By MARTY LEVINE and SUSAN JONES
Pitt’s regional campuses continue to add programs and Greensburg even saw a slight uptick in enrollment during 2022-23.
New buildings that opened at Bradford and Greensburg in January have brought new or expanded programs.
The University Times reached out to the regional campuses to find out what was new this year. Johnstown declined to participate. Find updates on Bradford, Greensburg and Titusville below.
Bradford
The big story at Pitt–Bradford this year is the George B. Duke Engineering and Information Technologies Building, which opened in January. It is home to several majors, including mechanical engineering technology and energy engineering technology — both begun a year ago — and computer information systems and technology.
Bradford President Rick Esch says every day he sees the building full of students in its classrooms and project rooms, since the building offers many hands-on engineering opportunities, including a state-of-the-art machine shop and a wind tunnel for aerodynamic testing. It also has a maker space that students from any major can use.
“We didn’t have anything like that before” on campus, Esch notes. It has four different types of 3D printers and laser engravers, a vacuum former — another way of making 3D objects — and even some older technologies: T-shirt presses and sewing machines. At winter formal time earlier this year “it became standing room only” for modifying clothing, Esch recalls.
“Engineering is off to a good start,” Esch reports, with mechanical engineering technology filling up and 70 students in the three programs overall this fall. “The Duke building has been really positive.”
Under construction this academic year at the Kessel Athletic Complex, to be completed this fall, is a new artificial turf field, which will help campus teams avoid weather-related game and practice delays of past years on the existing grass field. The new playing surface will also help with the new men’s lacrosse team, for which Bradford has hired it first coach, Scott Gwyn, lately of Concordia University Chicago. Men’s lacrosse will be a club sport for the 2023-24 season, then start intercollegiate varsity competition in 2024-25. That year, a club-level women’s lacrosse team will be started, with the aim to play as a varsity team in 2025-26.
Lacrosse, Esch says, “has really turned into a popular sport,” not only in other schools in their athletic division but in the Seneca reservation in nearby New York and in Canada, whose border is just an hour and a half’s drive away.
Other changes this fall include:
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A new director for the popular forensic science program, Robin Choo, assistant professor of biology and a trained toxicologist, who plans to add new courses and has secured new equipment for the practice of analyzing evidence.
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A celebration of the campus’s 60th anniversary, including an exhibit of archival photos in its KOA Art Gallery in Blaisdell Hall, “Pitt-Bradford: The Early Years”; a free luncheon for retirees, alumni, friends, family and students that advertises “a panel discussion of distinguished faculty, staff and alumni sharing first-hand stories, rumors, facts and legends about Pitt–Bradford and the people who shaped it”: and beginning Oct. 14, a year-long film festival curated by faculty members who will lead discussions following the screenings.
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New recruitment and retention efforts, from featuring the Duke Building on campus tours for local education officials to more student support services, both academic and more broadly. “It’s the relationships they establish” during their time on campus that helps students stay in school and succeed, Esch says. “Inclusion and belonging for all students so that they are part of a community” is thus one of the emphases, the adds, since “giving them points of connection really strengthens their bonds to the campus.”
Titusville
Pitt–Titusville, of which Esch is also president, has the largest incoming class yet for its nursing program this fall, he says. It also has a nearly full class for the second year of the campus partnership with Pittsburgh’s Manchester Bidwell Corporation for their free medical technician and phlebotomy training program at the campus Brockway Center for Arts & Technology.
Titusville also will be starting the process of renovating its student union in January. Its workforce training partnership with the Northern Pennsylvania Regional College for industrial maintenance will move to the revamped space, as will the Manchester Bidwell program. The latter also will enjoy a dedicated space for a digital lab and gallery space for its ceramics, photography and other arts program.
The campus has formed a new advisory group from local economic development, healthcare, banking, hospitality and manufacturing leaders with the hopes of pointing the campus toward new programs, such as a culinary program, Esch says, “that leads to careers that provide a family-sustaining wage for this region.
“It’s an exciting time on both campuses,” he concludes. “Yes, there are challenges. But we are happy to be part of Pitt. We think the power of Pitt can be transformative.”
Greensburg
The new building at Pitt–Greensburg — a two-story, 32,085 square-foot facility — houses labs for the growing nursing program, as well as health science, biology, microbiology and chemistry.
"This project demonstrates Pitt-Greensburg's commitment to excellence in academics,” campus President Robert Gregerson said when the building opened in January. “Our goal is to provide quality educational opportunities for our students, enabling them to graduate and fill the growing vacancies among regional and state healthcare providers and other high priority STEM occupations.”
But that’s not the only work going on at the campus this summer:
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Roofs were replaced on two residence halls, and sidewalks were replaced around campus, including the installation of new paver stones around Veterans Plaza.
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Lynch Hall, which is marking its 100th anniversary this year, had its exterior repaired and refreshed.
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A computer lab in Cassell Hall has been converted into a dedicated space for an esports team, as well as providing two smaller spaces for individual and group study with computer access.
A grant awarded through work by Danielle Mehlman-Brightwell, assistant professor of public policy and communication, has allowed Greensburg to hire two people to staff a new Office of Community Outreach — Audra Lewis, engagement manager, and Erica Samios, engagement coordinator. The office’s goal is to work with regional school districts to help marginalized students prepare for college and careers after graduation. This past summer, they offered a leadership workshop for students in our Bridge program. Planning is underway for a new award recognizing outstanding educators in the region that will be presented in March 2024.
The Westmoreland Reads program, initiated last year by Sheila Confer, director of the Academic Village, will continue this year. The program encourages the whole community to community to read and engage with a common book. This year’s selection is “How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America,” by Clint Smith. Programming will continue throughout the year, with partnering groups hosting events related to the themes in the book, including a trip for students to Monticello in October and some Diversity in Teaching workshops. A virtual visit with Clint Smith is scheduled for spring 2024.
Pitt–Greensburg continues to build its wellness programming. With funding from Pitt SEED grant, the campus was able to hire a wellness concierge who is working to coordinate wellness programming. Additionally, Pitt-Greensburg converted part of its coffee house space into a Relaxation Station and offers programming throughout the academic year to students, faculty and staff.
The Office of Career Services has begun offering Workforce Wednesdays, where employers and graduate school representatives will visit campus from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays to chat with students about job shadowing, internships, volunteering and careers.
Nine new courses are available at Pitt-Greensburg. Learn about cross-cultural conceptions of what women do and achieve in Women’s Work (ANTH 1470), study the history of the migration of African Americans from the rural South to urban industrial centers in Transnational Pittsburgh: Black Migration (HIST 1636) or ponder our thoughts and desires in Fantasy and Romance (ENGLIT 1572).
Another opportunity for students extends outside the classroom. SOCSCI 1905 — Policy Practicum is built around programming with the Washington Center, a nonprofit internship provider. Alongside the practicum, Mehlman-Brightwell is recruiting students for a seminar that includes an eight-day visit to Washington, D.C., and a campus forum.
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859. Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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