By SHANNON O. WELLS

In his role as Pitt’s vice provost for undergraduate studies, Adam Lee often fields questions and clarifies misconceptions about how curriculum at five campuses is coordinated.

“I’ve heard questions about, ‘Why aren’t the courses on this campus the same courses that we have on my campus?’” he said. “When we’re building our curriculum, these are independent curricula. They’re aligned, because disciplines in general are aligned. If you look at the curriculum in the same field at multiple universities, it’s similar, but not the same, and the same can be said with our regional campuses.”

He admitted that the common question of why a certain course doesn’t transfer between campuses tends to “rankle” him.

“Partly because courses don’t transfer from a regional campus to the Pittsburgh campus. They’re all Pitt courses,” he said. “It’s on the student’s transcript. They don’t need to transfer it. The question is more, ‘Why doesn’t this Pitt course from one campus satisfy degree requirements on another campus?’”

The answer comes down to how faculty interpret a student’s performance. “When we look at degree progress through our advisement report — the outcomes on a particular course — it’s up to the faculty to decide whether and how that fits into things here,” Lee said.

Lee shared such insights in a presentation about coordination and connections among Pitt’s regional campuses during the Senate Student Admissions, Aid and Affairs Committee (SAAA) meeting on April 10. Along with Kellie Kane, interim vice provost for enrollment and executive director of Pitt admissions, and Carla Panzella, vice provost for student affairs, Lee shared information relating to admissions, transfers, financial aid, academic planning and courses throughout the Pitt system.

Lee provided foundational information about how Pitt’s five campuses at Oakland, Greensburg, Johnstown, Bradford and Titusville relate to each other. Bradford and Titusville both report through the same president, while the other campuses have separate leadership. Recent undergraduate enrollment numbers are:

• Pittsburgh: 21,388

• Greensburg: 1,312

• Johnstown: 1,829

• Bradford/Titusville: 1,150

Academic planning is governed by what Lee called a “fairly concrete set of policies” that dictate what curriculum should look like and requirements to create curriculum. Curriculum proposals start with faculty in the department or program on campus “or maybe across multiple departments” that put a proposal together.

From there it goes to the school, dean’s office and then curriculum committees comprising faculty from across the school, and sometimes students. “This would then go to the Office of the Provost, where my team does a prescreen for a lot of compliance-oriented things (then to) the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Undergraduate Programs (PACUP).

“We make a recommendation to the provost (who) will approve or not approve a new program,” he said. “From there, it goes to the registrar to get implemented and entered into the University Catalog.”

Lee called the seeming redundancy “really intentional, because these committees have different focuses. Within the department, we’re going to be focused on the disciplinary aspects of the program: ‘Is this best practice in our discipline? Is it preparing students for jobs in our discipline? Are they ready for graduate school in our discipline?’

“When these things rise to a school level, you might be looking at opportunities to collaborate with other departments or programs, making sure we’re not duplicating things (and) if there are resources that might be applicable, they’re getting incorporated,” he added, noting that the provost’s office looks at the “University-wide” view of programs “to make sure that we’re taking a view that is broader than a particular discipline.”

A similar process takes place at regional campuses, with the term “divisions” in a campus replacing “departments” in a school. When faculty within a division propose a new or modified program and are ready to move it forward, it goes to their campus for consideration before coming to the same committee in the Office of the Provost for review.

PACUP has representatives, including students, from all Pitt campuses, “so we are taking a broader viewpoint there,” Lee said.

When looking at changes to programs and new programs, a range of evaluation criteria are considered, including the appropriateness of, and proposed changes to, the curriculum.

Student learning outcomes and postgraduate opportunities are examined to make sure students are learning important and relevant things within the discipline, “but also that they’re prepared either for further scholarship and study or for careers in the discipline,” he noted.

“For some programs, we’ll look at alignment with external accreditation,” such as in the Swanson School of Engineering and in Health Sciences, and review the impact on resources, such as “‘Do we have the faculty to teach in the class, the folks necessary to advise, the career services necessary to support the lab space that we need, etc.?’”

An important distinction at Pitt is its “regional,” rather than branch campuses. “The same way that the Dietrich School’s curriculum is independent of the Swanson School’s curriculum, the curriculum at Greensburg is independent of the curriculum at Johnstown or in Pittsburgh,” he explained. “These are universities that were set up to serve their communities and the students that come to the university from that community.”

