Point Park University

Infobox_University
motto = Pro Arte / Pro Communitate / Pro Professione
name =


established = 1960
type = Private university
city = Pittsburgh
state = Pennsylvania
country = USA
president = Dr. Paul Hennigan
endowment = $20 million [citation | last=Burrows | first=Angela | title=University's Fiscal Health Expected to continue | newspaper=The Point | pages=40,1 | url=http://www.pointpark.edu/files/spring.ar.6.20singlepgs.pdf]
undergrad = 3,500
campus = Urban
free_label = Athletics
free = NAIA
colors = Green and Gold
website= [http://www.pointpark.edu/ www.pointpark.edu]

Point Park University is a liberal arts university located in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Formerly known as Point Park College, the school name was revised in 2004 to reflect the number of graduate programs being offered.

Overview

* Point Park was founded in 1960 and recorded 3,546 students in the 2006-07 academic year, including several hundred graduate students. [cite journal | last=Burrows | first=Angela | title=New Programs and Heightened Profile Stimulate Enrollment Growth | journal=The Point | date=Spring 2007 | pages=39,9 | url=http://www.pointpark.edu/files/spring.ar.6.20singlepgs.pdf] The two largest master's degree programs are the M.B.A. program in the School of Business, and the M.A. in journalism and mass communication in that department.
* The university is on the semester system and has four schools: Arts & Sciences, Business, Communications, and The Conservatory Of Performing Arts.
* The university is known primarily for its Conservatory of Performing Arts, which attracts students from around the United States. Its undergraduate dance program has been rated the best and among the best in the United States.Fact|date=September 2007 Student and professional performances are held at the Pittsburgh Playhouse of Point Park University, which has three separate performance spaces and is located in the Oakland neighborhood.
* The university is home to the Innocence Institute, which was founded by its director William R. "Bill" Moushey Jr. to investigate and challenge possible wrongful criminal convictions so that they might be overturned in the interest of justice. As of mid-2007, it was one of only two journalism-oriented innocence institutes in the United States (the other is at Northwestern University)Fact|date=September 2007; all of the others are affiliated with law schools. All articles produced by the Innocence Institute have been offered for publication to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette daily newspaper, Point Park's former partner in the Institute. Moushey was the Finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting.
* The university's department of journalism and mass communication (J&MC) offers the most extensive curricula (more than two dozen courses) in photojournalism and photography of any department or school of journalism/mass communication in the United States.Fact|date=September 2007
* The department of J&MC is currently home to the quarterly "Journalism & Mass Communication Educator", one of the two major, international, scholarly journals published by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Its editor is Dane S. Claussen, who also is director of the department's M.A. program.
* The department of J&MC, in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review daily newspaper, runs the Point Park News Service. Undergraduate and graduate journalism students write articles that are offered to, and sometimes published in, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review or its afternoon paper, the TribPM. The department is one of only a few journalism programs in the United States, along with University of Maryland, University of Missouri, Columbia University, and Northwestern University, with a journalism student-staffed news service.Fact|date=September 2007
* The university's independent weekly student newspaper is " The Globe".
* The university's student-produced television newsmagazine is "Wood Street Connection."
* The university's student radio station is WPPJ.
* The university's student literary magazine is "The Cavalcade".
* The university's journalism course-produced news magazine is "The Pioneer".
* On February 1, 2007, The university launched "U-View", Point Park's closed circuit news and entertainment TV station.

Point Park campus

Point Park is located in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is situated about half a mile from Point State Park in the city's Golden Triangle.

The school is in the midst of the business district in the shadow of PPG Place, one of the skyline's most recognizable buildings. The physical campus is mostly vertical, with buildings scattered intermittently among non-school structures. Point Park also owns the Pittsburgh Playhouse in the Oakland neighborhood. There are no green spaces on campus. The school has used the phrase "Pittsburgh is our campus" in its literature. [cite web | title=Pittsburgh is our campus | publisher=Point Park University Web site | date=2006 | url=http://www.pointpark.edu/default.aspx?id=284]

Because of its Downtown locale, the school is within walking distance of the Cultural District and the city's sports facilities, PNC Park, Mellon Arena, and Heinz Field. It is also close to Pittsburgh's major nightlife areas on the Southside, in Station Square, and in the Strip District. Approximately 30 percent of full-time undergraduate students live on campus. The majority of Point Park students commute from nearby neighborhoods. Downtown parking is limited, and the school does not own any facilities. However, several city-owned garages are adjacent to the campus.

History

Point Park University has expanded and grown into a university, but has experienced some challenges and growing pains in its history, facing impending bankruptcy and closure on two separate occasions.

Beginnings

The university began as a one-room business training college in 1933 with an initial enrollment of 50 students, under the direction of Dorothy Finkelhor, a New York native, and L. Herbert Finkelhor. At the time, it was notable for a woman to found such an institution. Finkelhor provided her students with business and secretarial skills. At the same time, she served in multiple roles as teacher, the dean of women, social chairman, janitor, telephone operator, admissions and finance director, and registrar.

Becoming a college

By 1960, the business school had grown to nearly 880 students and moved to the university’s current academic center, Academic Hall, on Wood Street in central Downtown Pittsburgh. The Finkelhors’ small secretarial school became Point Park Junior College, named for the city’s historic Point State Park. The junior college added two-year programs in engineering technology, education, and journalism. It also acquired performing arts space at The Pittsburgh Playhouse in the Oakland neighborhood. Five years later, the college was granted four-year status, officially becoming Point Park College.

