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New banners hanging in all of Pittsburgh's public high schools are designed to remind students that they can get tuition assistance to attend Penn State in McKeesport as part of the "Pittsburgh Promise."

The signs were the idea of Glenn Beech, interim director of student affairs at Greater Allegheny Campus. According to Beech, 24 students are currently receiving about $98,000 in benefits to attend the local Penn State campus through the program.

Funded by grants from private donors, the Pittsburgh Foundation and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the Promise guarantees that students who attend a Pittsburgh public high school for four years and maintain grade and attendance standards can receive grants of up to $5,000 per year to attend one of more than 200 colleges and universities in Pennsylvania. (Promise funding kicks in after students have received any applicable federal and state educational grants.)

The money may be used for tuition, books, mandatory fees, or room and board.

The banners are part of a continuing awareness campaign by the McKeesport-based campus to remind local high school students that Penn State has a presence in the Pittsburgh area.

"We're fortunate to have so many students come to Penn State Greater Allegheny from the Promise," spokeswoman Linda Curinga says.

In all, 79 students are attending Penn State campuses with the help of Promise funding, according to published reports.

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More from PSGA: Michelle Hough, an associate professor of business administration at Penn State Greater Allegheny, has received a Fulbright grant to teach at the University of Malta.

Hough is blogging about her experiences at Penn State's website.

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Professor to Lecture on Urban Violence: Penn State's campus in McKeesport next week will host an internationally known expert on life in American cities.

Yale University sociologist Elijah Anderson will be here Tuesday to talk about the causes of street crime and the high homicide rate among African-American teens and young adults.

Anderson's talk --- "Why Are So Many Young Black Men Killing Each Other?" --- is slated for 7 p.m. in the Robert and Elizabeth Ostermayer Room at the Student Community Center.

The event is free and open to the public.

Anderson joined Yale in 2007 and currently serves as the university's William K. Lanman, Jr. Professor of Sociology. He earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern in 1976 and previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania.

Considered one of the nation's top scholars of urban society, Anderson's 1978 book A Place on the Corner: A Study of Black Street Corner Men is regarded as a classic in the field.

Tuesday's talk will focus on research Anderson developed while writing his 1999 book Code of the Street: Decency, Violence and the Moral Life of the Inner City.

For more information, call (412) 675-9052.