Corrado named to Board of Trustees, replaces Hogsgaard

Published 1/22/98

Tucked away on Lawrence hall's fifth floor in 501G is the office for Point Park College's newest Board of Trustees member.

Dr. Joseph Corrado, health and human sciences professor, has recently been named a member of the Point Park Board of Trustees. Fittingly, Corrado was one of the driving forces that originally placed a faculty member on the board.

"Back in 1992-93, one of the board members suggested that we needed a faculty member on the Board of Trustees, and so I set in motion a committee to determine how we were going to establish this. And Mr. (Soren) Hogsgaard (professor of government and international studies) was chosen to be a member on the Board," Corrado said.

When Hogsgaard resigned from the Board of Trustees last spring, the Faculty Assembly wanted faculty nominations for appointment to the board. Corrado was one of three names selected. The other two names were Mary Turner, fine, applied and performing arts professor, and Dr. David Jones, journalism and communications professor. After being interviewed in September by both the board members and Point President Katherine Henderson, Corrado was appointed in October.

Since then, Corrado has undergone surgery limiting his participation as a board member, even though he did attend a meeting on Jan. 20. The Board of Trustees members meet every other month.

The main function of the Board of Trustees is to oversee the college, particularly it's financial aspects. "The faculty have control over circular matters. The academic process is in the hands of the faculty, but I think the financial and operational matters are the concern of the administration and the Board of Trustees," Corrado said.

Because of his personal interaction with Point Park's financial dealings, there will be times when his role will be limited on certain issues. "I would imagine there are going to be times when there is a conflict of interest for me, and I will probably be eliminated from the voting process," Corrado said.

Such issues, Corrado believes, include matters like defining the president's salary.

"The way I envision my role is to bring faculty concerns to the Board of Trustees. I'm not representing the faculty," he said. "I'm a faculty member on the Board of Trustees. Dr. (Dimitris) Kraniou, who is the president of the Faculty Assembly, represents the faculty."

For the last three years, Corrado served as chair on the Academic Personnel Policies Committee, which has been involved in revising the faculty handbook. The revised handbook has been worked on for several years and is expected to be concluded shortly, Corrado said.

"We hope to get final faculty approval by the end of January, and then it has to be submitted to the administration and we have to negotiate some of their concerns. Then it has to be presented to the Board of Trustees," Corrado said, noting that some of the biggest changes include guidelines for evaluating tenure procedures and promotions.

Other Point Park committees Corrado has served on include president of the Faculty Assembly and as a member of the Faculty Salary Task Force.

Some concerns Corrado has about Point Park, and the state of education in general, are that students today concentrate too narrowly on their interests and don't look to broaden their education while in college. Much like the students of the 1950s, Corrado said some students today view core curriculum as "another hoop they must jump through" in order to get their degree.

The concerns aren't limited to students. The overall institution of higher learning also leaves him with a question as to its existence down the road.

There's a situation occurring, and it's not just here. It's everywhere that we're beginning to look at education as just a business, and that scares me. It seems to me that education should be more than just job training, and if we simply train people for jobs we're really doing them a disservice," Corrado said.

Born in Uniontown in 1935, Corrado's original ambition was to become a priest. "At that time it just seemed like the thing to do," he said, adding that his religious upbringing as a child, especially from his mother contributed to this decision. After high school, Corrado was ordained as a priest and received his B.A. in philosophy from St. Vincent College in 1961.

He then spent seven years as an assistant pastor, spending time between several churches, and eventually becoming a Secretary of the Bishop. He left the priesthood in 1968, citing the social changes of the 1960s and '70s as one reason he left, and later received an M.A. in sociology from Duquesne University. From 1974 to 1982, Corrado worked and received his Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Pittsburgh.

Corrado came to Point Park in 1970, and since then he has taught a variety of courses including Marriage and the Family, World Cultures, Social Issues, Sociology of Sports and American Ethnic Groups. Asides from a brief, part-time teaching stint at Duquesne University, Corrado as spent his teaching career here at Point Park.

Corrado's introduction to Sociological and Philosophical studies began when he was required to take philosophy as a means to get inducted into the priesthood at St. Vincent College. Looking back, Corrado said he's glad he took that course because it provided a good background for his later studies in sociology.

1970 was also the year he met his wife, Kathleen, with whom he eventually had two children, Joseph, 26, and Marie, 22. Corrado currently resides in Pittsburgh.

Caption: Dr. Jospeh Corrado is the newest Board of Trustees member.

Click here to return to news index.