History
In July 2001, three separate inter-college, social science research units were combined under a new institute, the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI). The Survey Research Center (SRC) was a new unit added at that time as part of President Graham Spanier's goal to establish Penn State as the premier land-grant university in the nation for the integration of research, outreach, and teaching.
Dr. David R. Johnson was recruited to be SRC's first director bringing with him more than 20 years of experience directing academic survey research as director or co-director of the Bureau of Sociological Research at the University of Nebraska while on the faculty of the Department of Sociology. Mindy Anderson-Knott was the SRC's first assistant director. Before coming to Penn State, she was a research assistant and project manager at the Bureau of Sociological Research at the University of Nebraska.
The newly formed organization worked quickly toward establishing connections at Penn State and rapid growth showed itself in the form of more than 100 projects completed or in progress at the end of only two years. By April 2005, the SRC had 16 full-time staff and over 100 part-time employees. In 2005, to accommodate the growth, the SRC was reorganized into four divisions each with primary responsibility for a major survey mode: phone division, field division, mail/scannable division, and web division.
Early in the winter of 2001, a telephone interview facility was set up in Marion Place, an off-campus residential/office building that houses several Penn State research groups. The twelve telephone interviewer stations increased to 35 by the summer of 2006.
From its inception through June 2004, the SRC had submitted budgets for projects worth more than $6,500,000 and received contracts for projects worth more than $5,000,000. Income for work completed illustrates the SRC's growth during this time:
| for the period FY 2001 through 2003: | $ 629,096 | |
| for the FY 2003-04: | $ 853,402 | |
| for the FY 2004-05: | $ 1,326,154 |
In 2005 an external review of the SRC was conducted by directors of three prominent academic survey centers at major U.S. universities. The External Reviewers' Report included this comment:
"While SRC currently experiences the predictable growing pains of any rapidly growing organization, its exceptional early success and its contributions to Penn State's research community impressed us deeply."
2005/2006 saw the first major changes in leadership in the SRC with both Mindy and David moving on to other positions. In 2005 Patricia Wamboldt replaced Mindy as the Assistant Director, and in 2006 Kurt D. Johnson replaced David as the Director. Kurt and Patricia bring their own experiences and knowledge, but are guiding the SRC following the strong foundation built in the early years. They continue the work to make the SRC a solid and central factor in the provision of research services to the Penn State Community.
Last modified: 09/05/07 | Contact Webmaster
