Penn State Abington is a commonwealth campus of the Pennsylvania State University. It is located approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States in the Abington section of Abington Township. The campus is set on 45 acres (180,000 m2) of wooded land, and includes a duck pond, wooded trails and many species of hardwood trees, as well as a network of tunnels underneath the campus dating back to WWII, when they were dug to protect students from air raids. The tunnels were long considered a myth, but were rediscovered in 1999 following renovations on campus. The roughly 4000 undergraduate students (full-time and part-time students combined) are taught by a full-time faculty of over 150 professors, with the average class size being 24.
Several degree options are available at Penn State Abington. Students may start any of 160 Penn State baccalaureate programs at the Abington campus and then complete them at another Penn State campus, including University Park campus. Two associate degree programs, 19 baccalaureate degree programs, and continuing education programs designed for adult students are also available. Graduate degree programs are not offered at Penn State Abington. The athletics program has been granted full NCAA Division III status.
Penn State Abington also offers an Undergraduate Research opportunity known as ACURA (Abington College Undergraduate Research Activities). This opportunity enables students to work closely with a professor on a research project to broaden their educational experience. Within this program, students have the opportunity to present their research findings at a local or national research conference, and students also have the opportunity to publish a research paper in an academic journal as a co-author with their research mentor.
Video Penn State Abington
History
The Penn State Abington campus was not originally a Penn State campus. The origins of the Abington campus begin with Jay Cooke, a banker who had financed the Union during the Civil War, and The Chestnut Street Female Seminary, a Philadelphia school for girls between the ages of 12 through 18 that opened in 1850. With increasing enrollment, The Chestnut Street Female Seminary needed to find a campus that could accommodate the larger student body.
Jay Cooke
In 1863, Cooke had constructed a lavish mansion in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania which he named Ogontz, in honor of a Sandusky Indian Chief from Ohio named Ogontz. Cooke had spent much time with Chief Ogontz during his childhood, and admired Ogontz greatly. In 1883, Cooke suffered financial hardship and needed a way to pay off his debts. Jay Cooke persuaded The Chestnut Street Female Seminary of Philadelphia to lease his mansion, Ogontz, for an annual rental of $15,000. The Chestnut Street Female Seminary was renamed The Ogontz School for Girls after the 1883 move to Cooke's mansion and estate.
Abby Sutherland
In 1902, Radcliffe College graduate Abby Sutherland arrived at the school to take a job as an English teacher. This would begin a long association with The Ogontz School for Girls for Abby Sutherland. Eventually, Sutherland would go on to become headmistress, president, and owner of the school. In 1912, Headmistress Abby Sutherland bought The Ogontz School for Girls.
In 1916 the school's new owner Abby Sutherland began looking for a larger location for The Ogontz School for Girls. She sold the school's property in Cheltenham Township, and bought 54 acres (220,000 m2) of land in what Sutherland called the "beautiful park section in the hills of Rydal", and moved the school to Abington. At the time of the move, only the main building, known today as the Sutherland Building, had been completed. Soon after the move, the Rydal School, known today as the Rydal Building, was added to accommodate additional elementary grades.
It was at this time that The Ogontz School for Girls most famous student, Amelia Earhart, attended the school. Earhart never graduated however, leaving after two years at the school to enlist as a nurse's aide at Spadina Military Hospital in Toronto, Canada.
It was in 1942-44, during Abby Sutherland's tenure at headmistress, that the tunnels underneath the campus were dug, as the notoriously worrisome headmistress was concerned about the possibility of German air raids on the eastern seaboard of the United States, a fear made entirely plausible by the development of the German V-2 rocket. The tunnels were dug at an estimated cost of $1.3 million USD, not adjusted for inflation, and construction took two years to complete. Within two years of their completion however, World War II was over, and the tunnels were no longer needed, and thus were closed down to save on cleaning costs.
Penn State Ogontz
As years passed and attitudes changed, the need for the school became in doubt. In 1950 school owner Abby Sutherland gave the property and all facilities to the Pennsylvania State University, including a painting by Thomas Moran, an artist to whom Jay Cooke had advanced money in 1873. That painting is still on display today at Penn State Abington.
At the presentation ceremony to Penn State, Sutherland remarked, "Guard here the spirit of the best in your dreams of education." Sutherland continued to live on the grounds of The Penn State Ogontz Campus until her death in 1961. The Abby A. Sutherland Scholarship is given to deserving students each year in her honor.
