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March 4, 2004

Pitt Plans to Expand Regional Campus Enrollment

Pitt hopes to boost enrollments at its regional campuses by a total of 518 full-time equivalent (FTE) students over the next two-and-a-half years, while adding 530 new beds for student housing.

Currently, 6,375 FTE students — 28 percent of the University’s total enrollment — are attending Pitt’s Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown and Titusville campuses, which specialize in undergraduate education.

Provost James V. Maher reported on enrollment and student housing goals for the regional campuses at the Feb. 27 meeting of Pitt’s Board of Trustees.

By fall 2006, Maher said, the University wants to increase enrollment at Pitt-Bradford from the current 1,191 FTE students to 1,500, while adding 246 beds.

At Johnstown, FTE enrollment would increase from the current 2,941 students to 3,100, with 92 beds to be added. Titusville is targeted to increase its FTE enrollment from the current 441 students to 500. No additional beds will be needed.

FTE enrollment at the Greensburg campus is targeted to drop from the current 1,784 to 1,775, but the campus will need 192 new beds to help recruit and retain a diverse and highly qualified student body, trustees were told.

Maher said the Greensburg campus has benefited most among the regionals from Oakland’s increasing selectivity in admitting undergrads: High-quality students denied admission to Oakland are referred to Pitt’s regional campuses, but relatively few of these students — originally attracted to Oakland’s urban campus — want to go to school in rural and/or small-town Bradford, Johnstown or Titusville. But the nearby Greensburg campus is an attractive option for many undergrads (especially those from southwestern Pennsylvania) denied admission to Oakland, the provost noted.

Of the 192 new beds needed at the Greensburg campus, 97 will be added with the construction of a three-story building that is budgeted to cost $4,240,000 in auxiliary debt funds. Annual net income (income minus operating costs) will be $96,103.

Greensburg’s student housing building was one of four projects, totaling $13,658,000, that Pitt trustees voted to add to the University’s capital budget for the current fiscal year. The other projects include:

• An addition to, and renovation of, the Greensburg campus’s Chambers Hall dining facility. The total project cost of $3,760,000 will come from auxiliary debt funds. Annual operating costs, including debt service, of $1,184,717 will come from the auxiliary budget. Annual net income will be $59,868.

• Renovation of the nearly 30-year-old law library in the Barco Law Building. The total project cost of $1.5 million will come from educational and general (E&G) debt. Annual operating costs, including debt service, of $96,628 will come from the law school endowment.

• Phase II of the Posvar Hall renovation, which will include renovations to the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and the second floor meeting center. Phase I of the Posvar Hall renovation is underway and encompasses 109,179 square feet. The total project cost for Phase II — $4,158,000 — is budgeted to come from provost reserve funds ($1,893,000), fiscal year 2005 provost programmatic funds ($1.6 million), classroom renovation funds ($450,000), telecommunication reserves ($165,000) and E&G debt preservation funds ($50,000). Annual operating costs, including debt service, of $199,280 will come from the E&G budget.

The Barco library and Posvar Hall phase II renovations are scheduled for completion this August. The Greensburg projects are scheduled for completion in July 2005.

In other Feb. 27 trustees business, the board elected Amy E. Burnsworth associate secretary of the University and of the Board of Trustees.

—Bruce Steele


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