Hall. The hall currently contains most of the school’s social and entertaining facilities as well as classrooms, offices, and dormitories.

1970 financial crisis

Blum’s Lawrence Hall investment continues to benefit the school. Blum also established a campus in Lugano, Switzerland and bought a conference center in Sewickley park, and a conference center in Mercer County, PA.

John V. Hopkins succeeded Blum, inheriting a school in arrears and with dwindling admission. By May 1973, desperate faculty members forewent their paychecks as part of a collaborative effort to save the college. Eventually, the sacrifice became success. Hopkins closed the Swiss campus and the conference center and completely reorganized Point Park’s finances.

Stability

With the budget climbing out of the red, the school began a slow healing process into the 1980s. Enrollment grew beyond 1,000 students as dance and theatre programs were introduced. These programs laid the groundwork for Point Park’s current Conservatory of Performing Arts. At the same time, the school introduced its first postgraduate degree, a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication.

J. Matthew Simon served as the college’s next president from 1985 to 1994, providing nearly a decade of relative calm in the institution’s turbulent history. Simon oversaw the acquisition of a new library, program growth, and the school’s largest endowment. Simon retired in 2007 retired from Point Park as a professor in the department of Natural Sciences and Engineering Technology.

1994 Crisis

Another crisis came with the election of James Hunter as president. Hunter, Point Park’s most controversial leader, served for a little over a year but managed to garner outcry for an admissions scandal and a breakdown of communication within the school.

At the same time, growth remained slow in the city, and Pittsburgh’s economy still had not recovered from the collapse of the steel industry. The college’s finances suffered, and Point Park again neared bankruptcy. Negotiations began with Duquesne University to sell what remained of Point Park College to the larger school.

Hunter resigned amidst the melee, and Katherine Henderson won the approval of the board of trustees soon after.

Growth and change

Henderson implemented a strategic plan to revive the college. Plans to sell the school were abandoned as Henderson began another procedural overhaul.

Henderson’s tenure became the most successful for Point Park. During the late ‘90s, budget woes disintegrated as enrollment rose to over 3,000 students and the endowment grew by over 200 percent. Point Park finished major renovations of its existing buildings soon after the turn of the century.

By 2004, the school hit a new high water mark and successfully applied for university status. It was officially renamed Point Park University that year and the administration began an aggressive $1 million branding campaign to attract more enrollment.

Henderson retired in 2006 while on a self-imposed sabbatical.

Current efforts

The board of trustees officially named Paul Hennigan as Henderson's permanent successor at the beginning of the 2006 fall term. Hennigan has continued the process of creating a new strategic plan. As part of the plan, the university has purchased several Downtown properties for development. The school is also poised to become a key player in the city's efforts for Downtown revitalization, owning properties along the coveted Fifth and Forbes streets corridor. [cite web |url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07231/810647-298.stm |title=Point Park University's enrollment growth spurs expansion |work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Most recently, the school partnered with a private contractor to renovate two historic buildings into suite-style residence halls. One of these residence halls became home to a Starbucks in August 2007. The coffee shop is the first full-service retail entity incorporated into Point Park's campus.

In addition, construction on a state-of-the-art dance facility is schedule to be complete by fall 2007. A [http://www.pointpark.edu/default.aspx?id=1775 Web cam] showing the building's progress is available on Point Park's Web site.

The university is also set to create a "New Academic Village" in the coming years, in order to make the school, and downtown, a vibrant area for students. For more info, log on to [http://www.pointpark.edu the Point Park University Web site]

University statistics

Accreditation

Point Park University is accredited by the
Middle States Association of Colleges & Schools Commission on Higher Education and approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Admissions

Freshmen Admission:
* 2,453 applied
* 1,866 admitted
* 472 enrolled
* Average high school GPA 3.22

Test scores:

Degrees

Point Park University offers eight degrees:

* Associate of Art (A.A.)
* Associate of Science (A.S.)
* Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
* Bachelor of Science (B.S.)
* Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.)
* Master of Arts (M.A.)
* Master of Science (M.S.)
* Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)

Graduate Programs

* Master of Business Administration (concentrations in Management; International Business; Management Information Systems; and Sports, Arts & Entertainment Management)
* Master of Arts in Journalism & Mass Communication (thesis and non-thesis options; coursework in public relations, print journalism, broadcast journalism, advertising, and other areas of mass communication)
* Master of Arts in Curriculum & Instruction
* Master of Arts in Educational Administration
* Master of Science in Engineering Management
* Master of Science in Criminal Justice Administration
* Master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts

Undergraduate degree programs

Athletics

Point Park University currently sponsors nine National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics teams, called the Pioneers. The school is a member of the American Mideast Conference, the largest conference in the NAIA.

Sports sponsored by Point Park:
* Men - Basketball, Baseball, Cross Country, Soccer
* Women - Basketball, Cross Country, Soccer, Softball, Volleyball

Maps and aerial photos of school's location

Notable alumni

* Rob Ashford - Tony Award-winning choreographer
* DeVaughn Halsel - Pittsburgh Xplosion Basketball
* Billy Hartung - actor, dancer and singer
* Michael Holley - sports journalist
* Melina Kanakaredes - TV star
* Don Kelly - MLB Shortstop
* Bobby Madritsch - MLB Pitcher
* Dennis Miller - comedian
* Bob Pompeani - news reporter for KDKA-TV
* John Stuper - MLB Pitcher
* Kevin Iole - Boxing & MMA columnist for Yahoo! Sports

External links

* [http://www.pointpark.edu Point Park University Web site]
* [http://www.pointparknewsservice.com Point Park News Service]

References