The President of the Pennsylvania State University is the chief administrator of the Pennsylvania State University, serving as chief executive officer of the institution and an ex officio member of the 32-member Penn State Board of Trustees. Included in the list below are all Presidents of the Pennsylvania State University and its precursor institutions, from the first President Evan Pugh and through the current President, Neeli Bendapudi. There have been 19 Presidents of the Pennsylvania State University, not including three interregnum presidencies during university presidential transitions.
Pennsylvania's only land-grant university, the Pennsylvania State University was established in 1855 [1] as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, before becoming the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania in 1863 under University President Evan Pugh, the Pennsylvania State College under James Calder in 1874 and, finally, the Pennsylvania State University under Milton S. Eisenhower in 1953. Today, the university is part of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education and is one of the largest universities in the United States.
№ | President | Term of office | Education | Notes | |
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1 | Evan Pugh (1828–1864) [2] [3] | 1859 – 1864 (5 years) |
| In the shadow of the Civil War, Evan Pugh became the first president of the then Farmers' High School. He was a member of the London Chemical Society and a professor at Yale University. He was burdened with meeting the objectives of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 and the necessary completion of Old Main. On May 2, 1862 Pugh had the name Farmers' High School changed to the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania. After his five years as president, Pugh died in office on April 29, 1864. Pugh Street in State College, Pennsylvania is named in his honor. | |
2 | William Henry Allen (1808–1882) [4] [5] | 1864 – 1866 (2 years) |
| Before becoming the President of the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania Allen was the President of Girard College for 12 years. He also served 10 years at Dickinson College as professor and a year as president. He arrived at Penn State with the burden of a $50,000 debt the infant institution had amassed to that point. In 1866 the Board of Trustees borrowed $80,000 in Mortgage bonds to pay off the debt with excess used to set up a working fund. He also major restructured and implemented Evan Pugh’s original curricula, as well as brought in instruction on military tactics. After his two-year stay at Penn State, he was re-elected to the Girard College Presidency, and then to be the president of the American Bible Society. Allen Street in State College, Pennsylvania and Allen Road on the Penn State University Park campus are named in his honor. | |
3 | John Fraser (c. 1823–1878) [6] [7] | 1866 – 1868 (2 years) | |||
4 | Thomas Henry Burrowes (1805–1871) [8] | 1868 – 1871 (3 years) |
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5 | James Calder (1826–1893) [9] [10] | 1871 – 1880 (9 years) | |||
6 | Joseph Shortlidge (1832–1911) [11] | 1880 – 1881 (1 year) |
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– | James Y. McKee (interregnum) (1836–1891) [12] [13] [14] | 1881 – 1882 (1 year) |
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7 | George W. Atherton (1837–1906) [15] [16] | 1882 – 1906 (24 years) |
| Atherton inherited a university that struggled to find its identity between agricultural education and traditional studies. He transformed Penn State from a struggling university with low enrollment to a respected land-grant university, by strengthening the liberal arts program while creating one of the premiere engineering programs in the country. He is often called the "second founder" of the university. | |
– | James A. Beaver (interregnum) (1837–1914) [18] [19] | 1906 – 1908 (2 years) |
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8 | Edwin Erle Sparks (1860–1924) [21] [22] | 1908 – 1920 (12 years) |
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9 | John Martin Thomas (1869–1952) [23] [24] | 1921 – 1925 (4 years) |
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10 | Ralph D. Hetzel (1882–1947) [25] [26] | 1927 – 1947 (20 years) |
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– | James Milholland (interregnum) (1887–1956) [27] [28] [29] | 1947 – 1950 (3 years) |
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11 | Milton S. Eisenhower (1899–1985) [31] [32] | 1950 – 1956 (6 years) |
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12 | Eric A. Walker (1910–1995) [33] [34] | 1956 – 1970 (14 years) |
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13 | John W. Oswald (1917–1995) [35] [36] | 1970 – 1983 (13 years) |
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14 | Bryce Jordan (1924–2016) [37] [38] | 1983 – 1990 (7 years) |
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15 | Joab Thomas (1933–2014) [39] [40] | 1990 – 1995 (5 years) |
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16 | Graham Spanier (born 1948) [41] [42] | 1995 – 2011 (16 years) |
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17 | Rodney Erickson (born 1946) [43] | 2011 – 2014 (3 years) |
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18 | Eric J. Barron (born 1951) [44] [45] | 2014 – 2022 (8 years) |
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19 | Neeli Bendapudi (born 1962/63) [46] | 2022 – present |
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State College is a borough and home rule municipality in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a college town, dominated economically, culturally, and demographically by the presence of the University Park campus of The Pennsylvania State University.