Schools and campuses therefore build curriculum to serve the needs of their students, rather than one campus being a feeder to the same program on another campus. “These are separate campuses working together.”

One reason why majors look different on two campuses is based on the students and community they serve, he noted.

Lee said he meets frequently with associate deans from the Pittsburgh campus, vice presidents of academic affairs from regional campuses and individual groups. Upper-division schools have different considerations than first-year admitting schools and regional campuses. “I do meet with those groups separately, but we all come together in groups and as a larger group together.”

Revised academic regulations released last fall were the result of Lee and his team talking to faculty, registrars and advising offices about how to adapt policies. A project called PRSSIM looks at rural student success, “and we’re partnering very directly with all the regional campuses.”

“Folks on the team are out there every couple of months, in addition to meeting virtually all the time,” he said, citing the recent establishment of the Frederick Honors College in Greensburg as an example of responding to new needs. “We’re trying to look at ways … we can share curriculum across the campuses to extend the student experience.”

Admissions and transfers

Emphasizing that regional campuses are their own entities, Kellie Kane explained how that extends to the admissions processes.

“Students who are interested in attending one of our regional campuses could apply directly to (them), or they can apply to the Pittsburgh campus,” she said.

If a prospective student can’t be admitted to the Oakland campus because of space, curriculum or other considerations, “we do have the ability to offer students admission to (regional campuses) through what we call our Options Program.”

A declining number of high school graduates creates significant enrollment challenges at regional campuses, particularly with so many higher education institutions in Pennsylvania.

“It’s just making things challenging for them, so those admissions offices at the regional campuses are really doing a lot of work to just get in front of as many students as possible,” Kane said. “I have to give them huge kudos, because they’re always trying new things.”

For 2025-26, more than 11,000 students who applied to the Pittsburgh campus were offered a spot at a regional campus.

“We do not send students to the Titusville campus, just because of the really uniqueness of the program there, but we do send students to Bradford, Greensburg and Johnstown,” she said. “And as we are filling up the Pittsburgh campus class, we will be able to release more, including students that may be on a waitlist here if spots don’t open up at the Pittsburgh campus.”

Last year at Pitt–Bradford, a little more than 25% of the class consisted of Options students from the Pittsburgh campus, while 23% of Johnstown’s class, and 39% of the Greensburg class were Options students.

“Ultimately, a lot of these students find their home at one of our regional campuses and stay there,” Kane said. “And that’s definitely the hope that we have for these students.” Other students attend regional campuses for a year or two but ultimately want to finish their degree in Pittsburgh.

That “internal transfer” process does not come back through the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid, she explained, but through the dean’s offices of the schools to which a student wants to transfer. Some schools’ websites include specific information regarding GPA requirements and required courses.

“It’s nice to be able to point to these websites when a student calls … as they’re making sure that they have the right curriculum,” she said.

Financial aid

Although the admissions processes are separate, financial aid requests eventually flow through the Pittsburgh campus office, which is responsible for setting up systems and guidelines and the releasing of communications to students and families.

“We work very closely with the directors of financial aid at all of the regional campuses,” Kane noted of the monthly meetings. “We also have a second meeting once a month where we have all the leaders of both the admissions and financial aid teams who meet and talk about (how things are going and what) changes we need to make, and what’s coming down the road that we all need to be prepared for.”

There are challenges, however, for students who transfer from a regional campus. Tuition is higher at the Pittsburgh campus than regional campuses, and some campus-based financial aid awards won’t transfer when students switch campuses.

“One of the things that our team is trying to work on with the regional campuses … is how can we be more transparent with students and families about that transfer process,” Kane said. “What it will mean to their cost of attendance and financial aid awards before they make the decision on whether changing a campus is right for them?

“That’s definitely one of the things that has been highlighted … and we’re continuing to work on it.”

Lee added that the General Education Reform Task Force has been a “great way to get together and have conversations, not just about what it would mean to have common (guidelines), but issues that exist at the sort of lower-level curriculum area.

“As students move between campuses, we want to make sure that they’re ready to continue majors or go into majors that seem like natural transition points without having to repeat work or make things too difficult.”

Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.

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