Deb Erdley stories, Page 15
Edinboro to remain online this fall; university reverses decision on campus reopening
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, which previously announced plans to reopen its northwestern Pennsylvania campus in August, will remain largely online this fall. Edinboro President Guiyou Huang announced the about-face on Wednesday. “I realize that this news is being sent after many of you have solidified your return-to-campus arrangements, but in...
Pa. attorney general vows to back schools threatened with loss of funding over distance learning
As schools across the region continue to finalize arrangements for a return to class next month, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has added his voice to the debate. In a letter this week to district superintendents, Shapiro threatened to intervene on behalf of schools should the federal government withhold money...
WVU mandates covid-19 testing and education; Pitt to require students to quarantine
West Virginia University will require students to get a covid-19 test and complete an education module on the virus prior to returning to campus next month. Those who fail to meet those requirements could be fined $250, school officials warned Tuesday. Like colleges across the region, WVU has published a...
Duquesne University administrator named executive vice president at Saint Vincent College
Officials at Saint Vincent College on Monday announced Jeff Mallory as the new executive vice president. Mallory completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Saint Vincent and previously served on the staff of the school located in Unity. He has been assistant vice president for diversity, inclusion and student advancement...
Pitt, CMU and IUP land spots on Pennsylvania college ranking list
In yet another in the long list of college rankings — this one naming the top 10 colleges in Pennsylvania — Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and Indiana University of Pennsylvania all earned places of honor. But the top spot on College Magazine’s Top 10 Colleges in Pennsylvania goes not to Pitt,...
Hempfield teacher details desperate dash for medical evacuation from Africa to save eyesight
It was mid-June in Lagos, Nigeria, and Andrew Mewbourn was desperate. After more than two decades as a teacher at American International Schools in Brazil, Eritrea, Mongolia and Nigeria, it took a lot to rattle the Hempfield man. Mewbourn, his wife Pamela and their two children had traveled the world...
Greensburg Diocese Bishop Malesic prepares for yet another leg on his journeyVideo
Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg Bishop Edward Malesic thought it was odd when he received a cellphone message from the Papal Nuncio on July 1 as he was traveling between Catholic schools to celebrate record scholarship contributions. Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the pope’s diplomatic envoy to Washington, D.C., asked Malesic to...
Pennsylvania could integrate 6 state universities, including Cal U, Clarion, Edinboro, Slippery Rock
The financially struggling Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education on Thursday took the first step in a two-year redesign process that could see six of its 14 universities integrated into three operating units. The 20-member State System Board of Governors unanimously approved a resolution instructing Chancellor Daniel Greenstein to launch...
University of Pittsburgh freezes tuition for 2020-21
The University of Pittsburgh Wednesday froze tuition for the coming academic year at 2019-20 rates. That means the lowest base undergraduate tuition for Pennsylvania residents at the school’s Oakland campus will remain $18,628 for the 2020-21 year. Tuition at Pitt’s three branch campuses will be held at $13,198. Graduate and...
Trump administration rescinds rule that could have deported thousands of international students
Lawyers for the Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded a new rule that would have forced international college students to leave the U.S., transfer to another college or face deportation if their schools held classes entirely online because of the covid-19 pandemic. In the week since it was issued, the rule...
Carnegie Mellon names new business school dean
Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou, dean of the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University in Montreal, was named the 10th dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business on Monday. Officials at CMU said Bajeux-Besnainou’s appointment follows an international search. She will assume her new role at CMU Oct. 15. She...
Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, students join effort to overturn ICE rule to deport international students
The battle to overturn a new federal rule to deport international college students forced to take all classes online grew Monday as 18 state attorneys general, including the one in Pennsylvania, 26 cities, including Pittsburgh, and a coalition of student government groups from 18 universities filed legal briefs in federal...
Beloved clergyman assumes the mantle of leadership at Saint Vincent Archabbey
Although it may have triggered adjustments, even a pandemic couldn’t halt the passing of the baton Friday as the Rev. Martin de Porres Bartel accepted the mantle of leadership at the Saint Vincent Archabbey. The majestic tones of the pipe organ filled the soaring Saint Vincent Basilica in Unity as...