Penn State Dickinson Law, formerly Dickinson School of Law, is a public law school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It is one of two separately accredited law schools of Pennsylvania State University.
Joseph Vincent Paterno, sometimes referred to as JoePa, was an American college football player, athletic director, and coach. He was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1966 to 2011. With 409 victories, Paterno is the most victorious coach in NCAA FBS history. He recorded his 409th victory on October 29, 2011; his career ended with his dismissal from the team on November 9, 2011, as a result of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal. He died 74 days later, of complications from lung cancer.
Milton Stover Eisenhower was an American academic administrator. He served as president of three major American universities: Kansas State University, Pennsylvania State University, and Johns Hopkins University. Eisenhower was also the head of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He was the youngest brother of, and advisor to, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
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The Pennsylvania State University is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855 as Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State was named the state's first land-grant university eight years later, in 1863. Its primary campus, known as Penn State University Park, is located in State College and College Township.
Penn State University Park, also referred to as University Park, is the main campus of Pennsylvania State University, located in both State College and College Township, both in Centre County, Pennsylvania. The campus post office was designated "University Park, Pennsylvania" in 1953 by Penn State president Milton Eisenhower after it was upgraded to university status.
George Washington Atherton, soldier and educator. He was president of the Pennsylvania State University from 1882 until his death in 1906.
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Joab Langston Thomas was an American university administrator and scientist, who served as president of Pennsylvania State University, North Carolina State University and The University of Alabama.
New Beaver Field was a stadium in University Park, Pennsylvania. It served as the third home of the Penn State University Nittany Lions football team, hosting the team until they moved in 1960 to Beaver Stadium. It was built to replace the original Beaver Field (1892–1908), retroactively called Old Beaver Field, which had a capacity of 500 and stood between present-day Osmond and Frear Laboratories. Prior to this, the team played on Old Main Lawn, a grassy area outside the main classroom building of the time.
Evan Pugh was the first president of the Pennsylvania State University, serving from 1859 until his death in 1864.
Ralph Dorn Hetzel was the tenth President of the Pennsylvania State University, serving from 1927 until 1947. Prior to that he served as the President of the New Hampshire College, which became the University of New Hampshire in 1923, under Hetzel's tenure.
James Milholland was acting President of the Pennsylvania State University, serving from the death of Ralph Dorn Hetzel in 1947 until 1950. He later worked as a judge. He died after multiple heart attacks in 1956.
Onward State is a student-run news website geared toward members of the Penn State community in Pennsylvania. The website provides news, features, and commentary on issues impacting Penn State and State College. Onward State has published more than 34,000 stories since its founding in November 2008. It was voted the "Best Alternative Media Outlet" in a February 2009 online contest by U.S. News & World Report. Onward State has been cited in the New York Times, USA TODAY, ESPN, The Washington Post, and many other national news outlets. The Associated Press has described Onward State as "one of Penn State's smarter, if sometimes-snarky blogs."
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The Penn State College of Engineering is the engineering school of the Pennsylvania State University, headquartered at the University Park campus in University Park, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1896, under the leadership of George W. Atherton. Today, with 13 academic departments and degree programs, over 11,000 enrolled undergraduate and graduate students, and research expenditures of $124 million for the 2016–2017 academic year, the Penn State College of Engineering is in the top 20 of engineering schools in the United States. It is estimated that at least one out of every fifty engineers in the United States got their bachelor's degree from Penn State. Dr. Justin Schwartz currently holds the position of Harold and Inge Marcus Dean of Engineering.
The Penn State child sex abuse scandal concerned allegations and subsequent convictions of child sexual abuse committed by Jerry Sandusky, an assistant coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions football team, over a period of at least fifteen years. The scandal began to emerge publicly in March 2011 and broke in early November 2011 when Sandusky was indicted on 52 counts of child molestation, stemming from incidents that occurred between 1994 and 2009. Sandusky was ultimately convicted on 45 counts of child sexual abuse on June 22, 2012, and was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison. Of the 10 victims who were listed, only eight appeared at trial. All were over the age of 18 by the time they testified. Six were over 21.
Fred Lewis Pattee was an American author and scholar of American literature. As a professor of American literature at the Pennsylvania State University, Pattee wrote the lyrics of the Penn State Alma Mater. Pattee is sometimes labeled the "first Professor of American Literature", a position he held at Penn State from 1895 until 1928.
Neeli Bendapudi is an Indian-American academic administrator who is the 19th president of Pennsylvania State University. From 2018 until 2021, she served as the 18th president of the University of Louisville. In December 2021, Penn State announced Bendapudi as the university's president; she succeeded Eric J. Barron following his retirement. She assumed office in May 2022 and is the first woman and the first non-white person to serve as Penn State's president.
james y. mckee 1836.
george w. atherton yale.