In 1995, Penn State Ogontz was renamed Abington-Ogontz to emphasize its relationship with the surrounding community. On July 1, 1997, the Penn State Ogontz campus became a Penn State college that may grant baccalaureate degrees, and was renamed Penn State Abington. The Ogontz name lives on in the Chief Ogontz Award given by the Student Government Association to a faculty or staff member in recognition of outstanding contributions to student life.
During this time, the tunnels underneath the campus fell into disrepair, much of this due to rising maintenance costs. Owing to their age, some of them had begun to crack, allowing water to seep in, while others were cluttered with materials placed in storage in the tunnels. Many of the primary tunnels were in such bad condition that they were considered unsafe, and in 1969 the tunnels were closed to students, with many of the entrances boarded up and signs placed on campus warning students not to use the tunnels. In 1999 however, a student doing research on the older campus buildings rediscovered the tunnels, and petitioned the school to repair and reopen the tunnels. The school, after a petition gained over a thousand signatures, eventually agreed, and began restoration work on the tunnels which is expected to last until late 2019.
Maps Penn State Abington
Athletics
Penn State Abington, known athletically as the Nittany Lions, is a full member of the NCAA Division III and participates in the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).
Penn State Abington sponsors 13 intercollegiate sports. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, soccer and tennis; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball.
Facilities
Penn State Abington features a large library, modern laboratories, and computer facilities. Recreational areas include tennis courts, basketball courts, and baseball and soccer fields. Penn State Abington has a nearby residence hall, Lion's Gate, that houses around 400 freshman. The major buildings on campus include the Sutherland Building, the Woodland Building, and the Lares Building. Other buildings on campus include the Springhouse Building, the Rydal Building, the Conference Center, the Cloverly Building, the Athletics Building, and the Hillcrest Building. All of these major buildings, with the sole exception of the Cloverly Building, are linked by the tunnels under the campus.
The Sutherland Building was built in 1915, and was the original main building for The Ogontz School for Girls. Today it is a classroom building, and features a lecture hall, academic and student offices, academic advising spaces, a post office (cash only), and a tutoring facility. Two interesting features of the Sutherland Building are an indoor swimming pool which is now used for storage that is located right near the lecture hall and a solarium. The inclusion of the solarium was a design decision influenced by Jay Cooke's mansion Ogontz.
The Woodland Building was constructed after the campus became part of the Pennsylvania State University. This building features classrooms and a lecture hall, laboratories, a computer lab, academic offices, and a library with a collection of nearly 60,000 volumes. Penn State Abington's library is available for use to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and residents of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Springhouse houses a single classroom and storage. Rydal houses multiple classrooms and the campus security offices. Conference Center houses classrooms. Cloverly houses offices as well as the counseling unit. Athletics houses the athletic department and is a gym along with a multi use field and tennis court (along with nearby facilities - Huntingdon Field) used by the athletic teams. Hillcrest is used only for storage.
The Lares Union Building was originally built in 1923 as the personal residence of Abby Sutherland. This is the student union building on campus, and facilities include a cafeteria (managed by Culinart), bookstore (Barnes & Noble college), a banquet room and multi purpose room ("Lubert Commons") and used for student programs, student organization and government offices, the Office of Student Engagement & Leadership, the Career Development Center, and the Intersection. The Lares Union Building underwent major renovations between 1998-2002. Renovations included a modernized dining area, a larger bookstore, and banquet rooms overlooking the duck pond.
In 1999, a network of tunnels was discovered running across the campus, underneath several central buildings, and it is believed they were built to provide bomb shelter for students during air raids in WWII. However the tunnels had been heavily damaged by the ensuing decades, and required extensive repairs, which are expected to be completed in late 2019, after which time the tunnels will be opened to students again.
In 2017, Penn State Abington opened its first on campus housing nearby to the campus, which will house roughly 400 freshman only and make the campus residential instead of commuter. Along with the campus housing project, Penn State Abington is also planning on building a new student union and new academic building within the next decade. An outdated campus building would be torn down to make way for a new building. As the housing project is a recent addition, it is not linked to the tunnels underneath the campus, and there are currently no plans to link it to the tunnels, as the cost required would be in excess of the school's budget.
- Penn State Abington website. Retrieved October 27, 2008.
- Map of Penn State Abington campus. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
- History and Development of The School District of Cheltenham Township. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
- The Ogontz White Mountain Camp a related project undertaken by Abby Surtherland. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
- Terrie Smith (September 13, 2001). Guard here the spirit. Penn State Intercom. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
External links
- Penn State Abington website
- Penn State Abington athletics website
- Penn State Undergraduate Degree Programs Bulletin (The Blue Book). Retrieved March 19, 2006.
Source of article : Wikipedia
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