West Chester becomes 1st Pennsylvania public university to announce online only classes this fall
West Chester University of Pennsylvania became the first public university in the state to announce it will open the fall semester almost entirely online. Located just outside of Philadelphia, West Chester posted an enrollment of 17,700 last fall and is the largest university in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher...
Penn State, Carnegie Mellon join lawsuit to halt deportation of international students if colleges go totally online
Penn State and Carnegie Mellon universities have joined MIT and Harvard in a legal battle to halt implementation of a new policy from the Trump administration that could result in the deportation of international students. Leaders at the Pennsylvania two research universities were quick to condemn the policy announced this...
Trib to continue fight for jurors’ names from Sheriff Held’s mistrial following appeals court ruling
Trib Total Media, the parent company of the Tribune-Review, on Wednesday vowed to continue fighting to make public the names of jurors who served in the 2018 public corruption mistrial of former Westmoreland County Sheriff Jonathan Held after a state appellate court upheld the delay of the release. The newspaper...
University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon join push against Trump’s edict on student visas
Officials at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University joined leaders at research universities across the nation calling on the Trump administration to rescind its plans to deny visas and or deport foreign students unless they attend classes in person. Unlike Harvard, the University of Southern California and MIT,...
Cal U, Clarion target adults who left without degree as part of new coalition in higher education
Two Western Pennsylvania universities struggling with declining enrollments are hoping to tap a pool of adult students with some college credits but no degree as part of a new, national network targeting adult learners. California and Clarion universities, part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, are among 13...
Adaptive bikes, strollers, devices unlock new potential for Westmoreland County childrenVideo
Aiden Rogers beamed Tuesday morning as his mother Melissa Burke helped him into the bright green adaptive bike that is destined to become a new friend. The 10-year-old Greensburg boy, who will be a fifth grader this fall at Clairview School in Hempfield, battles multiple challenges every day. In the...
Pennsylvania lowers minimum contributions for college savings plans
In the category of “every dollar counts and you have to start somewhere,’ Pennsylvania Treasurer Joe Torsella this week announced his office is reducing the minimum contribution to the state’s 529 college savings programs to $10. The 529 guaranteed savings program, which allows families to bank college credits for the...
Forest Hills closes pool for a week to comply with county crowd size
Forest Hills Mayor Frank Porco Sunday said he moved to close the municipal pool for the next week out of an abundance of caution and to adhere to the Allegheny County Health Department’s order prohibiting gatherings of more than 25 people for a period of one week. “I want to...
Westmoreland County counts 27 new coronavirus cases Sunday
Westmoreland County saw 27 new cases of covid-19 Sunday, but no additional deaths, the Pennsylvania Department of Health reported. That makes the seventh time in the past week that Westmoreland County saw double-digit increases in new coronavirus cases. The new cases bring the total number of cases in the county...
Pennsylvania counts 479 new covid-19 cases Sunday
The Pennsylvania Department of Health Sunday confirmed an additional 479 positive cases of covid-19, bringing the statewide total to 89,854. Officials said they recorded an increase of four new deaths due to the virus, bringing the total number of deaths statewide to 6,753. Meanwhile, 734,846 Pennsylvanians across the state now...
Fireworks trigger fights and fires across Pittsburgh
Complaints were popping almost as fast as a string of firecrackers as Pittsburghers celebrated the Fourth of July. According to the city’s Fireworks Taskforce, investigators from the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and the Bureau of Fire, answered 131 fireworks complaints on Saturday and then were forced to triage another 125...
Allegheny County coronavirus cases decline for 3rd straight day
Allegheny County Health Department officials reported 127 new covid-19 cases on Sunday, with four more hospitalizations. The new numbers marked the the third straight day of declines in new cases after a record-setting 233 cases Thursday, followed by 177 cases Friday and 150 Saturday. The county reported no new deaths,...
