Madison Kwiecinski 

News Editor 

Mvk5945@psu.edu 

Penn State Behrend has spent several months in anticipation of the new Erie Hall building, a $28.2 million dollar project in which Erie Hall was demolished and rebuilt from the ground up. Students on-campus have seen nearly every part of the project being built, and recently had the opportunity to sign a piece of the building before it was installed. 

On March 23, a 32-foot-long white beam which had been signed by hundreds of students was placed onto the building after a brief ceremony in which several prominent faces on-campus spoke about the building. The beam was covered in signatures, written in blue across the white beam, and weighed 1,2000 pounds. 

The building has been being worked on since last September, and is expected to be finished in December of the 2022-2023 school year. For those curious about the inside of the building, computer animated renditions of what the finished hall will look like are available on the Behrend website as well as on YouTube. The video showing the realistic walkthrough of Erie Hall was played at the topping-off ceremony to give students a sense of what is to come. 

On March 23, those wishing to watch the  ceremony met in the Reed Wintergarden at 2:30 p.m. Dr. Ken Miller, Chancellor Ford, and SGA President Dylan Free all spoke briefly at the event. 

The topping-off ceremony followed their remarks and some brief refreshments. The final beam being placed on the building marked the moment the building reached its final height. 

The new Erie Hall being built is nearly triple the size of the original one, allowing for a lot more room for student activities. The building includes new training rooms, studio space, support facilities, and a three-court gymnasium for the college’s NCAA athletic teams. 

The new building will also allow for the expansion of Personal Counseling services, as they will use the new space to host workshops on stress management, nutrition, anxiety reduction, and other health-related topics. 

A large portion of funding for the building has come from students at Penn State Behrend. Nearly 40 percent of all of the funding for the project has been provided by Behrend students, with $10 million of the funds coming from the STudent Initiated Fee. 

“We want students to be part of this,” said Dr. Miller, “It’s their building, and it’s taking shape because of their commitment to this project: They saw the need, stepped up and made it happen.”