Pennsylvania State University is expected to name Eric J. Barron, who is now Florida State University’s president, to become the Pennsylvania institution’s next leader, sources told two Pennsylvania newspapers over the weekend.
The sources said Mr. Barron’s selection would be announced after Penn State’s Board of Trustees votes on his appointment at a meeting on Monday, according to the Centre Daily Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Penn State did not confirm those reports, but Mr. Barron did acknowledge in an interview with The Tallahassee Democrat that he was leaving Florida State. He told the Tallahassee paper that he had been approached by recruiters for other presidencies since coming to Florida State, but that with Penn State “it got to be a little more personal, so I took a look.”
A geoscientist, Mr. Barron was on the faculty at Penn State for 20 years, from 1986 to 2006, the last four of those years as dean of its College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. He has also served as director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Boulder, Colo., and as dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin.
He became president of Florida State in February 2010, taking charge of efforts to lift the institution into the top 25 public research universities nationwide and to raise $1-billion in private donations. During his tenure there, both Florida State and the University of Florida have won more money from the state as part of its efforts to raise the universities’ profiles.
Penn State’s new leader will replace Rodney A. Erickson, whose contract ends June 30 and who has said he wants to retire by then. Mr. Erickson has served as Penn State’s president since Graham B. Spanier was fired two years ago after the Jerry Sandusky child-sex-abuse scandal.