Editor’s Note: Penn State President Eric J. Barron’s interview has been edited for clarity and length

In this final part of a three-part Q&A with Penn State President Eric Barron, he talks about his decision to retire, the challenge of leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, the idea for a new and expanded Palmer Museum of Art, the Musser Gap to Valleylands effort and what his students have taught him over the years.

Over the course of this discussion, it’s very evident that the love and passion you have for Penn State runs deep. Why retire now?

I made up my mind that when I hit the ripe age of 70 that it was time. I also was very conscious of the idea that people can stay too long. There’s a certain repetition in a university environment because you always have new students, new trustees and new faculty. If you think you’ve solved something, just wait for a new crop of people to come in and you have to start all over. I didn’t want to get into any ruts. So I consciously decided that eight years was a good amount of time.

One of things we haven’t touched on yet in the conversation are the Commonwealth Campuses. How do they help differentiate Penn State from other institutions?

I love all of our campuses. I feel like this University is one big, giant family. This notion of one Penn State degree is powerful — it’s just powerful. We have 21 campuses around the commonwealth that are access points to Penn State, not to mention World Campus. And the physical plant of each one is unique and beautiful.

Over the past eight years as president, you’ve had to lead the University through a number of challenges, most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. How did this impact you personally and what was your strategy to fight the pandemic?

I’m definitely human. I think I can be battered by a lot of criticism as long as I’m thinking about the mission. With the pandemic, I hadn’t really thought about charting some course. I constantly thought about it as threading a needle. I think a lot of university presidents would say that. And I have great people supporting me like [Executive Vice President and Provost] Nick [Jones] whose teams are a well-oiled machine. They package it all together and say, “OK, now you have to make the decision.”

One of the major projects that won’t be finished before you retire is the new Palmer Museum of Art, which is currently under construction. How did the idea for a new and expanded space for the Palmer come about?

I was sitting with an alum, John Driscoll, who is no longer with us. He said to me, “I want you to understand what a great museum you have in the Palmer. But it’s completely underutilized because you cannot park and you don’t have enough space. No school buses pull up to the Palmer because buses on campus are difficult to navigate.”

He said, “Couple that with the fact that an enormous number of people have been collecting art and want to give their art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But art dealers and brokers tell them it’ll never be seen. Maybe once every 20 years, someone will decide they’re going to do an exhibition and maybe they’ll pick one of their paintings.

“On the other hand, if you take a high quality, small museum, it will display your art and you can add to the quality and richness of the environment. The Palmer is one such museum.”

I really started to think about the fact that school buses don’t come look at our museums. I realized we were underperforming on people enjoying the Palmer, underperforming in getting gifts, underperforming in terms of school-aged children that would come, despite what’s here. This is an asset for our community.

Another project that’s underway is the Musser Gap to Valleylands effort. Talk about the importance of that to you.

I saw a picture from around 1905 of people hiking from Old Main to Rothrock. I don’t think they called it “Rothrock” through that area at the time. But this was an annual event, and I was struck that we can do our part to protect the environment and water supplies, which are so important to us. We had an engagement opportunity for the community on an issue that was important to it. And we had history flowing through there as well. It seemed like a good thing to me.

Are you sure you want to retire?

If I could redesign the job so I could only do the really fun parts, I’d stay a lot longer!

So what are your post retirement plans?

To begin, I’m going to be teaching a class at a small college after I retire.

Really? Where?

Brevard College in North Carolina. I’ve already had conversations with the president there about providing me an opportunity to teach a class.

Are you going to be teaching geology?

Nobody wants to listen to my science anymore, but they do want to listen to the leadership part of it. So I’ll probably do something like what I’ve been doing in my Presidential Leadership Academy course. We’ll see whether it works.

Final question — let’s go full circle. What has Eric Barron learned from his students over the years?

As you get older you might think — excuse my French — the world’s going to hell in a handbasket. I think I learned the opposite. We’ve got a lot of students who are great human beings who are doing wonderful things. Our students, our alumni — they’re going to continue to amaze the world, along with our faculty and staff who make Penn State a world-class university.