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 […]
Pitt Campaign Chronicle: new weekly publication created to celebrate University's accomplishments >
October 26th, 2000Computing problems prompt reorganization >
October 26th, 2000Acknowledging 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 […]
ONE ON ONE: Nathan Davis >
October 26th, 2000Nathan 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, […]
Funding for several major campus projects moves closer to approval >
October 26th, 2000Major 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 […]
SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING: Is the printed journal doomed? >
October 26th, 2000The 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 […]
SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING: Economics expected to force transition to electronic publishing >
October 26th, 2000Are 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 […]
SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING: Interpretation of copyright law could threaten fair use >
October 26th, 2000Provost 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 […]
SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING: No single villain, but commercial publishers said to be the "bad guys" >
October 26th, 2000"It would be a mistake to think there is some demon we can kill and everything will be okay" with scholarly publishing, Provost James V. Maher said at the Oct. 18 University Senate fall plenary session. The problems go beyond skyrocketing journal costs to the root of scholarship and university values, the provost said. For […]
Pitt expert in wireless technology sees logic in University's reliance on hard-wiring of its computers >
October 26th, 2000Stroll the Carnegie Mellon University campus and you'll see students and professors sitting outside on benches, eyes riveted on their laptop computers as they check e-mail, search library catalogues or browse the Web. You may even spy small groups of robots roaming the campus; they're part of a CMU research project that's laying groundwork for […]