources. The student-faculty ratio was larger than any of our peer departments among the Big Ten Plus institutions. A negative consequence of not capping enrollments was the admission of less qualified students into the mechanical engineering major resulting in an increase in the number of students dropping out of the major. To cope with huge student-faculty ratios, the department immediately submitted a petition to restore the cap on the mechanical engineering enrollment level to limit entrance to 230 students per year. The enrollment cap went into effect beginning in the fall 2004.

Nuclear engineering enrollments also increased. The availability of the concurrent degree has been a strong contributor to the resurgence in the number of undergraduate nuclear engineering students. The enrollment of nuclear engineers rose from 31 in the fall of 1999 to 92 in the fall of 2004, for a 193% increase.

Curriculum Improvements

In 1996, the undergraduate mechanical and nuclear engineering programs were subject to an ABET review and both programs were accredited. In 2002 both undergraduate programs underwent another ABET inspection in which new, and more stringent, guidelines were applied. Plans were made in 1999 to prepare for the 2002 ABET review. In 2000-2001 the newly developed assessment instruments were tested with a survey of alumni, a survey of seniors about to graduate, a survey of Co-op students, and a review by IPAC. As a result of planning, both the mechanical and nuclear programs received accreditation.

With rising tuition costs and budgetary recycling, a perpetual concern of the college and university administration has been the fact that the mechanical engineering degree requires more course credits than any other Big Ten Plus institution. With little change in this “engineering science” based curricula that was adopted in the mid 1960’s, Benson led the department in a review of its curricula and teaching practices with an eye toward improving how and what students learn. Simultaneously the review sought to find ways to reorganize subject matter to reduce the number of credits in the curricula, yet not fall below the number of engineering courses and credits required by ABET or embraced by competing Big Ten Plus institutions.

Faculty and Staff Awards and Recognition

There are many ways to measure the reputation of a program. Benson aggressively promoted the faculty’s reputation through internal and external recognition of their accomplishments. From 1995 - 2005, the department received nine, prestigious University-wide teaching prizes. In addition, thirty-six faculty and seven staff received Penn State Engineering Society (PSES) prizes. Other forms of recognition were in the form of new titles, promotion and tenure: three faculty hold chaired professorships, four faculty were honored with the title of distinguished professor, thirty-six faculty were promoted, and nineteen faculty received tenure.

Benson is also an advocate of staff programs such as Peer Review of Exceptional Performance (PREP) and the College’s Administrative Fellow program. Nine staff have been recognized with the PREP Silver award, and six have served as COE Administrative Fellows. In addition 15 staff positions were upgraded during his tenure.

Departmental Working Environment

During the ten-year period (1995-2005) the university took deliberate steps to ensure that the environment at the institution should be marked by civility and individual respect for one another. Within the department, concern for civility and respect applied to the general workplace environment involving faculty, staff, students, alumni, benefactors, research sponsors, and external review teams.

Benson immediately brought a sense of “inclusion” to the department by reorganizing committee structure and adding staff representation to all standing committees. In addition, the new committee structures would allow for more faculty and staff direct involvement and input into the strategic planning and other decision-making processes of the department.

Graduate Study and Research

The Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering has the third highest ranking in research spending in the Big Ten. The position of Penn State as number three is typical of its rankings throughout the ten-year period (1995-2005). This accomplishment is due to the reputation and desire of the faculty to pursue research and the stark reality that the department must generate salary savings to compensate for the financial shortfall produced by budgetary recycling. In spite of respectably large research expenditures, the large undergraduate student-teacher ratio at Penn State dilutes our ability to increase the number of graduate students. The restoration of the undergraduate enrollment cap in 2004 has helped reduce the high student-faculty ratio.

Graduate enrollments in mechanical and nuclear engineering have been maintained despite the reduction in the number of international graduate students occurring after 2001 due to the issuance of more stringent regulations on student visas by the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (now DHS). For example, in 2002-03 there was a decline of 32% in the number of applications from international students. Furthermore, outstanding Asian and European graduate educational programs have emerged as alternatives to graduate study in America.

In 1996 an innovative “blue chip” recruiting program was created to recruit highly qualified engineering graduate students. Each January, 35 of the very best American students who have applied are invited to visit Penn State to meet with faculty and discuss research opportunities. But in order to aggressively compete with other universities and successfully recruit top talent, students had to be offered funding support in early spring. Since research funding levels are uncertain until mid-fall, Benson accepted the financial risk by guaranteeing the financial support until research funding was secured. Since 1996, the annual success to recruit “blue chip” graduate students has varied from 40-70%. Over a five-year period, 53 new graduate students have enrolled resulting in 46 masters and 21 doctoral degrees annually.

Space Expansion

In 1995 the Department of Mechanical Engineering, was housed in three primary buildings: Reber, Hammond and Research Building East. The Department of Nuclear Engineering was housed in the Sackett Building. Although the ME Department was dispersed in three different buildings, it was relatively manageable.

The announcement of the West Campus expansion allowed the department to seek additional space for research programs that were rapidly growing. The Department of Nuclear Engineering was scheduled to be moved from Sackett Building to the new Leonhard Building on the West Campus during the 1999-2000 academic year. Meanwhile, following the announcement of the merger, the Merger Transition Committee specified in their proposal to the Dean that the “faculty and staff members of the merged department should occupy space in the same building.” The recommendation was accepted and the nuclear engineering program faculty and staff were moved into Reber Building. To accommodate the nuclear program in Reber, several mechanical engineering faculty and staff moved into Leonhard space.

Through the West Campus space expansion, the department was able to obtain approximately 21,723 square feet of new lab space in Leonhard, Hammond, University Support Building I, and Engineering Unit C. Ultimately the department would like to be located in one building. In 2002 Benson formed a committee that created a new building plan entitled “One Identity: One Location: The New MNE Building” that outlines the vision of housing the department in one building.

Endowments

As resources become more and more scarce and tuition rates continue to increase, it has become increasingly important to secure private financial resources not only to enhance the quality of existing academic programs, but to ensure continued excellence in all areas and programs of the department. Someone once said: A program is only as good as its alumni.

That statement holds true for the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering. The last ten years have been very prosperous in securing many lifelong endowments that will be an everlasting legacy of Benson’s term at Penn State. Below are the endowments received from 1995-2005:

Conclusion

Richard Benson leaves our department significantly different than the when he joined ten years ago. In many ways, the last ten years have been the most event-filled period the department has experienced since World War II. This period in history witnessed the stock market bubble, collapse and fraud in 2000 and the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001. At the same time, the department experienced a merger, financial uncertainty, budgetary recycling, strategic planning, new governmental procedures, growth and recruitment of faculty, new space, uncapped enrollment growth, and expanded work for the head to solicit money from alumni, industry and benefactors.