Point Park University

Summary

Point Park University is a liberal arts university 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.

Point Park University is a comprehensive master’s level university with a strong liberal arts tradition, and is located in the heart of Downtown Pittsburgh. Point Park enrolls approximately 3,900 full-and part-time students in 67 undergraduate programs and 11 graduate programs offered through its School of Arts and Sciences, School of Business, School of Communication and the Conservatory of Performing Arts.

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. The school has used the phrase "Pittsburgh is our campus" in its literature.[3]

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.

With ten existing buildings and additional properties that run from the Monongahela River to Forbes Avenue, the University has one of the largest footprints in Downtown Pittsburgh.

History

Point Park University has emerged from past financial challenges as a leader in career-focused education with a growing student population. And with the introduction of its Academic Village iniative in 2008, Point Park has evolved into one of the largest investors in Downtown Pittsburgh development.

The university began in 1933 as a one-room business school called Business Training College with an initial enrollment of 50 students, under the direction of Dorothy Finkelhor, a New York native, and her husband, 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.

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. Dance and theatre programs were introduced. These programs laid the groundwork for Point Park’s current Conservatory of Performing Arts.

Thirty-four years after forming the college, Dorothy Finkelhor retired in 1967. The school’s reins remained within the family as son-in-law Arthur M. Blum assumed the presidency. Blum purchased the Sherwyn Hotel, a 20-story building across from Academic Hall, which became David L. Lawrence Hall. The hall currently contains most of the school’s social and entertaining facilities as well as classrooms, offices, and dormitories.

Blum’s Lawrence Hall investment continues to benefit the school. Blum also established a campus in Lugano, Switzerland. A gift from Lester Hamburg brought the school a conference center in Portersville, Pennsylvania.

John V. Hopkins succeeded Blum.

With the budget climbing out of the red, the school began a slow healing process into the 1980s. Enrollment grew beyond 1,000 students. 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, having taught at Point Park as a professor in the department of Natural Sciences and Engineering Technology after his tenure as president.

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.

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.

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.[4]

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.

A $16 million 44,000-square-foot (4,100 m2) state-of-the-art dance complex opened in 2007. The complex includes five rehearsal and performance studios, and recently received Gold LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Located in the heart of Downtown Pittsburgh, the complex is home to the George Rowland White Performance Studio, a 188-seat convertible performance space.

The university is currently creating a "New Academic Village" that will make the school, and downtown, a vibrant area for students. For more info, log on to the Point Park University Web site

University statistics

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.

Freshmen Admission:

Test scores:

Degrees

Point Park University offers eight degrees:

WPPJ

WPPJ (670 AM) is Point Park University's campus radio station. This unlicensed carrier-current station was established in 1967 and is known as "The Voice of Point Park". It is a co-curricular activity for students with an interest in radio, news, sports, contemporary/popular music, media sales and promotions. WPPJ also serves as a training facility for students of any major who desire a career in professional broadcasting. The station is an open-format college radio station, playing primarily indie rock and hip-hop, with a fair number of sports and talk radio shows. The music department charts independent artists with CMJ. The 28th Annual WPPJ Rock-a-Thon was held from October 28–31, 2008 at the university, raising over $3,700 for the Early Learning Institute, a charity for families in Allegheny County, due to the efforts of sales director, Anthony Pignetti.

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. Men's sports include Basketball, Baseball, Cross Country, and Soccer. Women's sports include Basketball, Cross Country, Soccer, Softball, and Volleyball