Education category, Page 5
Carnegie Mellon president joins university leaders in condemning ‘unprecedented government overreach’
Presidents of nearly 200 U.S. colleges and universities, including a dozen in Pennsylvania, have co-signed a letter condemning what they called “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” by the federal government. Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian was the lone co-signer from a Southwestern Pennsylvania institution. A Carnegie Mellon spokeswoman...
Student loans in default will be sent for collection. Here’s what to know for borrowers
NEW YORK — Starting next month, the Education Department says student loans that are in default will be referred for collections. Roughly 5.3 million borrowers are in default on their federal student loans and soon could be subject to having their wages garnished. Referrals for collection had been put on...
Hempfield adjusts school start times to consolidate bus runs, address driver shortage
Board members of Hempfield Area School District voted unanimously — although reluctantly in some cases — to shift the start and end times for school next year. “I think this is the better option. But I still feel bad,” school board member Diane Ciabattoni said. The start and end of...
Harvard sues Trump administration to stop freeze of more than $2 billion in grants
BOSTON — Harvard University announced Monday that it was suing the Trump administration to halt a freeze on more than $2.2 billion in grants after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus. In a letter to Harvard earlier this month, the Trump...
Student loans in default to be referred to debt collection, Education Department says
WASHINGTON — The Education Department will begin collection next month on student loans that are in default, including the garnishing of wages for potentially millions of borrowers, officials said Monday. Currently, roughly 5.3 million borrowers are in default on their federal student loans. The Trump administration ’s announcement marks an...
Team that resurrected dire wolf has Pitt, Penn State connections
Some of the scientific groundwork that paved the way for a rebirth of the long-extinct dire wolf took place in Pennsylvania. With much fanfare, Texas company Colossal Biosciences announced April 7 that its scientists had returned the dire wolf, a species extinct for more than 10,000 years, “to its rightful...
Power tools: Robotics research at Carnegie Mellon aims to revolutionize everyday tasks
At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, the world’s foremost tech conference, farming machinery giant Kubota introduced Flash, a vehicle-mounted camera that creates ultra-detailed images to help farmers care for their crops. It was an idea born in a Carnegie Mellon University robotics lab and another example of the revolutionary technology...
Questions emerge about how a deputy’s stepson became the accused gunman in deadly FSU shooting
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Amid the abandoned chemistry notes and other debris left behind after a deadly shooting at Florida State University are lingering questions about how the stepson of a beloved sheriff’s deputy tasked with school safety at a middle school became the accused gunman. Political science student Phoenix Ikner...
DEI rollbacks hit campus support systems for students of color
WASHINGTON — Campus mentors. Move-in events. Scholarships. Diversity offices that made them feel welcome on predominantly white campuses. As U.S. colleges pull back on diversity, equity and inclusion practices, students of color say they are starting to lose all of these things and more. The full scope of campus DEI...
Glitches, unproven tech in Pa.’s new financial aid system exacerbated delays for thousands of students
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. By October, the scale of the crisis was clear. State grants that thousands of students were counting on to pay for college were weeks behind...
Judge pauses effort to revoke status of Gannon U. students from India
A federal judge in Pittsburgh on Thursday reinstated — at least temporarily — two international students at Gannon University in Erie who learned this month their status as scholars had been terminated by the Trump administration. The students — who sued the U.S. attorney general, secretary of the Department of...
College faculty, students, union members rally in Pittsburgh to defend higher education
The government is robbing Americans of the research and treatments they deserve, a University of Pittsburgh laboratory manager said during a rally Thursday in Schenley Plaza. Diversity, equity and inclusion aren’t mere buzzwords, said an associate dean from Pitt. This was the sentiment from Pittsburgh-based professors, leaders and union members...
Penn State branch campus closure announcement delayed
Upper Burrell Supervisor Ross G. Walker III hopes no news is good news. The longtime township supervisor said that, since learning of the potential closure of his township’s Penn State New Kensington campus, he has not heard anything from Penn State administration regarding the school’s future. “It could make you...
