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    How Higher Education is Supporting a Prosperous Pennsylvania

    10/2/26 Message from Board Chair Cindy Shapira

    While much of our Board’s work centers on overcoming challenges facing higher education, I wanted to take a moment to highlight some excellent recent news on the vitality, strength, and contributions of the Commonwealth’s higher education institutions, especially to economic and workforce development. 

    First, this week Carnegie Mellon University announced an historic $3 billion gift from philanthropist and Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin, supporting both CMU’s Pittsburgh campus and a naming gift to its School of Computer Science, as well as an entirely new, innovative Miami campus focusing on essential challenges.  The gift, the largest in American history by an individual philanthropist, will undoubtedly advance American competitiveness and contribute to regional prosperity.  We are delighted that a Pennsylvania institution will be positioned for this kind of tremendous impact.

    Every sector of higher education in the Commonwealth is actively strengthening health and well-being of Pennsylvania citizens and the economy.  A few select exemplars:  

    The University of Pittsburgh’s Dental School of Medicine has established a Regional Training Center in Johnstown, providing care and training in rural communities.   Our PASSHE institutions are leading multiple initiatives aimed at closing Pennsylvania’s workforce credential gap.  For example, students at PASSHE universities will soon have a clearer answer to one of the most important questions they face — What job can I do with this major? — as part of an effort to prepare students for the workforce. The “Connecting Credentials to Careers” initiative is being piloted at Kutztown, Shippensburg and PennWest universities, with the potential to scale to other PASSHE universities. The pilot will break down the skills students learn in each program, then match those skills to specific jobs and wages, so students and advisors can see the concrete path from a major to a career.

    Saint Joseph’s University recent began its Initiative for Human Formation in the Age of AI, which will both help to prepare students for the workplace of the future, as well as address multiple other implications of artificial intelligence for humanity.

    The Pennsylvania Commission for Community Colleges (PACCC), representing the Commonwealth’s 15 community colleges, is partnering with TradesFutures, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization established by North America’s Building Trades Unions and industry partners, to implement the Multi-Craft Core Curriculum (M3C) and apprenticeship readiness program model.  PACCC, through its PA Works! model and Technical Trades Consortium in the Expanded Northeast Region, is also partnering with Luzerne County Community College, Lehigh Carbon Community College, Northampton Community College, and Bucks County Community College to offer programs and training designed to meet regional workforce needs and strengthen Pennsylvania's technical trades pipeline.

    All of this is to say that there is much to celebrate on behalf of our higher education institutions.   I look forward to our work in strengthening and supporting this influential sector.

    - Cynthia Shapira, SBHE Board Chair