By SUSAN JONES
The expansion of Pitt’s David C. Frederick Honors College to the Greensburg campus, “presents opportunities for some of our best students that just weren’t available previously,” said Robert Gregerson, president of Pitt–Greensburg.
Nicola Foote, dean of the honors college, said the move isn’t just about supporting Greensburg, “it’s about helping Frederick Honors be the best possible honors college by having the maximum range of honors experiences for students, regardless of what campus they’re primarily on.”
Foote came to Pitt in July 2021 from Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University, which is one of the top-ranked programs in the country. “Part of why they are so strong is that they have honors at all of the Arizona State campuses. … It’s not just about the bigger campus supporting the small ones. It’s that the more opportunities there are to engage in honors experiences, the better for all of the students.”
Making Pitt–Greensburg the first regional campus to host an honors college outpost made sense for several reasons:
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The campus started its own honors program 2.5 years ago. It was founded by Frank Wilson, assistant vice president for academic affairs for Pitt-Greensburg, and faculty members Sheila Confer, William Pamerleau and John Prellwitz, with input from a group of students about what opportunities they were looking for to supplement their education.
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The distance between the Oakland and the Greensburg campus (just 34 miles) will help facilitate students sharing resources at both locations, but the goal, Foote said, is to expand the honors college to Johnstown and Bradford as well.
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Foote and Gregerson worked together previously at Florida Gulf Coast University, where Gregerson was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences before coming to Pitt–Greensburg in 2019. “We didn’t have to have that awkward getting to know each other as we were talking about what we could do,” Gregerson said. Foote, who held various faculty and leadership positions at the Florida school between 2005-18, said Gregerson is one of her mentors and “one of my favorite people to work with.”
Then in the middle of the negotiations around expanding the honors college to Greensburg, David C. Frederick, Pitt’s first Rhodes scholar, and his wife Sophie Lynn gave the University a multi-million-dollar gift in summer 2022 to benefit the honors college, which was renamed in his honor.
Gregerson said that meant Frederick needed to be part of the conversation about expanding the honors college to Greensburg. “He loved the idea. He was all in, very supportive. And so the conversations really took off at that point,” Gregerson said.
The 2023-24 academic year was spent putting together all the details and then the program will start this fall, with an official celebration on Sept. 5 at that Greensburg campus that will include Frederick and officials from the honors college.
First-year students can apply directly into the Pitt–Greensburg David C. Frederick Honors College, which will have slightly different criteria than at the Oakland campus, or they can decide to pursue the honors designation later in their college career. The overall Frederick Honors College goal is to admit 10 percent of the student population, but Gregerson admits it will take some time to meet that at Greensburg.
This is the next evolution of the 61-year-old Greensburg campus, he said, which for its first 25 years was only a two-year school. “We’ve been doing good things; we’ve been providing support for our students. And this is just creating a whole new opportunity for the students that that want something a little bit beyond the regular education that they’re offered,” Gregerson said.
The honors program will give those students more opportunities for research funding and additional study abroad options.
Each of the majors at Greensburg will need to provide honors offerings, but it will take time to develop honors-designated classes. The other option is having honors students in a regular class, but working with the faculty member on extra projects.
Gregerson said there are already faculty who are early adopters of the honors programming, and they’ll be working with faculty on what the options are in honors teaching. “I’m hoping that will create buzz for the next round of additions to our honors options.
“I think the thing that we’re most excited about is cross-campus teaching,” he said. “Honors courses that are taught in Oakland that our students can take; honors courses taught here that Oakland students can take; and team-taught opportunities — taking people from different disciplines and creating something that doesn’t exist (now).”
Some of this collaboration will happen through online learning, while others will be in person. Particularly in the summer, honors students from the Oakland campus may find it easier to take classes in Greensburg, while living at home and working part-time.
Foote said they definitely want the Greensburg students to be in Oakland for some of the honors college’s signature events, including orientation, research symposiums and commencement, and even for fun events to try to build the honors community. She said they’ll be funding transportation to bring those students to Oakland.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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