At the dawn of the new decade, the Capitol Campus was positioned for change. Six new academic divisions were established in 1980: Behavioral Sciences and Education, Business Administration, Heindel Library, Humanities, Public Affairs, and Science, Engineering, and Technology. A phonathon, the first one held by the school, raised $9,000 in 1981 to pay for a new brick sign at the campus’ Route 230 entrance.

Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, gradual improvements to the campus were made with landscaping and aesthetic elements such as the C.C. Sculpture, or Capitol Campus Sculpture.  The bench and sculpture were designed in 1977 and constructed in May 1978 by Mechanical Design Engineering Technology (MDET) students Mat Brnik, Bill Gallagher, Robert Suchebich, and Dan Weigel. The sculpture originally featured a ten-foot pole, topped by two, red letter “Cs,” for “Capitol Campus,” surrounded by a hexagonal bench. The school funded its construction at a cost of $1,000. Today, the sculpture still stands on the lawn in front of the Olmsted Building. In summer 2015, members of the student organization, PSPEC (Penn State Professional Engineers and Contractors) refurbished and repainted it.