Gov. Josh Shapiro was among the more than 250 people who gathered at 764 Bessemer St. for the ribbon cutting ceremony of Allegheny College’s new branch campus, the Allegheny Lab for Innovation & Creativity, on Thursday, April 24.
Referring to Allegheny as a “model institution” and as a “point of pride here in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro told the crowd that his admiration of the college comes from Allegheny College’s long history in the area and its connections to the greater Meadville area.
“You care deeply about the community around you, you’re not simply limited by the walls of a classroom,” Shapiro said. “You understand the importance of a thriving, vibrant Meadville.”
Speaking to the crowd, Allegheny College President Ron Cole, ’87, described the issues facing the region of western Pennsylvania: a changing economy, declining population, an aging workforce and an urgent need to upskill for industry in the 21st century.
“We created ALIC @ Bessemer to respond to those challenges with full action,” Cole said, adamant in his belief that Allegheny is committed to continued growth. “We’re reimagining what higher education can be when it’s rooted in community needs and aligned with regional opportunity,” he added.
ALIC @ Bessemer, according to a media release from the college, “is a branch campus of Allegheny College dedicated to integrating liberal arts education with workforce development and advanced manufacturing training.”
The branch campus is intended to extend the “mission of innovation into the heart of Meadville, mirroring real-world manufacturing environments to provide workforce training, industry courses, and direct R&D opportunities,” according to its website.
For those wondering why a liberal arts college is stepping into the world of manufacturing, Cole emphasized the importance of focusing on “the intersection of the liberal arts and emerging technology to attract and keep talent right here, strengthening our region.”
Shapiro echoed this, saying that the addition of ALIC @ Bessemer to the college “puts it all together.”
“The private sector, working with our trade unions, working with our colleges, getting investment from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, creating intersections between not just the students at Allegheny College, but those who are living in Meadville,” Shapiro told the crowd. “Envision a future right here in northwestern Pennsylvania that is vibrant, that is productive, and where you can flourish in a way you want.”
Bonnie Kuhn, vice president of Kuhn Tool & Die Co., a board member of the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County and chair of the National Tooling and Machining Association, spoke to the importance of partnerships such as those ALIC @ Bessemer will support.
“They matter in our communities, in our industries and in our futures,” Kuhn said. “Our region is special.”
Her career in manufacturing has allowed her to gather insight into the needs of the community and the country, Kuhn said.
“That’s why I’m so impressed by what Allegheny College is doing with ALIC,” she continued. “Their approach isn’t just about offering training programs, it’s about creating a holistic, forward-thinking vision, one that integrates education, innovation and real industry collaboration.”
The journey towards ALIC, began when Byron Rich, assistant provost of academic innovation, first stepped into a local area tool and die shop in 2017.
That year, Rich visited over 30 manufacturing shops across northwestern Pennsylvania.
“Each of these shops has been a classroom for me,” Rich said in a speech to attendees. “Every business owner, every machinist, every production lead has given their time generously. You’ve let me ask naive questions so we could come up with this wild concept.”
The machines that dot the ALIC @ Bessemer shop floor range from milling machines to 3D scanners to collaborative robots, and range in price from $28,000 to $300,000.
Adam Dunn, an Automation Engineering Manager at Acutec, said the price for a Fanuc CRX-10IA collaborative robot is typically around $44,000, but Allegheny was able to get the price down to $28,000 by utilizing an educational discount.
Collaborative robots are meant to work with humans, in order to increase efficiency by working together, rather than to simply take a human’s job.
Dunn and his colleague Joe Weaver, an Automation Technician, explained that these collaborative robots are not meant to take away jobs, but to allow for people to transition to better jobs, letting the machine handle work that does not require thinking.
Cody Passilla, who works at Pennco Tool & Die, the Meadville shop his grandfather founded in 1980, addressed the audience as a member of the manufacturing business and stressed its importance to the area.
“In our nation, as a whole, one out of 10 people work in the manufacturing industry,” Passilla said. “One in four people in Crawford County work in manufacturing.”
He pointed to the importance of manufacturing to the region, which he said “is home to nearly 600 manufacturing shops.”
“America needs manufacturing more than anything,” Caspilla told the crowd. “No matter where I go in this world, I know that I can always find something that’s made right here in northwest Pennsylvania.”
