Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Indiana University of Pennsylvania

File:IUPseal.png
Type	Public
Established	1875
Endowment	US$28.5 million
President	Dr. Tony Atwater
Undergraduates	10,923 full-time, 840 part-time
Location	Indiana , PA , USA
Campus	Suburban, 341 acres (1.37 km²)
Mascot	Bears (originally sometimes known as the IUP Indians after the famous fight song "Cherokee")
Website	www.iup.edu

The Indiana University of Pennsylvania (or IUP) is a public university in Indiana, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh. It is a member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. IUP has branch campuses in Punxsutawney and Kittanning.

History

IUP was founded in 1875 as a normal school. In 1927, it became a state teachers college. In 1965, the institution achieved university status and changed its name to Indiana University of Pennsylvania, or IUP. [1]

Today IUP is one of 14 comprehensive universities within the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. With a total enrollment of 14,081 undergraduate and graduate students, IUP is the largest school in the system and the only one of two universities to offer doctoral degrees (The other is Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.)

Education

File:Iup logo.JPG

IUP offers over 100 undergraduate degree programs and 40 graduate degree programs. The university is split into several colleges of related programs:

• Eberly College of Business and Information Technology
• College of Education and Educational Technology
• College of Fine Arts
• College of Health and Human Services
• College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
• School of Continuing Education
• College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Also, IUP has the Robert E. Cook Honors College [2] for academically talented students. This college replaces regular liberal studies classes with challenging "Honors Core" classes. This college was made possible through donations by Robert E. Cook, an IUP mathematics alumnus.

Name confusion

Interestingly, Western Pennsylvania has two areas with the same names as states, Indiana and California. California University of Pennsylvania is distinguished since all of the actual California Universities have unique names such as "UCLA", "UC Santa Cruz", or "Berkeley." On the other hand, Indiana University of Pennsylvania is often confused with Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

Media trouble

In recent years, similar to many universities of comparable size, IUP has been featured in local news stories regarding several students' actions. The university lost one student in the spring of 2005; his death was from a drug overdose [3]. The spring 2005 death caused the university to rework its drug and alcohol policy, creating harsher sanctions. Later that year, at the start of the fall term, another student took his life because of personal problems that led to depression [4]. Several weeks later, the university suspended the entire cheerleading squad over violations of university policy with regards to hazing. This suspension was in reference to an intoxicated female cheerleader caught returning to her dormitory after an initiation party [5]. And a university-related institution, the Research Institute, a grant-processing arm created to get around the strict financial rules the state imposes on its state-owned universities, was the center of controversy over charges of mismanagement. The institute has declined to divulge its financial records, saying that it is a private organization separate from the university, even though it uses university property for its offices and has a cooperation agreement with the university [6].

University President Dr. Tony Atwater's new policies include a year's suspension for a student caught providing alcohol to minors. This punishment is imposed even if the student is not convicted of an offense. In October 2005 the campus erupted in protest following Dr. Atwater placing all Greek organizations on temporary probation during homecoming festivities. These protests caused Dr. Atwater to lift the probation after just one day.

Greek Organizations

Fraternities

• Acacia
• Alpha Chi Rho
• Chi Phi
• Delta Sigma Phi
• Delta Tau Delta
• Phi Kappa Psi
• Phi Kappa Tau
• Phi Mu Delta
• Pi Lambda Phi
• Sigma Chi
• Sigma Pi
• Sigma Tau Gamma
• Theta Chi

Sororities

• Alpha Gamma Delta
• Alpha Sigma Alpha
• Alpha Sigma Tau
• Alpha Xi Delta
• Delta Gamma
• Delta Phi Epsilon
• Delta Zeta
• Sigma Kappa
• Sigma Sigma Sigma
• Theta Phi Alpha
• Zeta Tau Alpha

Notable alumni

• Nellie Bly
• The Clarks
• Jim Haslett
• Billy Hunter, former Major League Baseball player.
• Mike Menosky, former Major League Baseball player.
• John Murtha
• LeRon McCoy, current National Football League player
• Chris Villarrial, current National Football League player

External links

• Indiana University of Pennsylvania
• The Penn Student Newspaper
• Yahoo! Education Profile: Indiana University of Pennsylvania