University Times

Pitt Chancellor J. Dennis O'Connor has been elected vice chair of the Business-Higher Education Forum and will become a member of the executive committee. As vice chair, O'Connor will automatically become chairperson of the business forum in 1996.

Founded in 1978 by the American Council on Education, the Business-Higher Education Forum is composed of selected chief executive officers of major American corporations, colleges and universities. Its purpose is to identify, review and act on issues of mutual concern; to enhance public awareness of those concerns, and to help guide the evolution of cooperation between corporations and institutions of higher education.

Among the forum's corporate members are Harold Poling, retired chairperson and chief executive officer of the Ford Motor Co.; Irvine D. Hockaday Jr., president and chief executive officer of Hallmark Card, Inc., and Thomas G. Labrecque, chairperson and chief executive officer of The Chase Manhattan Corp.

Academic members include the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Cornell University, Vanderbilt University, the University of California at Los Angeles and Princeton University.

When O'Connor assumes the forum chair in 1996, he will become the second Pitt chancellor to hold the position. No other university in the country has obtained that distinction. Retired Pitt Chancellor Wesley Posvar served as the forum chairperson from 1980 to 1982.