Trump administration takes aim at Harvard’s international students and tax-exempt status
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration has escalated its ongoing battle with Harvard, threatening to revoke the university’s ability to host international students as the president called for withdrawing Harvard’s tax-exempt status. The Department of Homeland Security ordered Harvard late Tuesday to turn over “detailed records” of its foreign student...
LEAP preschool at Sharpsburg’s Watson Institute the only one of its kind in Allegheny County
Teacher Christine Kunkel kicks off each day with a morning meeting that finds her shaking her arms, patting her stomach and pretending to swim. The meeting participants — 3- and 4-year-olds at the Watson Institute’s LEAP preschool in Sharpsburg — follow suit, singing and dancing on a colorful mat near...
Ingomar Middle School teacher leaves lasting legacy of inspiring and uplifting students
Students at Ingomar Middle School are learning how to connect to different communities and have healthy habits, thanks to Margo Hinton. Hinton, a physical education teacher at Ingomar, has organized and helped lead several programs at the middle school, including the Student Ambassador Program, which she started in 2019. “The...
Head Start funding lags by nearly $1 billion this year, causing some preschool closures
Head Start centers across the U.S. have received nearly $1 billion less in federal money compared with this time last year — and a lag in funding this week has caused some preschool classrooms for low-income children to close. The federal government has distributed $1.6 billion for Head Start from...
How war, money and the quest for discovery entwined U.S. government and universities
NEW YORK — The showdown between the Trump administration and Harvard University is spotlighting bare-knuckled politics and big dollar figures. But in the battle of the moment, it’s easy to lose sight of a decades-long alliance between the U.S. government and the nation’s most prominent universities, forged to fight a...
Podcast: College students voice fear, anxiety over visa revocations
A rising wave of fear and uncertainty is spreading among international students in Pittsburgh and throughout the United States, as visa revocations become more frequent under the Trump administration. Some students who have not violated any immigration rules are choosing to stay in the U.S., during college breaks, rather than...
Trump administration sues Maine over participation of transgender athletes in girls sports
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Wednesday it is suing Maine’s education department for not complying with the government’s push to ban transgender athletes in girls and women’s sports, escalating a dispute over whether the state is abiding by a federal law that bars discrimination in education based on sex....
‘I have not even stepped out of the house’: 2 Carnegie Mellon students testify to keep federal exchange status intact
Two international Carnegie Mellon University graduate students, whose ability to study in the U.S. was terminated under a crackdown by the Trump administration, testified Tuesday in federal court as they sought to restore their status and complete their education. The students said their appearance in a Downtown Pittsburgh courtroom marked...
Hempfield Area School Board considers shifting school start, dismissal times
Hempfield Area School District’s students might get home earlier next academic year. The school board will vote next week on whether to make an adjustment to the district’s arrival and dismissal schedule. The adjustment would place the high school and middle school students on the same schedule — shifting the...
Building projects, staffing among priorities for Hempfield Area’s school board candidates
Renovation projects. Teacher recruitment and retention. Student performance. Open communication with the community. These are the priorities for the five candidates running for four open spots on the Hempfield Area School Board this year. Two candidates are incumbents — Jerry Radebaugh and Scott Learn. The newcomers are Cory Thoma, Lindsay...
Faced with a perfect storm, small local colleges try to navigate the future
“If you build it, they will come” was not the way to go about higher education in Pennsylvania, experts say. Declining birth rates and rising tuition costs are combining with other economic factors to make it harder — especially for smaller campuses — to fight enrollment declines and survive. “It’s...
Greensburg Salem Food launches food program through Ashley Kertes memorial fund
Christina Gongaware Noga knows her late sister would be proud that money raised in her memory is helping combat food insecurity at Greensburg Salem’s Hutchinson Elementary. Gongaware Noga launched the Ashley Gongaware Kertes Fund last year on behalf of her sister, who died unexpectedly at age 36 in March 2023....
