Harpster in the house

The race for Shippensburg University president started off on Tuesday, Dec. 9 with George Harpster having his meet and greet with the faculty and student body. The slight difference for Harpster, affectionately known as Jody, is that he is the only familiar face to the faculty and students.

Harpster has served as an interim president for SU on two separate occasions and has decided that he would like to fulfill the position long-term.

Harpster was raised in Tyrone, Pennsylvania. He went on to graduate from Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, receiving degrees in psychology and biology.

Harpster received his master’s degree from SU and while doing so, worked for the dean of men, now known as the dean of students.

Harpster believes the most important thing about SU is the family atmosphere that it carries. If elected, he plans to maintain that positive outlook on the campus.

“I cannot recall too many times where I have went to [an] event or conference and Shippensburg University has not be referred to as the ‘Ship family,’” Harpster said.

“I help you believe in you,” Harpster said.

Harpster made very clear that without everyone working together and for one another that students will not receive as much as they can from the college experience.

“I feel too many people live in the here, now and me, and they are not about family,” Harpster said. When asked how he planned to improve the university, Harpster had much to say.

However, his main focus was on stretching the money out around campus in any way possible. Harpster said 75 percent of money for the university used to come from state funding and 25 percent came from student fees —now those numbers have flipped. Today, the students are responsible for the 75 percent and the remaining 25 percent comes from the state. Harpster wants to return these numbers to their previous state, or at least even them to 50–50.

During his previous term serving as interim president, Harpster said he was extremely proud of making more degrees available to the SU. “Degrees are very valuable,” Harpster said, “The more degrees a university offers, the more prestigious the university becomes. I am very proud of the fact that we just got a degree in electrical engineering approved.”

Hawkinson hails from Illinois

Wednesday, Dec. 10 Kenneth Hawkinson met with the faculty and student body in Orndorff Theater in the Ceddia Union Building.

Hawkinson believes he has a strong background in student leadership.

“While I was in high school I was involved with everything I could be, whether it was football, band, the choir, track and the student government,” Hawkinson said. He believes that being so active not only prepared him to be a leader, but also helped him to love the culture of school.

Outside of school, Hawkinson served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany for three years. He also worked with the Peace Corps in Africa.

“I purposely sought out every experience I could to prepare myself to do something significant,” Hawkinson said.

Hawkinson said he feels as though he is ready to move on and the opportunity is not present at the current university he works at.

“I have enjoyed my time at Western Illinois University, I just feel as though it is my time to move on with my career and Shippensburg University seems like the perfect place for me to do so,” Hawkinson said. He expressed that he put tremendous thought and research into where he would like to work next.

Hawkinson has a lot of new ideas for SU.

“One of my favorite sayings is ‘Don’t tell me where you’re going, tell me where you’ve been,’ so I plan to bring some of the same ideas I initiated at Western Illinois University to Shippensburg University,” Hawkinson said. He wants to enhance the honors program, provide more scholarships, bring more jobs to the campus, increase the retention of students and increase the number of international students.

“I feel I still have potential and ideas that I want to use,” Hawkinson said. His first plan of action would be to get to know the university.

“It would be to meet with every committee possible and then just not talk a lot, sit back and learn the university,” Hawkinson said. He expressed that he wants to make sure that he listens to what the students, faculty and university as a whole are asking for — and provide them with it.

Bresnahan seeks to utilize campus resources

Carol Bresnahan was the third and final candidate to come to Shippensburg University to interview for the open position of SU president.

She arrived on campus on Thursday, Dec. 11 and had a full day of meeting with faculty, staff, students, the executive management team, the president’s cabinet, alumni and community leaders, like the other two candidates.

Bresnahan earned her Ph.D. in history in 1986 from Brown University. Since then, she has served as a professor and university administrator, among other positions, at various institutions. Currently, she is the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Rollins College, a private institution in Winter Park, Florida.

“I am interested in returning to a public institution,” Bresnahan said during a session with SU students at Orndorff Theater.

The reason she gave for wanting to come back to a public school began with a story of when she was teaching History 101. It was the first day of class and sitting in the first row were two women — one was a mother and the other was her daughter, who was fresh out of high school.

Public institutions offered these two women a chance for higher education that a private university may not have. Bresnahan said it is great these two women have the ability to pursue higher education.

Bresnahan said she went to work for a private university because she became tired of dealing with state budget cuts.

“My career represents deep commitment to ‘student learning and personal development through effect and innovative teaching and...out-of-class experiences,’” her cover letter to the presidential search committee states.

“It’s really important to understand what students think about an issue,” she said, concerning the relevance of the students’ voice in administrative decisions. “You have to be listening to the students.”

Bresnahan said having open office hours and including students in on meetings are some of the ways to get students engaged in administrative actions.

“Families often disagree,” Bresnahan said, noting SU students and staff often used the word “family” to describe the campus community. She continued, saying the family must move forward despite disagreements.

Bresnahan said acquiring new majors at SU based on the number of job openings in each field and student interest is important for the university. Majors with fewer students may be changed to minors as a means to offer more popular majors while still using campus resources in an efficient way, Bresnahan said.

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