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WHEREAS, founded in 1787 and established by the act of the General Assembly that year, the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) has evolved from humble origins in a log cabin into an internationally recognized center of learning and research; and
WHEREAS, Pitt is the oldest continuously chartered institution of learning in the United States west of the Allegheny Mountains, and has been a State-related university since 1966; and
WHEREAS, Since 1995, Pitt undergraduates have won multiple prestigious scholarships, including four Rhodes Scholarships, and have been a leading producer of Fulbright scholars, placing in the top 20 of all universities in the number of student scholars; and
WHEREAS, Pitt has been ranked in the top cluster of our nation's public research universities for the fifth consecutive year, and Kiplinger's and the Princeton Review have ranked Pitt as a “best value” in public higher education; and
WHEREAS, “Saviors of Our Cities 2009: A Survey of Best College and University Civic Partnership” ranked Pitt second overall, and the top public university in the nation, as a “Best Neighbor” for positive impact on its urban community; and
WHEREAS, Pitt employs more than 13,000 people at its Oakland campus and Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown and Titusville regional campuses and currently enrolls more than 26,000 Pennsylvania resident students, and 294,000 Pitt alumni are now residing in this Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, Pitt has earned further recognition for its Pitt Panthers athletic teams and its broad array of education and cultural programs and health initiatives; and
WHEREAS, Pitt is among the nation's and the world's most active research institutions as evidenced by its more than $800 million in annual research expenditures and its ranking in the top five schools in the amount of National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding, which supports 28,000 local jobs and provides a tremendous return on the Commonwealth's investment in Pitt; and
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