Before 1963, there were no institutions of higher education in northwestern or northcentral Pennsylvania. Young people left the area to further their educations and often did not return.
Adults lacked a resource for continuing their own educations. The local economy paid the price.
In 1962, community leaders in Bradford, Pa., wrote to Pitt’s then-chancellor, Edward H. Litchfield, arguing the case for accessible higher education in the region, and proposing that the University establish a campus in the city. Litchfield and Pitt trustees concurred, and in September 1963 the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford opened.
Today, Pitt-Bradford students study on a 317-acre campus in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains. U.S.News & World Report has ranked Pitt-Bradford as one of the best regional colleges in the North, and for the eighth year in a row the Princeton Review has named Pitt-Bradford one of the best colleges in the Northeast.
