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After 13 years, Valarie Trimarchi departs IUP-Punxsy with same philosophy: Look forward |
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Front Page -
Front Page Story
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Written by Tom Chapin
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Thursday, 22 October 2009 |
PUNXSUTAWNEY — Friday may be Dr. Valarie Trimarchi's last day as the dean of IUP-Punxsutawney, but she says she's not looking back.
"There have been some little bittersweet moments," she said about the last week. "I feel sad because I'm leaving a lot of good people, but at the same time, I'm excited to move ahead. I'm trying to look ahead, not at the past, or even the moment."
Looking ahead is what Trimarchi has done since setting foot on the West End campus 13 years ago, and evidence of her foresight has been three extensive building projects — the construction of the Living/Learning Centers in the West End, and the renovation of the former J.B. Eberhart building into the IUP Fairman Centre downtown — all on her watch.
"You can trace the meteoric rise of the Punxsy campus to her," said Dave Osikowicz of Punxsutawney, president of the IUP Council of Trustees. "Her tenure has been fantastic."
The IUP administration, financial officials and lawmakers such as state Rep. Sam Smith have been instrumental in building a bigger and better IUP-Punxsy, but "she was definitely the catalyst," Osikowicz said.
"I enjoy building buildings, building programs," Trimarchi said. "I like being part of making things happen."
She's done such a great job at making things happen at IUP-Punxsy, that another university — the University of Baltimore — is asking her to do almost the same thing on a campus that hasn't housed freshmen for about 30 years.
Trimarchi, a native of Latrobe, earned her bachelor's degree from IUP, her doctorate from Penn State and her higher education certificate from Harvard University.
She first worked in IUP's graduate program, strangely enough serving as a temporary secretary in the department, which she said at least "got my foot in the door."
But a year later, Trimarchi was the director of the graduate program, serving for nine years. Prior to coming to IUP's Punxsy campus, Trimarchi served as director of planning for the provost of IUP.
She accepted the dean's post at IUP-Punxsy because she missed working with students, "and it had programs that needed to be built. It had a history that we wanted to try to sustain, but it also had a promise of bigger things, and I thought that I could help."
"What I found here was, what we did well was develop students — mainly freshmen," Trimarchi said.
"We knew several years ago, that we needed to bring that campus up to date, or it was going to disappear," said Smith, a six-year member of the IUP Council of Trustees who has secured funding for IUP's recent Punxsy projects.
It wasn't long after Trimarchi arrived that changes were in the air. The campus' aging facilities — Old Main and two dorms — made it difficult to recruit students, "and it all became a matter of a program, and building facilities around that."
Building around the program of the freshman experience officially began with shovels in the ground in September 2004. Three weeks after that semester's new freshmen became the last class that would use the old dorms, Trimarchi and other university officials broke ground for what would become the Living Center.
That project was dedicated in August 2005, and the same day, Trimarchi and university officials again donned shovels to break ground for the Learning Center, which was dedicated in October 2006.
"I think she has vision. She knows what needs to be done, knows what students of the 21st century need when they go to college," said Dr. J. Thomas Frantz, president of the Punxsutawney Area College Trust, adding that she knows how housing, for example, should "look good today, or in 10 or 15 years."
"Anybody who saw the campus then and saw it today would not know where they were," he said.
Smith has often said his work in securing funding for these kinds of projects is a lot easier with the kind of grassroots support from people such as Trimarchi.
"Her commitment to the school and community, and her willingness to interact with other people in the community, is the kind of characteristic that has made her so valuable in the recent success at the Punxsy campus," he said. "Someone will have some tough shoes to fill."
"Truly, the campus at West End is a reflection of her vision," Frantz said. "The College Trust has been working with her for 13 years, and the West End campus, and what is there is a direct result of her vision, effort and determination."
The digging, bricks and mortar didn't stop. The same day that officials dedicated the Learning Center in October 2006, the PRDC officially handed over the keys to the former J.B. Eberhart building to the Foundation for IUP. Coupled with a $1.9 million gift from the Fairman family for renovation of the facility, the IUP Fairman Centre — named in honor and memory of the late Alan Fairman and the late Roy Fairman — was born and dedicated this past September.
"It's amazing to look at, because they're such beautiful buildings, so it's exciting," Trimarchi said Wednesday. "I look back at where we started and where we are, and it's pretty remarkable."
Frantz said before plans for a project make it to paper, there are hours and hours of work behind it.
"She made it look easy, and we knew it wasn't," he said. "She did all the work to get it started and was there to see it through the end.
"Someone has to take ownership, and any of the things we ever did, she took ownership," Frantz said.
Trimarchi said even though she's departing, there is still work to do at IUP-Punxsy.
The university offers students memberships at the Punxsutawney Area Community Center, but Trimarchi said the campus must develop an on-campus recreational program.
Likewise, she said IUP-Punxsy is evolving toward offering a two-year program.
"Now, we have freshmen, and it's running pretty much like clockwork," she said. "I think we have solidified the freshman experience. We're hearing from a number of students interested in staying one more year" for a sophomore experience or opportunities to earn associates' degrees.
Nov. 18, Trimarchi begins her new job as the director of freshman admissions at the University of Baltimore, located in the Mount Vernon area of Baltimore and the original home of the Washington Monument.
The university hasn't housed freshmen for decades, but is targeted for growth, and will welcome Trimarchi with a whole new staff to welcome freshmen.
"It's a village within the city," Trimarchi said about Mount Vernon. "It's an urban campus, but very, very pretty."
She said she wasn't even looking for a new job when her husband, Bill, found the listing in The Chronicle of Higher Education. She applied out of curiosity, and admitted that she didn't immediately recall what she had applied for when university officials contacted her a few weeks later.
After a few interviews and a full working day at the campus, Trimarchi said, "It was just a fit. It's intriguing enough for me to step off into a big, black hole and see where I land."
Between building projects and tales of students' homesickness and games of Cowboys and Indians in the stairwells — "I should have kept notes over the years; I could have written a best-seller," she said — Trimarchi said she's grateful for her IUP-Punxsutawney experience, which she said had positioned her for her new journey.
"I'm looking forward, and we had a lot of great growth on this campus; much fun to watch," she said. "That got me to where I'm going."
"Dean Trimarchi's 23 years of service to IUP have been exemplary," IUP President Dr. Tony Atwater said Wednesday. "She certainly exemplifies significant devotion to students' success and academic quality, for which we take great pride.
"Dr. Trimarchi's exceptional leadership as dean of the Punxsutawney campus will long be remembered and appreciated," he said.
Trimarchi and her husband will keep their home in Indiana, just a few miles from her other home in Jefferson County.
"She lives in Indiana, but we see her here," Frantz said. "We're suspicious of where she really lives."
"It feels like home to me," she said of Punxsutawney.
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