# Pennsylvania Western University, Edinboro

Pennsylvania Western University, Edinboro (abbreviated as PennWest Edinboro) is a campus of Pennsylvania Western University in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, United States. The campus had an enrollment of 2,259 as of fall 2024.

## History

Edinboro University was founded as the Edinboro Academy, a private training school for Pennsylvania teachers in 1857, by the region's original Scottish settlers. It is the oldest training institution west of the Allegheny Mountains and the second-oldest in Pennsylvania.
Edinboro initially consisted of a modest two-story building, including six classrooms. The school began with three instructors, 110 students, and a principal. That original building Academy Hall is currently used as the undergraduate admissions office.
In 1861, the Edinboro Academy affiliated with the state government of Pennsylvania to become the second State Normal School in Pennsylvania, occasionally known as the Northwest State Normal School.
In 1914, the state purchased the school from the original stockholders and renamed it the Edinboro State Normal School.
By 1927, the advancement of academic programs to include liberal arts study required the school to rename itself Edinboro State Teachers College. Further development of the liberal arts to include degree programs outside the field of education resulted in Edinboro becoming Edinboro State College in 1960. Continued development of undergraduate liberal arts programs and advanced graduate degrees earned Edinboro university status in 1983, and was known as Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.
In July 2021, the university was officially merged with fellow Western Pennsylvania institutions Clarion University of Pennsylvania and California University of Pennsylvania. On October 14, 2021, the state officially adopted the new name of the combined universities: Pennsylvania Western University.

## Campus

The campus is located 18 miles (29 km) from Erie, Pennsylvania and within 5 miles (8.0 km) of the educational and population centers of McKean, Waterford, and Albion. The main campus has 42 buildings on a 585-acre (2.37 km$^2$) campus which includes a 5-acre (20,000 m$^2$) lake, open fields and woods, 11 on-campus residence halls (Highlands 1~8, Rose Hall and Earp Hall (used for summer sports camps) and Towers (only one being used currently)) for approximately 2,500 students, and the seven-story Baron-Forness Library. Edinboro University offers 150 degree programs and 57 minors. The student-faculty ratio is 18:1.
In 2007, the university announced a plan to build dormitories for $115 million. The Highland Complex had eight halls, with the first four beginning operations in 2008 and 2009 and the remainder doing so in 2010 and 2011. They opened at a time when enrollment peaked. By 2022 enrollment had sharply declined and Edinboro University was merging with other universities. That year the university announced that Buildings 7 and 8 of the Highland Complex were to be sold; at the time the two buildings had no students.

## Athletics

Edinboro University offers 17 varsity sports: women's basketball, cross country, lacrosse, volleyball, swimming, soccer, softball, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track and field, and men's football, wrestling, cross country, basketball, swimming, tennis, wheelchair basketball, and outdoor track and field. All but the wrestling and wheelchair basketball are NCAA Division II programs and members of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. Wrestling competes on the NCAA Division I level, and as of the 2019 season will no longer actively compete against Division II level PSAC wrestling programs as a result of their new affiliation with the Mid-American Conference in wrestling. Its wheelchair basketball team competes in the NWBA Intercollegiate Division.

## Notable alumni

Alumni and attendees of Pennsylvania Western University include politicians such as L. C. Hughes (governor of Arizona Territory), Milton W. Shreve (member of the U.S. House of Representatives), and several members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives; academics such as Robert Carothers (president of University of Rhode Island) and Eugene Eubanks (professor at University of Missouri–Kansas City and leader of school desegregation efforts); artists and entertainers such as photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier, Train singer Pat Monahan, and actress Sharon Stone; and Vicki Van Meter who at age 11 was the youngest aviator to fly across the continental United States.