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April 19, 2001

No children of faculty, staff denied admission to University system

Of the 98 applicants for next fall's freshman class who indicated they are children of Pitt employees, none has been denied admission to at least one of the University's five campuses (although, in some cases, it may not be the campus they wanted to attend), according to the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid.

Of the 98, 65 were offered admission to the Pittsburgh campus. Among the remaining students, 26 were offered admission to one or more of Pitt's regional campuses at Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown and Titusville, where admissions requirements are less demanding than in Oakland.

Another five students have not turned in all of the required information (transcript, SAT scores, etc.). Two other students recently completed the admissions process but Pitt's admissions committee has not considered their applications yet.

Vice Provost Jack L. Daniel reported the numbers in an e-mail last week to Rich Colwell, president of Pitt's Staff Association Council. SAC had expressed concern that children of staff were being frozen out of admission to Pitt because of rising academic standards here.

Daniel said the 98 students in question did not specify whether they are children of staff, faculty, administrators or research assistants, only that one or both of their parents works at Pitt.

Among the 26 applicants referred to the regional campuses through Pitt's Options program, some were rejected by Oakland and probably don't want to attend a regional, said Betsy A. Porter, director of Admissions and Financial Aid. But others (Porter said her office wasn't sure how many) among the 26 had applied directly to regional campuses, she said.

"It is true that, by applying to the Pittsburgh campus, students obviously wanted to attend a large, urban research university. We weren't able to offer all of them that. But it is also true that none of the students who identified themselves as children of Pitt employees were turned away from the University of Pittsburgh system," Porter said.

Among the 65 children of Pitt employees admitted as fall term 2001 freshmen at the Pittsburgh campus, 30 had made deposits as of last week, said Porter.

— Bruce Steele

 


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