Behrend Welcomes Beer, Pizza, Donut additions

Penn State Behrend aspires to be a transformative college, providing over 5,000 students with academic opportunities and campus amenities to ensure their experience is memorable. With the development of the Strategic Plan of 2018-2019, the college’s vision continues to transcend and focus on future renovations and additions to campus life.

Tim Horton’s, the newest addition to campus, opened to students August 21 in Knowledge Park, which provides an alternative chain-linked eatery to the surrounding food destinations, Bruno’s, Dobbin’s, and new mobile dinery, The Behrend Clipper food truck. The project is a joint collaboration between Penn State Behrend and GEDIC (Greater Erie Development Industrial Cooperation).

With the excitement leading up to the grand opening of Tim Horton’s, students shared their opinions of the newest food attraction. Ben Lowery, a Sophomore Finance major, is unsure of the location of Tim Horton’s as his major and class schedule do not coincide with the destination. “I have not visited the Tim Horton’s, one reason being because I am a business student and I never make my way up to the AMIC building.” Lowery believes this destination does not appeal to every student on campus. “I feel like the Tim Horton’s would have much more business if it was centrally located to appeal to more students who live on campus as well as off campus where it can meet in the middle,” Lowery said.

However, Junior Industrial Engineering major, Emily Miksa, finds that the AMIC building is an ideal location. “Being an engineering student, we are always up in AMIC and we don’t have many food options so that’s a great thing to have for our utilization, especially during the summer months when we are in there doing research,” Miksa said.

The less recent grand opening of Erie Brewery Company and John’s Wildwood’s Pizza just seconds away from campus have also appealed to students. The two additions across from GetGo provide students accessibility to pizza as well as beer to those of age, all in one sitting. However, the opening of these student attractions question the potential competition it may have with Hungry Howie’s Pizza, located within the University Gate Apartments complex. “I think there will be competition,” Lowery said, a resident to University Gate Apartments. “But those two companies have much better food and their brand awareness appeals much better to college students as well as bar-goers.”

With the next couple of years in play, the Strategic Plan continues to expand with campus planning and development. Ken Miller, Senior Director of Administration and Student Affairs, is looking into the master plan and the short-term and long-term developments he wishes to achieve. “We have been working with a consultant,” Miller said. “We’re looking at the public, private partnerships that we might be able to develop in and around the campus. It’s something we're actively looking at, but we are not far enough along.”

With the addition of Erie Brewery Company and John’s Wildwood Pizza, student life is   expanding on and off campus. “Harborcreek Township is a big player in all this,” said Miller. “There’s a reason Erie Brewery Company came to Harborcreek and that’s because of the supervisors.” With the help of public supervisors of Harborcreek, future development of campus will ultimately expand to new horizons. Miller said, “Politically, it’s very attractive to build in Harborcreek. We have a great relationship with the supervisors and we shared with them the campus master plan.”

Srini Charyulu, a Junior Mechanical Engineering major, hopes to see more attractions added to campus in the future. “I think it would be awesome to have more food chain places since there is not much for us to eat,” Charyulu said. “I am a vegan with vegetarian tendencies, and all I can eat at Bruno’s are subs and pizza. I would love to see a Chipotle added to campus.” With the addition of The Behrend Clipper, Miksa is proud of the additions Behrend is making to its campus. “I think they are doing a great job in expanding the campus,” Miksa said.  “I think the NIC building area might need few more things at their disposal, but other than that, I think we are expanding rather well.”

The success of the new student food attractions are not the only additions Miller hopes to bring to Behrend’s campus in the near future. “We got a lot to offer,” Miller said. “The traffic counts between I-90 and the Bayfront highway are amazing. We are starting to look at that strategically and how we can take advantage of that.” Miller is exploring the plan of putting a digital sign by Knowledge Park, which would be visible from I-90. “We have actually gotten feedback with where the PennDOT signs are located, and how Knowledge Park is unknown,” Miller said. “People see the sign for Penn State Erie, the Behrend College and they think it’s two different places, so we got a lot of great opportunities to raise awareness about what’s going on around campus through the I-90 highway and Bayfront corridor.”

As the development of Behrend’s campus continues to grow, the five-year plan is expected to conquer the challenges it may face, and encourage student career success and economic development. Miller said, “We do want to expand and explore the opportunities Behrend has because it will help us grow, while still sustaining a positive impact on the campus environment.”