Pitt and Pittsburgh

The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University are both recognized in a new survey of "Best Neighbor" colleges and universities in the United States. Pitt is tied for the #2 position; CMU is ranked #19.

There is no arguing with this sort of thing; the researchers did their best with an incomplete method. But it's fun to read what they got right -- and wrong -- about the schools in our backyard. From the complete report:

University of Pittsburgh: Pitt’s motto is, “The city is our campus,” and through an engagement program, which builds upon the historic connection between institution and metropolitan area, the university has played a key role in helping to economically, culturally, and physically revitalize Pittsburgh. Working through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Pitt created the Community Outreach Partnership Center, which has leveraged the university’s resources in a manner, which supports neighborhood partnerships in order to address neighborhood concerns. The selection of the city as the site of the 2009 G-20 Summit reflects an urban economy discovering “life after steel.” PITT ARTS connects the university’s students with the city’s emerging and energetic art scene. Pitt has set the dimensions and pace of engagement in Pittsburgh. Its neighborhood collaborations have resulted in physically and economically revitalized neighborhoods. Neighborhood is the key here. Pitt’s engagement benefits the entire metropolitan region, one neighborhood at a time.

Carnegie Mellon University: The Leonard Gelfand Center for Service Learning and Outreach coordinates and makes public much of CMU’s community engagement efforts. These include Strategies for Engineering Education, which provides middle-school girls with an opportunity to spend two weeks every year in “hands-on, multidisciplinary engineering activities focusing on the theme of energy.” Its Summer Academy for Mathematics and Science prepares high school students for the rigorous curriculum they will face as college engineering, science, and mathematics majors. The university emphasizes the similarities between engineering and music and thus its School of Music, through its Keyboard and Drumming Projects, seeks to enhance music instruction in the Pittsburg Public Schools. Its powerful engineering and design schools have been instrumental in hundreds of “start-up” companies.