The article titled "Campuses Face Threat of Closings" published in The Daily Collegian on Feb. 9 has fueled rumor and innuendo among the campus community at McKeesport Campus.

JoAnne E. Burley, campus executive officer, said, "It is unfortunate that this story has generated undue concern among students, faculty, staff and constituency organizations affiliated with Penn State McKeesport. Our campus community has worked very hard to maintain the very highest standards for teaching, conducting undergraduate research and establishing an environment conducive to learning. Our energies have been, and will continue to be directed toward providing a variety of educational services in Allegheny County."

To paraphrase a quote from Will Rogers -- rumors of our death are greatly exaggerated.

The McKeesport Campus sits in the heart of the Monongahela Valley, formerly a booming industrial center, south of Pittsburgh. Allegheny County now has the greatest decline in the number of high school graduates in the nation.

During recent years McKeesport Campus has made a deliberate effort to strengthen the student body's quality and diversity. Although there has been a recent decline in enrollment, our total credit hours have stabilized.

In our attempts to strengthen the academic quality of the student body, we encourage the more capable student. We have reduced our number of provisional and nondegree students. In doing that, our enrollment figures are less than what they could have been. The decline has been primarily with the part-time student population. Our full-time student population is solid.

Emphasis has been retention and recruitment of quality baccalaureate students and on partnering with organizations to deliver customized degress and programs including associate degrees in electrical engineering technology initiative; associate degree in business administration at Westinghouse headquarters and PEPP, Penn State Educational Partnership Program. The student activities program is ongoing with a variety of programs offered throughout the year.

The McKeesport Campus Alumni Society is the strongest in the Commonwealth Educational System. Professionals come back to the campus more than once a month to be involved in campus life. For three-consecutive years the McKeesport Campus has won the CES award for Best Alumni Relations.

Noting what we have faced in our community with Allegheny County and its decreasing high school graduates, the steel industry's collapse along with other heavy industries historical to our service area, and the loss of state appropriations, it has been a time of conscientious retooling.

McKeesport Campus continues to move forward with vision. During the past five years there have been significant physical plant improvements, the completion of a $1 million scholarship endowment campaign, enhanced public image and the intiation of new academic programs.

The campus is confident it will continue to serve the needs of the greater Pittsburgh area as it has for the past 60 years and our effort will enable us to emerge as a stronger institution.