![]() | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(March 2024) |
Former names | Altoona Undergraduate Center (1939–1958) Altoona Campus of The Pennsylvania State University (1958–1997) [1] |
---|---|
Motto | "This is My Penn State Altoona, Make it Yours" |
Type | Public |
Established | September 13, 1939 |
Parent institution | Pennsylvania State University |
Chancellor | Ron W. Darbeau [2] |
President | Neeli Bendapudi |
Administrative staff | 500 |
Undergraduates | 2,577 (as of 2023) [3] |
Location | , , U.S. |
Campus | 171.5 acres (0.694 km2) |
Affiliations | Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (NCAA Division III) |
Mascot | Nittany Lion |
Website | altoona.psu.edu |
![]() |
Penn State Altoona is a commonwealth campus of The Pennsylvania State University located in Logan Township, Pennsylvania. It is one of four full-fledged four year institutions in the Commonwealth Campus network. The full-time student count was 2,577 in 2023.
In 1939, a citizen's committee led by the Altoona Chamber of Commerce Chairman at the time convinced Ralph D. Hetzel, president of the Pennsylvania State College, to support an undergraduate center in Altoona. In July, the citizen's committee launched a campaign to raise money to renovate an abandoned grade school building to house the new center. More than $5,000 was raised from 8,000 local contributors in two months. The college, named the Altoona Undergraduate Center, opened its doors to just 119 freshmen and nine faculty members.
By 1946, it was clear that the campus population was going to continue to grow and expansion of the campus was imminent. The purchase of the 38 acres of the defunct Ivyside Amusement Park was made for $40,000. The park had been closed in 1944 due to "the war and gas rationing." [4] Properties in the surrounding areas were continued to be purchased totaling over 100 acres by the 1990s. [4] In September 1948, the official relocation was made to Ivyside; this era of the college was dubbed that of "Bathhouse U," a name that referred to the conversion of the former amusement park's bathhouse into "offices, classrooms, laboratories, and [the] library." [4] By 1950, Steven Adler was hired as the Registrar "indicating the enrollment and campus growth was significant enough that someone needed to focus on those issues". [4] In 1955 the college introduced associate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Drafting and Design. The AUC was renamed to the Altoona Campus of The Pennsylvania State University in 1958, with this shortened to just Penn State Altoona on July 1, 1997. Since then, Penn State Altoona numbers keep growing, with more students graduating each spring.
Penn State Altoona offers internships, research programs and study abroad programs along with continuing education and training. Students can complete their degrees at Penn State Altoona or transfer to another Penn State location.
Currently[ when? ] there are over 75 student groups on campus, including three fraternities, and one sorority, the Sheetz Fellows Program, the Black Student Union, Christian Student Fellowship, Students About Living the Truth, Psychology Club, etc. The student groups are overseen by the Student Government Association, whose other duties include improvement of campus, student advocacy, and distributing money to groups. Student Life also includes many planned events, speakers and musicians, as well as plenty of student organization run events.
One student activity is the Altoona Film Series. It takes place at 7pm on Sundays at the Devorris Downtown Center. [5]
Penn State Altoona teams participate as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III. The Nittany Lions are a member of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, golf, swimming & diving, soccer, tennis and volleyball; while women's sports include basketball, bowling, golf, swimming & diving, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball.
Currently there are two social fraternities including Alpha Phi Delta, and Sigma Pi as well as one veterans fraternity, Omega Delta Sigma. There is also one sorority: Alpha Sigma Tau. [6]
Penn State Altoona offers its students on campus housing during the fall and spring semesters (not available in the summer). The rooms in each hall are furnished with two single beds, two desks, two dressers, closet space, cable TV, and a small microwave/refrigerator/freezer. Vending machines and card-operated laundry machines are located in each hall. The lounges generally contain a TV, lounge, and study area. Residence Life Professional staff members are also present in the residence halls in addition to undergraduate Resident Assistants.
Housing options include:
There are also several off-campus housing locations, including Nittany Pointe, Wehnwood Court, College Park, and Penn View Apartments.
In addition to housing on campus, there is a cafe on campus called 'Port Sky Cafe' which serves food from hamburgers and French fries to more varied foods, a coffee shop called 'Coasters Coffee Bar' located in the Hawthorn Classroom Building, and 'Common Grounds', a convenience store available to students, faculty, and staff located in the Slep Student Center building. Common Grounds was originally a coffee shop (the name was a pun on coffee grounds) but closed a year after Coasters opened in the Hawthorn building and became an on-campus convenience store. There are also several fast food restaurants within a mile radius of the campus. The campus is located less than two miles from downtown Altoona.
Penn State Altoona's Office of Information Technology offers support to students on many technologies such as wireless connection, e-mail, Canvas, etc. [7] There are also extra resources given to students to help with their academic career such as: computer labs around campus, printing, cloud storage, etc. There are also additional resources and benefits offered through Penn State University as a whole.
The University of North Carolina Wilmington, or University of North Carolina at Wilmington, is a public research university in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system and enrolls 17,499 undergraduate and graduate students each year. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
La Salle University is a private, Catholic university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The university was founded in 1863 by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and named for St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle.
