University Times

Machine tool manufacturer Agie Limited has donated a rare machining tool, one of only 14 in the world, to the Manufacturing Assistance Center at the School of Engineering for use in its training and cooperative manufacturing programs. The AGIECUT 200VHP wire EDM (electric discharge machine), valued at more than $500,000, removes metal from extremely hard […]

Three more Nationality Rooms — Filipino, Turkish and Latin American/Caribbean — are in the early planning and fundraising stages, and could be dedicated as early as 2008. Among the Cathedral of Learning's 26 existing Nationality Rooms, the conception-to-completion record was set when the Indian Room opened in January 2000, eight years after initial fundraising began. […]

University staff with degrees may join the procession of faculty and graduating students at the University's annual commencement convocation on Sunday, April 29, 2001. The ceremony begins at 2 p.m. at Mellon Arena, Downtown. Those in the procession must wear academic regalia, which can be ordered from The Book Center. Prices are as follows: — […]

Oakland isn't the only Pitt campus where numbers and academic credentials of freshman applicants are increasing. Freshman applications likewise are up at most of the University's four regional campuses. That includes "direct applications" from students who apply directly to a regional, as well as applications forwarded through Pitt's Options program, which encourages students rejected by […]

Neil Birks, professor emeritus in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, died March 8, 2001. He was 65. Birks had been a member of the materials science and engineering department since 1978. He was acting chair from May 1988 to August 1989. He served on the Pitt International Program committee and the University Senate […]

David Satcher, Surgeon General of the United States, will be the keynote speaker at the University's 2001 commencement ceremonies to be held on April 29 at 2 p.m. at Mellon Arena, Downtown. Satcher was sworn in as the 16th U.S. Surgeon General in February 1998. He served simultaneously in the positions of Surgeon General and […]

Karl Oermann, chairperson of the University's Department of Health and Physical Education in the School of Education from 1957 to 1974, died March 14, 2001. Oermann, 85, had suffered head injuries after falling at his Mt. Lebanon home last week. "He was a mentor to generations of athletes and health educators," said Kenneth Metz, former […]

The continuing decline in the proportion of tenured and tenure-stream faculty here does not threaten academic freedom, nor does it mean Pitt's administration lacks commitment to tenure, Provost James Maher told Senate Council on March 12. Responding to a report by the Senate's tenure and academic freedom committee, Maher attributed the decline to various factors, […]

No incumbents will be elected as University Senate officers for next year, it's safe to say. Senate President Nathan Hershey of the Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) currently is serving his third consecutive term, the maximum allowed by Senate bylaws. Vice president Carol Redmond of GSPH and secretary Audrey Murrell of the business school […]