As NFL Draft nears, Point Park aims to turn location into opportunity
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Point Park is leaning into its label as Pittsburgh’s “downtown university” ahead of the crowd expected to converge near its campus for the NFL Draft.
But how exactly does a school well known for performing arts and career preparation capitalize on football frenzy? The answer mostly has to do with proximity, university administrators said.
President Chris Brussalis told Public Source that hundreds of Point Park students will be working or volunteering for the three-day event, something they’re only able to do because classes will be online all week.
“We wanted our students to be able to take advantage of this opportunity,” he said about the decision to go remote.
Administrators said around 30 of those students will be working as street ambassadors for VisitPittsburgh and helping orient guests using AI chatbots. VisitPittsburgh spokesperson Alex Kenzakoski said draft organizers “are still working out the details of their potential involvement,” adding that the NFL expects around 40 colleges and universities from across the country, including the University of Pittsburgh and Robert Morris University, to support the event in ways that haven’t yet been finalized.
On campus last week, students expressed mixed feelings about the event and whether the school would benefit from being close by.
“I think it’ll help for brand awareness. I don’t know if it’ll actually help with a positive or negative sentiment against the school, depending on what the school is doing,” said senior Harmony Sheftall. “But if we stay out of it and we just use our signage, I mean, I don’t think it could hurt us.”
What Point Park students had to say about the NFL Draft
“I love chaos, so I’m really excited for all of the people to be around, and maybe I’ll meet some new friends when I’m out and about.” — Emma Boyles, first year
“I’m probably not going to want to leave my apartment.” — Katelyn Gentzler, junior
“The city is putting way too much money into something that will last three days, instead of fixing the things that are actively hurting its citizens.” — Melanie Petroski, first year
“It’s kind of cool because there will be a lot going on around town and I’ll just have to be online for classes. The only thing that will probably suck is the buses being down for some parts.” — X’aire Huger, first year
“I just don’t think anything major is going to happen because of it. I think we’ll get a little recognition, like, ‘Oh, a college super close to it!’ Maybe some people will check it out because it’s right here … that’s really it.” — Megan Edney, first year
“I’m more happy to be out [of town]. As long as they don’t have people here throwing money around, I won’t get much FOMO [fear of missing out].” — Kyle Sibaja, sophomore
The draft is arriving at a ripe time for the university, which has grown its enrollment by 10.5% (from 3,299 to 3,648) since Brussalis arrived in 2023. In the past year alone, the school has restructured its performing arts conservatory, added more athletic offerings and announced it’s likely to take over the former YWCA building on Wood Street.
Brussalis said the goal with all of these changes is simple: “We want to be one of the most dynamic urban universities in America.”
This is why the school is all-in on the development of downtown Pittsburgh, and why it’s rooting for the draft’s success in pitching the city to newcomers.
“It all is going to have some direct and indirect benefit,” said Ted Black, a senior vice president at Point Park. If people walk away with a good impression of Pittsburgh, those opinions could potentially reach prospective students.
It is a hard sell, though. The draft likely isn’t bringing in high school juniors, and there’s scant evidence showing that higher ed institutions benefit from large-scale sporting events. Public Source reached out to seven schools in the last two draft host cities, and three said they didn’t have data on the impact, but said students worked and contributed to the event in various ways.
Mayor Corey O’Connor, who has been vocal about attracting new residents, sees the draft as a chance to market all the city has to offer, universities included.
Carnegie Mellon University and Pitt tend to dominate the city’s higher ed conversation.
As part of the city’s push to stake its claim as a premier AI and robotics hub, CMU will be co-hosting an AI showcase next week with the Steelers in an attempt to woo investors to take a chance on Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, a Pitt Athletics-hosted block party celebrating the draft will christen Downtown’s Arts Landing. (The Community College of Allegheny County, with its main campus close to the NFL Draft’s North Shore activities, is holding classes remotely but didn’t indicate other involvement.)
The presidents of Pitt and CMU were included in the city’s organizing committee for the draft, as well as CCAC’s president and a Duquesne University official. Notably absent is Point Park — despite its close location — but the exclusion isn’t of much concern to administrators.
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Scenes from Point Park University’s campus on March 26. (Photos by Alex Jurkuta/Pittsburgh’s Public Source) -
Scenes from Point Park University’s campus on March 26. (Photos by Alex Jurkuta/Pittsburgh’s Public Source) -
Scenes from Point Park University’s campus on March 26. (Photos by Alex Jurkuta/Pittsburgh’s Public Source) -
Scenes from Point Park University’s campus on March 26. (Photos by Alex Jurkuta/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)
“The fact that we weren’t on an organizing committee doesn’t mean that we’re not engaged and continue to engage and to be supportive of [the event],” Black said.
Asked about Point Park’s role in the upcoming event, O’Connor said in a statement to Public Source that the university was “integral” in launching a trash clean-up effort across college campuses in the region, helping “redd up” the city before the draft.
Leading this kind of effort exemplifies why Black describes the future of Pittsburgh and the future of Point Park as “intertwined,” adding that “they cannot be separated.”
“We don’t have an agenda that’s independent of the city,” he said. “The city succeeds, we succeed. We succeed, the city succeeds.”
Maddy Franklin reports on higher ed for Pittsburgh’s Public Source, in partnership with Open Campus, and can be reached at madison@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Rich Lord.
This article first appeared on Pittsburgh’s Public Source and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
