Bill Schackner stories, Page 5

Students hoping for a Pennsylvania state grant to help pay for college have an extra month — until June 1 — to submit the federal form that is needed to be considered for financial aid. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) on Thursday announced that it has pushed back...

If this were a normal year, millions of prospective college students would have reviewed competing financial aid offers weeks ago and settled on their campus choice for the fall. For them and their families, that decision represents peace of mind that their future path is clear. For campuses, it means...

Ella Fleming’s stomach sank when she walked into her first class at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. After all, Fleming was 16. Not to mention, she was almost two years shy of finishing high school during that initial class last fall. “I was absolutely terrified,” said Fleming, of Armstrong Township, Indiana...

David Hurd’s excitement over what’s about to happen in the skies above him is obvious when he speaks. It even comes through in his voicemail these days. “We are so excited for April 8,” says the recorded message from Hurd, a geosciences professor and director of the planetarium at PennWest...

Trustees at Slippery Rock University voted Friday to pursue $98 million for renovations to three prominent but aging campus buildings, including the Morrow Field House, built in 1959. They also approved student fee increases totaling about $270 for the 2024-25 academic year. Both actions were among those taken as the...

Here’s a note you won’t likely receive from your college professor — that is, unless his and your campus suddenly is in a history-making hunt for college basketball glory. Title: “Class Canceled due to March Madness.” Description: “Go celebrate. I’ll figure it out.” The note posted to social media platform...

Union and management negotiators have a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract covering athletics coaches across Pennsylvania’s 10 state-owned universities, officials said Thursday. If ratified by the parties, the pact between the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Facilities and State System of Higher Education would run through...

The Biden administration on Thursday announced $5.8 billion in additional student loan relief for those working as firefighters, nurses and various other public service jobs in Pennsylvania and across the nation. The latest batch of canceled debt applies to 77,700 borrowers. It stems from fixes made by the administration to...

Pittsburgh Technical College in Oakdale has been placed on probation by the Middle States Commission for Higher Education and warned that its accreditation “is in jeopardy.” In a post to its website, the accrediting body said it acted due to “insufficient evidence that the institution is currently in compliance with...

There aren’t many universities in their infancy that also are comprised of institutions dating to the Civil War era. In its presidential search, Pennsylvania Western University has walked that fine line between future and past. Now, the university with merged campuses in California, Clarion and Edinboro has posted to its...

Five thousand state university faculty will vote next month on a tentative four-year labor pact between the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties and the State System of Higher Education. The statewide balloting dates announced Tuesday come three months after union and management announced an agreement in principle...

There are moments in an institution’s life so epic that even a university president becomes just another face in the crowd. Not that Ken Gormley of Duquesne University is complaining. In the 36 hours since its men’s basketball team achieved something it hadn’t in 46 previous years, the Catholic university...

State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, says UPMC has assured him that dental patients transferred from its soon-to-close Montefiore center “will be easily absorbed” into the University of Pittsburgh Dental School clinic without undue treatment delays. He said the hospital system said most employees from the Montefiore operation have been...

Some colleges and universities are beginning to receive long-delayed information they need from the U.S. Department of Education to develop financial aid offers to college-bound students. Word that data is flowing from the troubled rollout of the revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid form (FAFSA) is welcome news. But...

Efforts in the coming months to pare spending on Penn State University branch campuses will include reviewing duplicative or underenrolled academic programs and potentially sharing administrative services between campuses. The university has offered an update on a closely watched process to cut $54 million, or 14.1%, from commonwealth campus operations...

Like so many of her peers, Addy Hildebrand saw the most cherished parts of her senior year slip away when covid-19 shuttered her high school and others exactly four years ago. Hildebrand, 22, of Derry, now a Robert Morris University senior, made her very first trip to a prom store...

A UPMC decision to close its Montefiore dental center has state Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, worried about how many patients will be displaced and the potential impact on their care. Frankel sought an explanation for the closure in a letter sent Friday to UPMC, a copy of which was...

Donor names end up on all sorts of college and university real estate, from imposing classroom buildings, to lecture halls, to flower gardens and even benches. Indiana University of Pennsylvania has its share of those sorts of spots. It also has this: A hotel front desk simulation lab that —...

If there’s an SAT exam in your future or that of your child, don’t worry about scrounging up a perfectly sharpened No. 2 pencil. You have outlived the paper era of the college entrance exam. Starting Saturday, an almost-century-old rite of academic passage for high schoolers will have bowed to...

Former Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Grove City College next month to deliver the keynote address at The Institute for Faith & Freedom (IFF) 2024 Conference “Confronting Antisemitism,” campus officials announced Wednesday. He will speak at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 11 in Crawford Hall Auditorium. In announcing his...

A nationwide search by the University of Pittsburgh to find its next provost and chief academic officer ultimately led to the person already doing the job since last summer on a temporary basis. Pitt officials announced Wednesday that Joseph J. McCarthy, interim provost and William Kepler Whiteford Professor in the...

Seated at a table of nonscientists, Kaigham “Ken” Gabriel explained how an ordinary-looking construction site in Hazelwood just might propel Pittsburgh to the forefront of reducing medical costs through gene therapy manufacturing. To make his point, the newly hired CEO of the University of Pittsburgh’s BioForge initiative pulled from his...

Washington & Jefferson College has named as its 14th president Elizabeth MacLeod Walls, now serving as president of William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. She will succeed John Knapp, who earlier disclosed plans to retire on June 30, officials said Tuesday. MacLeod Walls has led William Jewell College since 2016....

A combined system of 15 community colleges and 10 state universities would treat both tiers as equals, and they would equitably split a 15% funding increase in his proposed state budget, Gov. Josh Shapiro said Tuesday. In an appearance at the Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh, the governor...

Robert Morris University wants to build a $28 million arena on campus for its Division I men’s and women’s hockey programs and is seeking $10 million from the state for the project. If it comes to fruition, the state-of- the-art venue would hold 2,500 people through general spectator seats “with...