Bill Schackner stories, Page 14
Pitt’s chancellor, top deputies receive 4.25% raises
Ten top University of Pittsburgh officials will receive 4.25% raises next year, boosting their base salaries to between $260,625 and just more than $1 million. The Compensation Committee of Pitt’s board of trustees approved the raises for Chancellor Patrick Gallagher and nine of his top deputies in a unanimous vote...
Pitt committee approves up to $10M for land deal in BioForge project
A panel of University of Pittsburgh trustees on Wednesday authorized spending up to $10 million to acquire a piece of property in Hazelwood Green to develop a cell and gene therapy manufacturing facility. The three-acre property known as Lot 18 would become home to BioForge. “BioForge will be designed to...
Karen Riley named 18th president of Slippery Rock University
Karen Riley, provost at Regis University in Denver, has been named the next president of Slippery Rock University. The State System of Higher Education’s board of governors on Wednesday chose Riley to succeed William Behre, who in February announced that he would retire at the end of this academic year....
Some Penn State Law faculty say main campus presence needed in possible law schools merger
Dozens of Penn State Law faculty are urging those weighing their school’s reunification with Dickinson Law in Carlisle to consider what Penn State University would lose if the combined entity lacks a significant University Park presence. A statement endorsed by 42 of Penn State Law’s 51 fulltime faculty stopped short...
States’ varying laws on reproductive rights impacting college decisions for some Pa. students
Mt. Lebanon High School senior Janet Montgomery said she will continue her education at St. John’s College in Maryland mostly because of what the picturesque liberal arts school has to offer academically. But what some states aren’t offering — or soon might not be offering — in terms of reproductive...
Slippery Rock University trustees narrow choices for new president down to 2 people
The search for Slippery Rock University’s next president is down to a pair of provosts, one from Colorado and the other from Texas. Slippery Rock’s council of trustees, meeting Friday, voted to send to the State System of Higher Education the candidacies of Karen Riley, provost at Regis University in...
Indiana University of Pennsylvania to cut tuition for full-time, out-of-state undergrads by 20%
Indiana University of Pennsylvania says it is cutting the tuition price it will charge out-of-state undergraduate students next fall by as much as nearly 20%. It is switching to a flat rate instead of per-credit pricing for such students who are enrolled full time. The school’s Council of Trustees on...
IUP officials consider school of osteopathic medicine — 1st at a Pa. public university
Indiana University of Pennsylvania could open the state’s first school of osteopathic medicine at a public university, a venture to train and graduate professionals to improve rural health and advance Pennsylvania’s economy. A resolution to endorse the state-owned university to explore the school’s possible development was approved unanimously by IUP’s...
Pitt faculty members protest slow contract talks
About 75 University of Pittsburgh faculty members, frustrated by the slow pace of trying to secure their first union contract, protested Wednesday outside the provost’s office in the Cathedral of Learning. They did not manage to get a face-to-face meeting with Provost Ann Cudd, Pitt’s chief academic officer. Instead, the...
Citing competition and cost, Penn State looks to reunite its 2 law schools
Penn State University’s two separately accredited law schools would be reunited into one under a recommendation from university President Neeli Bendapudi. She and other leaders Tuesday cited an “extremely competitive legal education marketplace” and a desire to better focus resources in explaining the plan to combine Penn State Dickinson Law...
Slippery Rock University narrows presidential search to 4 finalists
Four finalists have emerged in the search for Slippery Rock University’s next president, with the short list including current and former campus leaders in Colorado, Minnesota, Texas and West Virginia. A panel seeking a successor to President William Behre identified the four finalists Tuesday and said each will be on...
Washington & Jefferson slashes published tuition price in attempt to remain competitive
Washington & Jefferson College is cutting its published tuition price nearly in half for fall 2023, a 44% price reset and another sign of the aggressive competition among the region’s colleges to keep seats filled in a slumping higher education market. The school with roughly 1,150 students calls the move...
Survey asks Duquesne students about race, gender, sexuality as classroom topics
Students at Duquesne University received emails this month asking them to take a short survey to identify topics — such as race, gender and sexuality — that can make them uncomfortable when raised in class. It asks them to describe cases where professors responded well or poorly. “Recently, students have...
Pittsburgh Career Institute juggles refunds, transfers, job losses as closure approaches
The president of a Pittsburgh for-profit career school that is headed for closure says its leaders sought a new accreditor and even considered selling the school but ultimately decided it had to close. Patti Yakshe said that her health care training school, Pittsburgh Career Institute, itself faced no sanctions from...
After pandemic plunge, international enrollment on nation’s campuses rebounds
A year after absorbing historic pandemic-driven losses, international enrollment at colleges in Pennsylvania and nationwide has rebounded, spurred by an 80% jump in new students and other gains, a new report says. The New York-based nonprofit Institute of International Education, in a survey released Monday, says the nation’s total international...
Tuition border wars: Using Penn State threshold, SUNY the latest to target Pa. high schoolers
The pitch delivered on Twitter got right to the point: “If your high schooler wants to go to college in New York, the State University of New York offers same in-state tuition as Penn State.” In recent days, SUNY has made similar overtures in seven other states, mostly in the...
Penn State trustees set to vote on proposed $95M residence hall project at University Park
The sixth and final phase of work on Penn State University’s largest main campus residence complex is one step closer to moving forward now that a trustee committee has endorsed the proposed $95.3 million project. Penn State’s full Board of Trustees is scheduled to act on a project called East...
Alumni of IUP’s century-old marching band celebrate love for music, each other
Ask Stuart Estes what instrument he played in his college marching band five-plus decades ago, and the answer gets complicated. “It’s an interesting story,” said the 75-year-old from Shippenville, a 1968 graduate of what is now Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Raised in Potter County near the New York line, the...
Western Pa. campuses vow to stay diverse amid Supreme Court’s mulling of race-based admissions
If the U.S. Supreme Court prohibits universities from considering race in admissions, overturning four decades of legal precedent, campuses in Western Pennsylvania and across the country say they’ll still look for ways to make their enrollments diverse. “It will definitely have an effect on schools,” said Ann Schiavone, an associate...
State employees to get 20% discount for online courses from PennWest University
PennWest University will offer a 20% online tuition discount for all of Pennsylvania’s state employees offered through its PennWest Global Online. The reduction, announced Thursday, will be available on about 150 programs under a partnership with the state, effective for the 2023 spring semester. The discount applies for undergraduate and...
Design work to begin on $22M expansion of IUP’s growing Academy of Culinary Arts
Design work for a $22 million project in Punxsutawney to expand and renovate Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Academy of Culinary Arts is expected to start now that funding to develop drawings has been approved. The $2.9 million for that work, included in the State System of Higher Education’s recently adopted...
Penn State the latest university to grapple with controversial speech
After violent protests erupted Monday night on Penn State’s main campus, the university became the latest to allow a controversial event and bet wrongly that civil discourse would trump unrest. The situation at Penn State unraveled quickly before a scheduled appearance by Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, with police —...
