Dear alumni and friends,

Commencement season is almost upon us, a time of celebration and transformation. Everyone is happy to say goodbye to a long and cold winter and welcome the growth and renewal brought by spring.

Many people celebrate commencement as a happy ending and significant accomplishment, and for all of our graduating students and their families, that is certainly true.

For me, however, commencement season always feels like a new beginning.
As our graduates say goodbye to college life and embark on the next phase of their lives and professions, I share great pride in their accomplishments. I also experience a renewed energy to continue working toward the ambitious initiatives and goals that we have set as a University community.

Point Park has much to celebrate, and much hard work yet to accomplish.
The University recently marked an important milestone: completion of a rigorous self- study and evaluation process to meet the accreditation requirements of the Middle States Commission of Higher Education. This intensive self-evaluation process, known as Point Park Excellence, lives on as the University’s continuous improvement model after the Middle States team completes its campus visit in late March.

We have also reached the midpoint in our six-year Strategic Plan, which is focused on enhancing academic excellence, providing a quality student experience, exercising managed growth and promoting community engagement. The plan was established in 2008 after a two-year strategic planning process that involved more than 145 individuals from administration, faculty and staff, including 18 academic and eleven non-academic planning teams.

Our Strategic Plan, which embraces quality management as a model, is a tribute to the dedication of these Point Park people. Truly a bottom-up, all-inclusive effort, the resulting plan has guided this University in its transition from survival management to managing for quality.

Thanks to the hard work and dedicated commitment of the entire campus community, we are a University in the process of transformation. This is truly the spirit of Point Park.

We look forward to sharing news about our ongoing transformation with you. Thanks for keeping in touch.

Warm regards,



Dr. Paul Hennigan
President

Photo by Richard Kelly