coffee tree, Kentucky

coffee tree, Kentucky, common name for the plant species Gymnocladus dioica, a tree of the family Leguminosae (pulse family) and native to the E United States. The seeds of the woody pods have been used as a substitute for coffee.

Chatham University is an American liberal arts women's college with coeducational graduate programs located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Shadyside neighborhood. The campus population of approximately 1,900 includes undergraduate women and graduate women and men. The University grants degrees including certificates, bachelor, master, first-professional, and doctoral. In 2005 the University expanded its programs to include online degrees through the School of Continuing Education.

History

Founded as the Pennsylvania Female College on December 11, 1869, by Reverend William Trimble Beatty, Chatham was initially situated in the Berry mansion on Woodland Road off Fifth Avenue in the neighborhood of Shadyside. The campus today is composed of buildings and grounds from a number of former private mansions, including those of Andrew Mellon, Edward Stanton Fickes, George M. Laughlin Jr. and James Rea. It was renamed Pennsylvania College for Women in 1890, and as Chatham College in 1955. The name served to honor William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham and namesake of the City of Pittsburgh. The school gained university status from the Pennsylvania Department of Education on April 23, 2007 and publicly announced its new status on May 1, 2007, changing its name to Chatham University.

With elements designed for the original Andrew Mellon estate by the renowned Olmsted Brothers, the 35 acre Chatham campus was designated an arboretum in 1998 by the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta. It features over 115 different varieties of species, including Japanese Flowering Crabapple, River Birch and Kentucky Coffee Tree. The Arboretum provides an outdoor classroom for students in the University’s Landscape Architecture and Landscape Studies programs, as well as an inviting place to stroll and to meditate.

In May 2008, the university received a gift in the form of a 470-acre farm. The Eden Hall Farm, donated by the foundation of the same name, is being used by the school as a living laboratory and to address issues of environmental sustainability.

Academics

The University structure includes three distinctive Colleges: Chatham College for Women houses academic and co-curricular programs for undergraduate women and embodies the traditions and rituals of the traditional women's college. The College for Graduate Studies offers women and men both masters and doctoral programs. Programs within the College for Graduate Studies include concentrations in art and architecture, business, health sciences, teaching and creative writing. The College for Continuing and Professional Studies, formerly the School of Continuing Education, provides online and hybrid undergraduate and graduate degree programs for women and men, certificate programs, and community programming including the Summer Music and Arts Day Camp.

Accreditation

The University is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, the American Chemical Society, the Pennsylvania Department of Education teacher certification program, the American Physical Therapy Association, the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs, and the Council on Social Work Education.

Mission statement

Chatham University prepares its students, bachelors through doctoral level, on campus and around the world, to excel in their professions and to be engaged, environmentally responsible, globally conscious, life-long learners, and citizen leaders for democracy. The women’s undergraduate program offers superb career preparation informed by the liberal arts; other entities within the University provide men and women with undergraduate, graduate, professional, and continuing education of the highest quality with primary emphasis on preparation for work and the professions.

Notable alumnae

Among Chatham's notable alumnae is biologist and zoologist Rachel Carson (1929), after whom the Rachel Carson Institute at Chatham is named. The RCI, as it is known, promotes understanding of environmental issues through conferences, lectures, discussion panels, and other methods. In honor of Rachel Carson's legacy, the College President, Esther L. Barazzone, Ph.D. and others led a campaign to rename the Ninth Street Bridge in Downtown Pittsburgh as the Rachel Carson Bridge. The naming resolution was passed by Allegheny County Council on December 6, 2005. The Rachel Carson Bridge is one of the "Three Sisters" Bridges, opened between 1926 and 1928, and designed by County architect Stanley L. Roush and the Allegheny County Department of Public Works. The Roberto Clemente Bridge (formerly Sixth Street Bridge) and the Andy Warhol Bridge (formerly Seventh Street Bridge) complete the trio of bridges. They are the only trio of nearly identical bridges and were the first self-anchored suspension spans built in the United States. They are among the only surviving examples of large eyebar chain suspension bridges in the country.

Some notable alumnae include:

• Hon. Louise DeCarl Adler '66, judge, U.S. Bankruptcy Court
• Lena Goldberg '71, executive vice president and general counsel, Fidelity Investments
• Rachel Carson '29, biologist, zoologist, environmentalist and author
• Syada Greiss el Daief '59, member, Egyptian Parliament; chair, Association for the Protection of the Environment
• Nancy Jardini '85, chief of criminal investigation, Internal Revenue Service
• Barrie Karp '64, visual artist and college philosophy professor
• Brenda Marsh '76, vice president of author relations, Barnes & Noble
• Cynthia Montgomery '74, Timken Professor of Business Administration, Harvard University
• Mildred Morrison '67, executive director, Area Agency on Aging
• Heather Johnston Nicholson '65, director of research, Girls Inc.
• Kathie L. Olsen '74, Ph.D., deputy director of the National Science Foundation
• Gloria Goodwin Raheja '71, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology and Global Studies, University of Minnesota
• Laurel Rice '72, first vice president, Morgan Stanley
• Elaine Scarry '68, Ph.D., author and Harvard University Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value
• Georgena Terry '72, president, Terry Precision Cycling
• Gaye Torrance '77, president, Torrance LLC
• Lea Wait '68, author of mystery novels, and children's books set in Maine
• Hon. Lesley Brooks Wells '59, United States District Judge
• Jodi Leese Glusco '93, Web journalism pioneer Managing Editor, WRAL.com, Raleigh, NC

Points of interest

• Chatham College Arboretum

References

External links

• Chatham University official website
• Map of Chatham University campus
• Chatham University College of Continuing and Professional Studies
• Rachel Carson Institute at Chatham University
• Pennsylvania Center for Women, Politics, & Public Policy at Chatham University
• M.F.A. in Creative Writing
• The Fourth River: Chatham University's Literary Journal

In 2007 Chatham University's Creative Writing M.F.A. program was named one of the top five Innovative/Unique Programs by The Atlantic Monthly.

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