Dr. David Werner, center, interim president of IUP, and Susan Drummond, president of IUP-APSCUF, the faculty union, presented the Friend of Higher Education Award to state Representative Dave Reed. The legislative fellow, state Senator Robert Robbins, was unable to attend the presentation.
IUP honored state Representative Dave Reed with its Friend of Higher Education Award and welcomed state Senator Robert “Bob” Robbins as its thirteenth legislative fellow at a luncheon October 7, 2010, at IUP.
The Friend of Higher Education Award is given in recognition of an individual's continued support and advocacy for public higher education in Pennsylvania.
The IUP legislative fellow program is the result of an initiative begun in 1998 by APSCUF, which represents the IUP faculty. APSCUF representatives, IUP administration, and students designed the structure of the program.
Legislative fellows serve as guest speakers in classes and meet with students, faculty, and staff. Robbins was unable to attend the event due to a legislative commitment but offered comments to those in attendance by video.
Each year, a Legislative Fellow Program Committee of faculty members and administrators meets to select a legislative fellow from among Pennsylvania legislators, usually from the western part of the commonwealth, and the Friend of Higher Education award recipients.
The selection is based on a demonstrated record of leadership in state government and in their local community. Each candidate must possess knowledge and expertise related to aspects of state government or issues important to the welfare of the state. In addition to the sharing of expertise, it is believed that on-campus contact among students, faculty, and state legislators will result in greater understanding of the roles each plays in higher education.
Currently serving his fourth term as state representative in the sixty-second district, Reed has been a strong proponent of IUP and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. A 2000 mathematics-economics graduate from the Robert E. Cook Honors College, he is currently a member of the university's Alumni Association board of directors.
He serves on the Environmental Resources and Energy, Consumer Affairs, Finance, and Appropriations committees and is the Republican chair of the Subcommittee on Fiscal Policy. He also serves as cochair of the House Republican Policy Committee Energy Task Force. Reed and wife Heather, son Joshua, and daughter Gracie live in White Township.
Robbins has served in the Pennsylvania Senate since 1990 and holds the leadership position of majority caucus secretary. He is a member of the Senate committees on Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Game and Fisheries, Local Government, and Rules and Executive Nominations.
His fiftieth legislative district covers all of Crawford and Mercer counties and portions of Butler and Lawrence counties. The senator completed two tours of duty in Vietnam and received more than a dozen medals for his service to his country. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and Geneva College. He and his wife, Cindy, live in Salem Township, Mercer County.