This paper discusses 43 autonomous and semiautonomous centers on The Pennsylvania State University's main campus. It deals with (1) the history and origin of the Penn State centers, and notes that the centers established between 1887 and 1955 generally represented areas in agriculture, engineering and technology, life sciences and the physical and earth sciences, while those established since 1960 have represented the social sciences and the humanities; (2) the functions of the centers, which include: administration and coordination of research, the conduct of research, public service, education and training, and providing supporting services to colleges and/or departments; (3) the differences in functions between the centers and the academic departments; (4) the 3 kinds of structures of the centers: the complete bureaucracies, the truncated bureaucracies, and the enucleated bureaucracies; (5) the organizational maintenance of the centers; (6) the centers' impact on: agriculture, environmental studies, science and technology, public affairs and public service, education, the arts, and services; and (7) some trends and the possible future. (AF)