Seton Hill President Dr. JoAnne Boyle will speak on “Town and Gown, Institutions of Higher Education and Economic Development” as part of Leadership Pittsburgh’s Opportunity Connections series on Monday, April 3, 2006 at 7:30 a.m. “Town and Gown, Institutions of Higher Education” will take place in the Ballroom at Point Park University in downtown Pittsburgh. Other speakers will include: The Honorable David Levdansky, Member, Pennsylvania House of Representatives; Dr. John Murray, Chancellor of the University and Professor of Law, Duquesne University; and Dr. Robert Smith, President, Slippery Rock University. The event is not open to the public.

Seton Hill’s “town and gown” project, the Seton Hill University Center for the Performing Arts, is a 73,000 square-foot, projected $20 million performing arts center that will include a music hall and flexible theatre as well as workshops, rehearsal spaces, classrooms and faculty offices. When completed, the Center will house the University’s premiere programs in Theatre and Music and provide modern performing spaces for both. Seton Hill University has as its partners in this project the City of Greensburg, the County of Westmoreland, the Redevelopment Authority of the County of Westmoreland, the Greensburg Salem School District, local legislators and the Westmoreland Cultural Trust. This well-designed project and its strong community partnerships have garnered attention and support from all levels of government. An economic impact study completed by Mullin and Lonergan Associates projects that the University Center for the Performing Arts will generate more than 635 new jobs (permanent and temporary), over $7 million in total wages, over $350,000 in new state and local taxes and at least $1 million per year in visitor spending. It is expected that the construction project alone will add $10.6 million to the region in direct spending with an additional $7.7 million in indirect spending. The University Center for the Performing Arts will serve as the completing piece of the Cultural District envisioned by the City of Greensburg and Westmoreland County several years ago, with the Westmoreland Museum of American Art at one corner and Seton Hill at the other, linked by the Palace Theatre, the restored Greensburg Train Station, cafes, restaurants and bookstores.

Seton Hill University, chartered in 1918, is a coeducational Catholic liberal arts university in Greensburg, Pa. with more than 30 undergraduate programs and eight graduate programs, including an MBA. Seton Hill brings the world to its students through its distinguished lecturers and nationally and internationally renowned centers. Recognized three times by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the nation’s Top 100 Entrepreneurial Universities, Seton Hill has also been named one of the Best in the Northeast by The Princeton Review and one of Pennsylvania’s Top 100 Businesses by Pennsylvania Business Central. In addition, Seton Hill has been named a University of Distinction by Colleges of Distinction, an organization founded by a group of concerned parents, educators and admissions professionals. For more information on Seton Hill please visit www.setonhill.edu or call 1-800-826-6234.