University Times

George W. O'Bannon, director of Pitt's Office of International Student Services from 1968 to 1975, died of lymphoma Oct. 2, 2000, in Tucson, Ariz. He was 64. In 1971, O'Bannon organized an exchange program between Pitt and Afghanistan's University of Kabul, with funding from the U.S. State Department. An authority on oriental rugs, particularly those […]

Pitt targeted about 20,000 donors and potential donors to invite to the Discovery Weekend events, which the University is offering free-of-charge. About 1,500 accepted the invitation. According to Carol A. Carter, "We like to get the donors closer to campus to see the academic programs, and see students and faculty interact, to get a tangible […]

As part of Discovery Weekend, the University will honor 33 alumni as the inaugural class of Legacy Laureates, a new program developed to recognize alums for their personal and career achievements. They will be honored at a ceremony on Friday. Members of the group represent an array of disciplines, including business, medicine, journalism, law, government, […]

The Pitt Campaign Chronicle, a new weekly publication, began appearing this week in campus building lobbies and in mailboxes of alumni, trustees, major donors to the University, community and business leaders, legislators, government officials and the news media. Campaign Chronicle publisher Robert Hill, Pitt's executive director of Public Affairs, said the 8-page, four-color weekly will […]

Acknowledging a large number of computer network disruptions and system failures during this academic term, the provost has recombined two administrative units serving Pitt's computer network systems. In an Oct. 24 memo to deans, directors and department heads, Provost James V. Maher said that for the immediate future he was "eliminating the separate organizational boundaries […]

Nathan Davis seemed fated to be a jazzman. Born into a musical family in the jazz hotbed of Kansas City, Kan., in 1937, he grew up two blocks from where legendary alto saxophonist Charlie Parker lived; the two families knew each other. Davis's mother urged him to take up the clarinet, a relatively inexpensive instrument, […]

Major funding for several capital campus improvement projects moved a step closer to approval this week. The Board of Trustees property and facilities committee Oct. 24 okayed seven separate projects on or near the Pittsburgh campus. The committee must approve all University construction projects in excess of $1 million. Upon approval, the committee informs the […]

The current system of scholarly publishing "is in collapse. It's just a matter of how many years it will continue," University Library System (ULS) director Rush G. Miller said at the Oct. 18 University Senate fall plenary session, "Are Scholars Under Siege? The Scholarly Communication Crisis." Another panelist, Provost James V. Maher, said: "I don't […]

Are printed scholarly journals doomed to extinction? University Library Systems (ULS) director Rush G. Miller thinks so. In most scholarly disciplines, the transition to electronic-only dissemination of research findings probably will come within the next decade, Miller predicted at the Oct. 18 University Senate fall plenary session. Economics will drive the change, he said. "It […]

Provost James V. Maher said the latest revision of U.S. copyright law, as originally drafted, gave him nightmares of waking up one morning to find that the Disney Corp. had gained exclusive rights to the dictionary. Maher was exaggerating. Slightly. The original legislation, which Congress rejected, threatened to give publishers control over university-produced research to […]