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Public research universities play the leading role in educating future leaders in agriculture, engineering, the arts and sciences, humanities, business, education, and other professions. They generate the new products, processes, inventions, discoveries, insights, and interpretations that advance the human condition. And, through outreach, they harness their human and intellectual capital to serve the sponsoring societies. Yet state investment in public higher education is faltering. This flagging support, along with the growing perception that higher education is a private benefit rather than a public good, has put public research universities at a crossroads.

Penn State will host an academic symposium on the “Future of the American Public Research University” as part of the University’s Sesquicentennial celebration. Sponsored by the Penn State Alumni Association and the University’s Center for the Study of Higher Education, the symposium will take place February 25—26, 2005, at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel on the University Park campus.

The symposium will address substantive issues about the future of public research universities with respect to the social, political, and economic changes in the post 9/11 world. Main topics such as teaching and learning, service and outreach, students, roles and structure, financing, and academic research will be addressed in six sessions over two days by a distinguished panel of speakers—leading scholars from across the nation and from Penn State, uniquely qualified to address current and future challenges facing public research universities.

Register online
Download a printable registration form (PDF format 38K)