Penn State trustees moved forward Friday with several capital projects at University Park, including an expansion of the Intramural Building and an overhaul of the West Campus Steam Plant.
Meeting at the Nittany Lion Inn, the board also heard an impromptu analysis of the university’s fast-rising international application rate, plus an update on state-funding expectations. In addition, members reappointed Steve Garban and John Surma as board chairman and vice chairman for a second year in their respective roles.
Those in the board leadership roles usually retain the positions for three years before rotating out.
On the facilities front, trustees voted without dissent to approve a natural-gas-conversion effort for the West Campus Steam Plant. St. Louis, Mo.-based Burns and McDonnell, an engineering firm, was selected to lead the project design.
The plant, built in 1929 at West College Avenue and Burrowes Road, supplies heat to much of the University Park campus. It has run steadily on coal and burns about 70,000 tons a year.
By 2009, though, Penn State had started to examine how it might best rethink the facility, aiming to keep it in compliance with upcoming U.S. clean-air rules and to achieve internal environmental goals. The university is striving to reduce, by 2012, its greenhouse-gas emissions by 17.5 percent from the 2005-2006 levels.
Senior Vice President for Finance Al Horvath told the trustees Friday that natural gas is the most viable alternative to the coal set-up. Speaking with reporters later, Horvath said university officials worked with faculty members in the field to help develop the recommendation for the trustees board.
‘The switch to natural gas will be a significant improvement in the amount of carbon-dioxide emissions,’ he said. He underscored that the project will deliver a 37 percent cut in carbon dioxide emitted from the campus steam facilities.
That’s equal to taking 12,400 cars off the road for a year, according to the university.
‘Also, no trucks are needed to transport the fuel, which will save diesel fuel, emissions and reduce traffic,’ a university-issued information sheet reads. ‘Finally, no material waste is generated, such as the fly or bottom ash produced from burning coal.’
Horvath said the project is expected to cost roughly $20 million to $35 million and will affect the secondary East Campus Steam Plant, as well. That plant, off Porter Road, already runs largely on gas, relying on oil as a backup.
The older West Campus plant uses four 1960s-era, coal-fired boilers and a 1947 boiler that’s already been shifted to natural gas, according to a news release. All the conversion work is tentatively expected to be complete by 2014 and will necessitate the installation of bigger gas lines on the west side of campus, Horvath said.
He said the gas system will rely on fuel drawn from within Pennsylvania — though the university doesn’t yet know exactly where — and will bear operating costs slightly higher than coal-related expenses.
Penn State had considered sticking with coal and installing a scrubber to filter out emissions, but that would have probably cost more than $35 million and not guaranteed future generation capacity, Horvath said. Likewise, he said, switching to a wholly renewable resource like wind or biomass would have cost roughly three to four times as much as the natural-gas solution.
Moreover, Penn State wasn’t certain that there’s enough supply of those renewable resources to satisfy the campus demand reliably, Horvath said. He said the university kept interested students connected to and informed through its review of those options.
Still, the student group Eco-Action told Onward State that the natural-gas plan is ‘unfortunate but not unexpected.
‘Eco-Action urges the university to pursue renewable energy alternatives and develop a plan for a swift transition away from fossil fuels,’ the group statement reads. ‘We won’t be satisfied until this process is complete.’
Horvath said the university will continue to study and consider advanced energy technologies as they evolve and become more widely available. Penn State also will work to minimize the environmental challenges involved in gas exploration and extraction, according to a news release.
Work on the West Campus Steam Plant isn’t likely to begin for at least another year. Engineers have yet to assemble a plan, and the university needs to seek the necessary permits.
In other board matters Friday:
- Trustees agreed to name the planned University Park ice facility Pegula Ice Arena. The name will honor donors Terrence M. and Kim Pegula, whose $88 million gift, announced in September, will fund the 200,000-square-foot arena. It’s expected to open in late 2013 just southwest of the University Drive-Curtin Road intersection.
- The board named Moody Noland Inc., of Columbus, Ohio, as the architect for a 48,000-square-foot expansion and partial renovation at the University Park Intramural Building. The expansion will emulate the new fitness center at Rec Hall, Horvath said. The IM Building is one of three key fitness centers at University Park.
- The board approved Buchart Horn Inc., of York, to handle architecture for $30 million in improvements at the University Park water-treatment plant, north of Park Avenue. Treatment and filtration technologies will be upgraded during the project, expected to be complete in June 2014.
- The administration outlined a plan to convert dining and kitchen space at Simmons Hall, at University Park, into residential areas. Newly renovated space will house 71 additional student beds; it’s expected to be done by fall. A renovated Pollock Dining Commons, to be finished by August, will serve those who had used the Simmons dining area.
- University President Graham Spanier said Penn State has ‘no information whatsoever yet’ about its state-funding prospects from the administration of new Gov. Tom Corbett. He said he hopes the new administration will ‘put an appropriate priority on public higher education’ as Pennsylvania faces a multi-billion-dollar state budget deficit.
- Also on the budget front, Spanier said the university’s Core Council continues to develop cost-cutting, consolidation and reorganization ideas for every university unit. ‘We know that a lot of this we have to do under any circumstances because it’s part of the normal evolution of the university, and it represents good management and good academic leadership,’ Spanier said. ‘But what we don’t know is the scope of any budgeted reductions that we might be faced with’ from the state. Core Council recommendations are expected to emerge in the coming months.
- The explosion in international applications is the single most dramatic trend at Penn State right now, Spanier told the trustees. In each of the past couple years, he said, international applications climbed about 35 percent; this year, the increase is nearly 50 percent. Spanier said the increases have been almost entirely at the undergraduate level as Penn State’s profile has grown. Eight of the top 10 countries for Penn State international applications are in Asia, he said, and the university now enrolls a record 1,500 students from China. More and more families from China are now able to afford a Penn State education, Spanier added.
Earlier coverage
