Pennsylvania, the state with the sixth-largest population in the country with more than 12 million people, reportedly has more than 450 public and private colleges, universities and career and technical training schools. Diverse caught up with some of these institutions’ leaders of color to find out the unique space each is carving out in this diverse higher education landscape.
Dr. Livingston Alexander, president,University of Pittsburgh-Bradford
Took office: August 2003
Previous position: Provost and vice president for academic affairs and professor of psychology at Kean University in Union, N.J.
Student population: 1,660
Since Alexander took the helm of the campus, located just south of the New York border, the Black student population has doubled to 100 students.
“We are getting more students from Washington, D.C., New York City, Philadelphia and Buffalo (N.Y.),” Alexander, the Bradford campus’ first Black president, says of its recruiting success. “I wasn’t sure how students from the city would do coming to a rural area, but it is working just fine here.” Alexander proudly talks about the various programs his campus offers such as business management, criminal justice, biology, nursing and broadcast communication. Criminal justice may be the school’s most prominent major.
