UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Stephen Snyder, associate teaching professor of English at Penn State Berks, officially assumed his new role as Faculty Senate chair for the 2026-27 academic year in July and oversaw the senate’s first meeting of the year on Sept. 1. As he begins his tenure as chair, Snyder said he’s looking forward to the opportunity to represent faculty and work with the administration on common goals.
“You only have one year as chair, so it’s hard to have lofty goals. But if I can keep the upper level of administration aware of the faculty presence, of the faculty mindset, and represent them, that's a pretty good job in itself,” Snyder said. “Being in a position to serve your colleagues is a very good place to be.”
Snyder succeeds Frantisek Marko, distinguished professor of mathematics at Penn State Hazleton, who served as senate chair for the 2025-26 academic year. Snyder served as chair-elect during that period.
University governance has been a passion for Snyder since early in his career. He began serving on the Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley College Faculty Senate in 2003 and held leadership positions of vice chair and chair during the college’s transition to two separate Commonwealth Campuses. Snyder helped lead the effort to revise the Penn State Berks Faculty Senate, including rewriting the constitution and reorganizing governance documents.
He was elected to the University Faculty Senate in 2010, where he has served ever since, with the exception of a one-year gap. He was elected to the position of chair-elect in 2025 and officially began his tenure as chair on July 1.
Now, as he nears retirement, Snyder said leading the Faculty Senate is a highlight of his career and that he looks forward to the opportunity, even amid the challenges.
“We have existential challenges from outside the institution. We have budgetary challenges, enrollment challenges, and challenges with research funding,” Snyder said. “You’re not going to solve all these problems in a year. But you can at least keep the process rolling so problems continue to be solved and keep a level of collegiality and professional bearing present in difficult times.”
Most of Snyder’s work in the senate has been focused on faculty affairs. He said he is most proud of being part of efforts to revise a policy to promote non-tenure-line faculty and on a recommendation to give non-tenure-line faculty sabbaticals. While that recommendation was not adopted, Snyder said it led to opportunity grants for those faculty, placing them in a better position for professional development.
This year, he said, supporting faculty at the Commonwealth Campuses slated for closure at the end of the academic year will be a main focus. The Board of Trustees voted in 2025 to approve the University’s recommendation to close seven Commonwealth Campuses following the Spring 2027 semester, while continuing to invest in 13 others. Up-to-date information for faculty and staff at closing campuses, including FAQs, resources, and details about Penn State's ongoing priority hiring process, is available on Penn State's roadmap website.
“We are looking at campus closures and how to exist as an organization in the face of our colleagues’ losses and our campus losses,” Snyder said. “I would like to keep reminding the administration that we do have these colleagues who are very vulnerable and that we should do what we can to support them to the degree that we can.”
Snyder has taught at Penn State Berks for 29 years, working primarily with first- and second-year students. His main areas of interest include American literature, science fiction, horror literature, and graphic novels. The courses he has taught over the past nearly three decades span a variety of topics, including rhetoric and composition, business writing and advanced business writing, social science and humanities writing, science writing, English language analysis, understanding literature, American literature, science fiction, and graphic novels.