Fitchburg State University is a public university in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. It has 3,421 undergraduate and 1,238 graduate/continuing education students, for a total student body enrollment of 4,659. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in 25 academic disciplines. The main campus, the McKay Campus School, and athletic fields occupy 79 acres (320,000 m2) in the city of Fitchburg; the biological study fields occupy 120 acres (490,000 m2) in the neighboring towns of Lancaster, Leominster, and Lunenburg.
Keene State College is a public liberal arts college in Keene, New Hampshire. It is part of the University System of New Hampshire. Founded in 1909 as a teacher's college, Keene State College had 3,104 students enrolled for credit as of fall 2021.
York College of Pennsylvania is a private college in Spring Garden Township, Pennsylvania. It offers more than 70 baccalaureate majors in professional programs, the sciences, and humanities to 3,500 full-time undergraduate students. It also offers master's programs in business, public policy, education, and nursing, along with a doctoral program in nursing practice to over 400 postgraduate students.
McKendree University (McK), formerly McKendree College, is a private university in Lebanon, Illinois. Founded in 1828 as the Lebanon Seminary, it is the oldest college or university in Illinois. The school was renamed McKendree University beginning in the 2007–08 academic year. McKendree enrolls approximately 1,960 students representing 25 countries and 29 states. In the undergraduate program, on average there are 51% females and 49% males. The institution remains affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, officially known as the Pennsylvania State University at Erie, The Behrend College, and often shortened as Penn State Behrend, is a public satellite campus of Penn State University and is located just outside Erie, Pennsylvania. It is among the largest of Penn State's commonwealth campuses, with about 4,400 students enrolled in Behrend programs on campus and online. The college offers more than 40 undergraduate majors in four academic schools: The Sam and Irene Black School of Business, the School of Engineering, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the School of Science, which includes the Nursing Program. Penn State Behrend also offers five master's degrees, as well as a range of continuing education trainings through its Community and Workforce Programs.
Penn State Mont Alto is a residential commonwealth campus of the Pennsylvania State University. Located in Mont Alto, Pennsylvania, the campus offers nine four-year and seven two-year degree programs, including nursing, forest technology, occupational therapy assistant, physical therapist assistant, business, information technology, and project and supply chain management.
The Boston University housing system is the 2nd-largest of any private university in the United States, with 76% of the undergraduate population living on campus. On-campus housing at BU is an unusually diverse melange, ranging from individual 19th-century brownstone town houses and apartment buildings acquired by the school to large-scale high-rises built in the 60s and 2000s.
West Campus is a residential section of Cornell University main campus in Ithaca, New York. It is bounded roughly by Fall Creek gorge to the north, West Avenue and Libe Slope to the east, Cascadilla gorge and the Ithaca City Cemetery to the south, and University Avenue and Lake Street to the west. It now primarily houses transfer students, second year students, and upperclassmen.
North Campus is a mostly residential section of Cornell University's main campus in Ithaca, New York. It includes the neighborhoods located north of Fall Creek. All freshmen are housed on North Campus as part of Cornell's common first-year experience and residential initiatives.
Washington University in St. Louis has varied programs and events for students.
Otterbein University is a private university in Westerville, Ohio. It offers 74 majors and 44 minors, as well as eight graduate programs. The university was founded in 1847 by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ and named for United Brethren founder the Rev. Philip William Otterbein. As a result of a division and two mergers involving the church, it has been associated since 1968 with the United Methodist Church. In 2010, due to an increasing number of graduate and undergraduate programs, its name was changed back from Otterbein College to Otterbein University.
Michigan State University Housing is a large and complex network of housing for students and faculty of Michigan State University. Most of the housing is in the form of residence halls on the school's campus, but there are also university apartments, fraternity and sorority housing, and free-standing housing for grad students, faculty and staff.
The upper campus residence halls at the University of Pittsburgh include Sutherland Hall, Panther Hall, K. Leroy Irvis Hall, the fraternity housing complex, and the Darragh Street Apartments. Among the newest residence facilities at the university, these buildings reside on the upper campus located near many of the school's athletic facilities. The upper campus resides approximately 200 feet (61 m) above the lower campus that lies along Forbes and Fifth Avenues, providing dramatic views along the hilltop and slopes. Planning for upper campus student housing originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but stalled due to community and political opposition until the early 1990s with the opening of Sutherland Hall, the first major student residence constructed by Pitt in 29 years.
The residence hall system at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida is administered by the Department of Housing and Residence Life. As of 2011, the system offers just under 6,500 beds on its main campus within five housing communities, 400 beds at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, and 3,750 beds in university-affiliated housing.
Housing at the University of Georgia is managed by the Department of University Housing. On campus housing for undergraduate students is divided into ten communities, and for graduate students into three communities.
College Houses are a major part of facilitating a community and experience amongst the undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia.
Housing at the University of Washington is administered by the Housing & Food Services (HFS) department at the University of Washington. Undergraduates are housed primarily in residence halls located on North Campus and West Campus. Typically, residence halls are 9-month spaces for undergraduate students. However, there are also 12-month apartment spaces available for undergraduate students. Graduate and professional students are provided the option to live in 12-month apartments operated either by the university or privately. The University of Washington does not require students to live on campus. Although students are not required, about 71% of freshmen choose to live on campus. Housing is not guaranteed but placement in the residence halls is guaranteed for returning residents. Most winter quarter and spring quarter applicants are assigned housing. There are also three family housing options for registered full-time students at the Seattle campus.