Bill Schackner stories

Penn State University trustees Friday approved a $96 million classroom development at University Park to accommodate expected first-year enrollment growth approaching 1,000 students over the next several years. The project is the largest of the planned work totaling almost $325 million on the main campus and at Penn State Harrisburg...

The union representing more than 5,000 faculty and coaches across Pennsylvania’s 10 state-owned universities is the latest to affiliate with AFT, a nationwide union of education and other workers. Members of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties approved the affiliation in a three-day election last week. It...

The newly created State Board of Higher Education, tasked with re-imaging oversight of Pennsylvania’s colleges and universities, has named Kate Shaw as executive director. Shaw is deputy secretary for Higher Education within the Pennsylvania Department of Education. She has a decades-long career in government, the private sector and in academia...

Setting up a table on a college campus to encourage voter turnout or promote a political candidate are time-honored student expressions of free speech, as is canvassing door-to-door before an election. But in Pennsylvania, those campus activities have received pushback from a number of school administrators this fall, free speech...

Legal scholars, political scientists and others simply curious about how the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitution since its founding can now turn to Penn State University for answers. That’s because the nation’s high court – more precisely, its online database of cases dating to 1791 — has moved...

Anyone who’s climbed “Cardiac Hill” for a basketball game or class at the University of Pittsburgh will tell you — perhaps after catching their breath — that having an upper and lower campus can be taxing. That’s why Western Pennsylvania’s largest university is prepared to spend $14.5 million to make...

If kindness can counteract one incalculable act of hate, that spirit was alive in Pittsburgh’s Jewish community Sunday, six years after the worst antisemitic attack in U.S. history claimed 11 people in a Squirrel Hill synagogue. Even before an evening ceremony honoring victims of the Tree of Life mass shooting...

A 37-year-old McKees Rocks man was fatally shot and three others were wounded inMcKees Rocks on Saturday, Allegheny County Police said. The victim, Shaylon Williams, was shot at the intersection of Meyers Street and the 800 block Ridge Way around 5:30 p.m. and died about an hour later at Allegheny...

A basement fire Saturday in a home on Taylor Avenue in Arnold displaced three residents but caused no injuries, Arnold fire Chief Eric Gartley said. Firefighters responded about 12:30 p.m. to a single-family house at 1419 Taylor Ave. when smoke was seen. Alerted to the fire by a neighbor, a...

Billionaire and Pittsburgh native Mark Cuban knows a bit about starting and growing businesses, but he first learned about being broke, eating condiment sandwiches and scraping by to keep a fledgling enterprise going. Speaking to a room of small business owners and entrepreneurs Saturday in East Liberty, Cuban, 66, used...

Graduate student workers at the University of Pittsburgh will vote in a state-supervised election next month on whether to join the United Steelworkers, the union already representing faulty and staff there. The election Nov. 18, 19 and 21 involves 2,000 teaching, research and other graduate assistants. It will be overseen...

The assembly representing Point Park University faculty passed an initial vote of no confidence this week regarding President Chris Brussalis, citing issues including inadequate communication and lack of shared governance. Of the 80 faculty present during Monday’s closed session, 63 later voted in favor, 11 opposed, and six in attendance...

Giving children an early jump on learning is about to become a more visible endeavor on Pennsylvania Western University’s California campus thanks to the latest gift from a couple who has championed the cause. Tom Rutledge, a 1977 alumnus who headed Charter Communications, and his wife Karen Rutledge, announced a...

When he was named Point Park University president last year, Chris Brussalis touted his school’s potential to spark a “Downtown Renaissance 3” with targeted development including a new venue for sports and recreation. On Thursday, Brussalis unveiled a sizable part of that vision for the Golden Triangle. He and the...

The board governing Pennsylvania’s 10 state-owned universities is asking for a 6.5% increase, or $40.3 million more, in next year’s state budget. This increase could allow for a seventh annual tuition freeze. The request for 2025-26, approved unanimously by the State System’s Board of Governors Thursday, would bring the state...

The portion of Black and other students of color declined in this fall’s entering class at Carnegie Mellon University, following the first recruiting cycle since the U.S. Supreme Court barred consideration of race in admissions. The share of new students who are white also slipped, but Asian student enrollment rose,...

Even as it plans for growth, the University of Pittsburgh has reduced its footprint by 85 acres through the sale of a sprawling but underused research park in Harmar. The $5 million transaction of Pittsburgh Applied Research Center (U-PARC) in Harmar was completed Sept. 24, said Pitt spokesman Jared Stonesifer....

A nearly $4 million gift will enable Duquesne University to open a second nursing simulation lab on its campus, which also enrolled its inaugural class in osteopathic medicine this fall. The Joanne Barkett Conway Simulation Center is scheduled to open in 2026 on the sixth floor of Fisher Hall, university...

Enrollment across Pennsylvania’s 10 state-owned universities appears essentially flat this fall versus last — an elusive milestone for a system now 30% smaller after 13 consecutive yearly declines since 2010, Chancellor Daniel Greenstein said. The State System of Higher Education expects to release official numbers early next week. Greenstein told...

Images appearing in Point Park University’s student newspaper this week show unsanitary conditions that the publication says it found in the Downtown campus’s dining facility inside Lawrence Hall. One of the photos published Wednesday in The Globe depicts a red pepper “appearing to be moldy in the salad bar.” Another...

Enrollment at state-owned universities in Western Pennsylvania dropped by more than 600 students this fall compared to last year, even though one of the region’s three institutions saw growth for a third straight year. That school, Slippery Rock University, registered a headcount increase of 32 students to 8,394, up from...

Carnegie Mellon University’s Mellon College of Science has a new dean, Barbara Shinn-Cunningham. Her tenure begins in January. Shinn-Cunningham came to Carnegie Mellon in 2018 as founding director of the Neuroscience Institute. A faculty researcher and an engineer by training, she is a professor of auditory neuroscience. Shinn-Cunningham heads two...

A free speech advocacy group says Penn State University should publicly apologize to its student newspaper staff for removing dozens of newsstands and newspapers from campus over what the school has called a violation of advertising rules. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) says it is “gravely concerned”...

Indiana University of Pennsylvania billed the campaign of former President Donald Trump $40,000 for its use of the 5,000-seat Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex for this week’s rally. The state-owned university on Friday provided a copy of the invoice agreement in response to inquiries this week from TribLive. The total...

About 6,300 employees on the University of Pittsburgh’s main and branch campuses are joining the United Steelworkers union, officials confirmed Friday after votes were tallied in a monthlong, state-supervised election. The union will work to secure a collective bargaining agreement between those workers and Pitt, Western Pennsylvania’s largest university. Results...