Surprised to see such a low enrollment, to the point of asking why does Pitt even bother with keeping essentially a community college under its umbrella? Folks might question if the benefits outweigh not only operational/capital costs but also potential dilution of the Pitt "brand" or a Pitt degree.
What does the UP-T physical plant look like versus what it only should be to support such a small student body?
Is there a % breakdown of UP-T grads by:
1) transfer to Pitt-Oakland (or any of the other 3 branches)
2) transfer/matriculate to 4-yr school outside the Pitt umbrella
3) just get the AA/AS degree and enter workforce/pursue next endeavor
To give you some perspective on the Titusville Campus.
Pitt actually explored shutting down the Titusville Campus. Basically give the facilities to the local community and thus reduce Pitt to only 3 Branch Campuses.
When Pitt offered this scenario, they got push back from the Republican State Rep. who said such a move would hurt the community from a jobs, education and financial perspective. As a compromise (good will) Pitt retained some minimal presence and basically allowed the community to have the facility and bring in other educational opportunities (community college type/not associated with Pitt, trade/service skills others I believe).
Now when you politically look at Pennsylvania, It had been dominated by a Republican Governor and Republican controlled state legislature. During this time the Republican's have been cutting education funding for the State Related Universities (as well as state university system), I think Pitt now gets about $150 million per year which is maybe only about 7% of its budget. That is part of the reason Pitt, Penn State and Temple have some of the highest in state tuition costs across the country. Tom Wolf (Pa. new Democratic Governor has been trying to get more funding for the State Related Universities but has been somewhat stymied by the Republican Legislature.
In years past, Pennsylvania had funded the State Related Universities budgets by almost 30% resulting in significantly lower in state tuition for Pennsylvania college students (The good old days).
Based upon the most recent financial distress brought on by Covid-19 Pitt (looking to reduce costs) may have to reevaluate the Titusville Campus decision in the future I suspect.
That is why I brought up Penn State with their 20 or more Branch Campuses (many in Republican controlled rural areas of the state). Penn State has a total student body of about 96,000 student (University Park: 40,000 undergrad/6000 grad students Branch Campuses: 50,000 students). With the Covid 19 problem negatively affecting the finances of many colleges/universities across the country, I am not sure how they will be able keep all of those branch campuses open without significant funding increases by the state at a time when Pennsylvania's budget is now so out of balance ($2 to $ 4 billion).
Again many of the 20 plus Penn State Branch Campuses are in rural Republican Controlled areas (Oh well lets see what happens). Additionally, Pennsylvania State System Universities (14 schools with some near PSU branch campuses) are also facing significant budget problems due to Covid 19 in addition to student body reductions over the years.
Pitt fortunately has no problem attracting students and maintaining a consistent student body (undergrad/grad school total student body of about 35,000 students).
Will have to wait to see how this all shakes out in July (Budget Time in Pennsylvania).
HAIL TO PITT!!!!
