Despite entering one of the worst job markets in years, those of the Pitt-Greensburg Class of 2009 who’ve maintained relationships with the university report a 96 percent placement rate in jobs or grad school, according to the university. Still, most students have not yet landed their dream jobs. Or even jobs that put their degree to use.

“What happened last year and what may still continue to happen this year is they’re finding positions, but it’s not ultimately what they want to be doing — kind of something in the meantime,” says Beth Tiedemann, director of Career Services.

Every year, a new group of fresh-faced high school graduates enter the college life. Whether they are far from home or commuting from home, there are some things that every freshman should know.

The iPad: Marketing gimmick or useful college technology?As part of its “Griffin Technology Advantage” program, neighboring Seton Hill University will provide each of its first-year undergraduate students with a 13” MacBook laptop and an iPad. The program, which starts this fall, was formally announced less than a week before the iPad hit the market.

So, are students at Pitt-Greensburg jealous of their neighbors on top of the hill?

Even though Pitt-Greensburg doesn’t offer a studio arts program, the campus is still full of creativity from both students and faculty. The Visual Arts Society is displaying that creativity with the exhibition “Art in Perspective: A Survey of Creativity” in the Smith Hall lounge.

VAS members decided to hold the show when they learned the communications department had decided to discontinue its annual art show in Village Hall.

“We really wanted to show the art on campus,” president Jeremy Holdorf said. “It’s important to show the diversity of the campus.”

This year’s Pitt-Greensburg Writers Festival will feature readings and lectures from renowned authors as well as works from campus students, alumni and faculty.

The festival begins today, Monday, and runs through Friday.

Festival director Lori Jakiela has organized the festival since its inception in 2001. Jakiela said she hopes the festival will continue to foster a sense of community among Pitt-Greensburg writers past and present.

“This is the first year we’ve brought back our alumni,” Jakiela said. “Pitt-Greensburg breeds this community of students who I taught seven or eight years ago who are still in touch with each other.”

The Pitt-Greensburg Writers Festival begins today, Monday, at 7 p.m. All of the events will be in the Village Hall coffeehouse. Here’s the schedule of events.

• Monday will feature faculty and alumni authors. Faculty authors Judith Vollmer, Stephen Murabito, Richard Blevins and Lori Jakiela will be joined by alumni writers Tim Gebadlo, Shane Duschack, Meghan Tutolo, Joseph Reed and Adam Matcho.
• Kim Chinquee will hold a craft lecture at noon and a reading/book signing at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
• Sherrie Flick will read on Wednesday.
• Poets Gerald Stern and Anne Marie Macari will be the featured writers on Thursday.
• Joseph Bathanti will give a craft talk at noon and a reading at 7 p.m. to close out the festival on Friday.

Amanda Raczkowski, 30, and her husband Joseph Reed, 28, of Pittsburgh are more than just UPG alumni with degrees in English Writing. They have taken their love of literature and desire for something bigger to create Caketrain, a literary journal and publisher based out of Pittsburgh. Since it’s founding in 2003, it has reached both national and international writers and doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. Reed is scheduled to read today, Monday, at the UPG Writer’s Festival. He was invited by faculty member Richard Blevins. Rachel Kuskie talked with both Raczkowski and Reed for this Q&A to preview the reading.

One page into Gary Lutz’s book Stories in the Worst Way, I was astonished by his use of language and the element of ambiguity included throughout his work. His writing made my mind spin, questioning every word in every sentence. And that’s exactly what Lutz, a Pitt-Greensburg writing professor, intends. He is the writer of many pieces of short fiction, including single stories and books which compile them. Sitting in his cluttered office, decorated with stacks of paper, Lutz is the kind of brilliant that doesn’t seem forced, but rather intended, quite like the way he writes. As I interviewed him for this Q&A, I tried to understand his perception of writing and being a writer. Lutz invited author Kim Chingquee to participate in this week’s writers festival, and he will introduce Chingquee at her reading Tuesday night at 7 in the Village Hall coffeehouse.

— Kirstin Kennedy

For most students, spring break is a weeklong vacation. For members of the Pitt-Greensburg chapter of Habitat for Humanity, most of spring break was spent in Walton County, Fla., building a house for a family who can’t afford to buy one.

The students were joined by advisors Dorothy Zilic, Tanya Conde and Bryan Valentine. Zilic and Conde drove to and from Florida. Valentine helped Habitat for Humanity President John Ritenour plan the trip with Habitat International.

“It’s definitely a very uplifting experience to know you’re building a house for someone who needs it,” Ritenour said. “It’s self-rewarding to know you’re giving back.”

While students might have enjoyed three days off due to the snow two weeks ago, for professors a snow day is something entirely different. It means lost time, having to rework the course syllabus and deciding how to proceed.

“It means I have to trim a little bit,” said Dr. David Seward, part-time classics professor. “I’m leaving out things I find interesting but aren’t necessary to the course.”