University Times

The hustle and bustle that marks the beginning of the academic year has returned: The proliferation of laundry carts and upperclass student volunteers pointing the way to newcomers and their families during Arrival Survival.

But for many at Pitt, the hazy days of summer have been anything but lazy: Facilities were renovated; faculty and staff came and went; academic programs were established.

The University Times asked deans, unit heads and others: “What’s New at Pitt?” The summaries that follow are overviews of school news based on material submitted by the units. Information previously published in the University Times was not included here.

The listings were coordinated by Kimberly K. Barlow and Marty Levine.

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The Office of the Registrar has implemented several new PeopleSoft Student System projects, including:

• My Planner, which provides students with an online place to store and organize the courses that they need to take to complete their major, and then easily move these courses into their shopping cart in preparation for their registration enrollment appointment.

• Advisee Planner, which provides advisers with an online view of their advisees’ Planner.

• Advisee Shopping Cart, which provides advisers with an online view of their advisees’ Shopping Cart.

• Class Search Default Campus, which allows University administrators to set a default campus in PeopleSoft so this does not have to be selected with each Class Search.

• Redesigned Class Search Results, which has been redesigned to be more flexible when viewed on various devices’ screens.

The office also has upgraded to a new version of the existing classroom scheduling software, which is expected to provide more efficient scheduling and analytical forecasting.

Heinz Chapel’s ensemble in residence, OvreArts, will present a free Family Weekend concert at 8 p.m. Sept. 20 featuring new compositions and familiar school songs by young composers from Pittsburgh.

The 2014 United Way Day of Caring is set for Thursday, Oct. 2.

Details on this year’s project sites, which were being updated as the University Times went to press, will be posted at www.unitedway.pitt.edu.

The classroom services unit in the Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education (CIDDE) recently acquired a 3-D printer to explore its use an instructional technology tool.

In May, Courseweb was upgraded to the most current version of Blackboard. New features include inline grading (allowing faculty to grade papers inside Courseweb, providing extensive feedback in the margin). The new version also incorporates several social media features and an improved interface.

CIDDE worked closely with Computing Services and Systems Development to test the latest version of Panopto over the summer. The new version (available now) is a lecture capture and video hosting solution.

CIDDE released a completely redesigned website in 2014. It features weekly blog updates, constantly changing educational and ed tech information, easy access to services and support and three self-help areas: Knowledgebase on Educational Technology, Teaching Support and Courseweb for Students.

The Pitt Online course LIS 2600, Introduction to Information Technologies, taught by Chris Tomer, received a Blackboard Exemplary Course Award in 2014 for the fourth consecutive year.

The course introduces students to the field of distributed computing with specific reference to applications for libraries and archives.

The Graduate School of Public Health Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences has developed a Public Health Behavior Lab, which will be led by faculty member Chris Keane.

The lab will use computerized public goods games to assess decision-making relevant to health promotion and disease prevention.

Heinz Chapel will host a renewal of vows ceremony on Nov. 22. The day includes a photo opportunity and the ceremony at the chapel followed by a reception and dinner at the Twentieth Century Club. Registration details are at www.heinzchapel.pitt.edu.

The new Learning Research and Development Center’s Kids’ Thinking Laboratory, under principal investigator Melissa Libertus, studies how infants and children perceive the world.

Libertus is examining children’s emerging cognitive skills, their early concepts of numbers and how they may contribute to later math skills, as well as individual differences among children.

The Department of Occupational Therapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences has begun an advanced practice Doctor of Clinical Science degree (CScD). Elizabeth Skidmore is program director. Students choose among areas of concentration in geriatrics; pediatrics; musculoskeletal rehabilitation; neurological rehabilitation, and pediatric practice, clinical education and professional leadership.

The School of Medicine’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation received accreditation for fellowships on both brain injury and sports medicine from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, bringing to four the accredited fellowships in the department.

The School of Dental Medicine has established a new research center, the Center for Informatics in Oral Health Translational Research. It will expand the scope of the previous Center for Dental Informatics by supporting research and education aimed at improving the delivery of dental care and patient outcomes, along with the treatment of oral and maxillofacial conditions, especially those associated with systemic health. The center will focus on improving translation of research to clinical treatments, and improving the application of high-quality evidence in patient care.

Community and Governmental Relations has set three “Be a Good Neighbor” neighborhood block party events this fall.

The North Oakland party is set for 5:30-7:30 p.m. Sept. 4 at 234 N. Dithridge Street between Bayard and Centre avenues, in partnership with the Bellefield Area Citizens Association.

The Oakcliffe and South Oakland party is set for 4:30-7:30 p.m. Sept. 10 at Community Human Services Community Center, 374 Lawn Street, in partnership with Community Human Services, the Oakcliffe Housing Club and the South Oakland Neighborhood Group.

The Central Oakland party is set for 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the Oakland Square Park on Dawson Street, in partnership with the Oakland Square Historic District Community Organization.

The events are designed to encourage positive behavior and help build relationships among students and community residents.

In conjunction with the education, engagement and enforcement aspects of the Be a Good Neighbor initiative, Community and Governmental Relations has produced a new Student Guide to Campus Life.

The 2014 guide, useful to any newcomer to the Pittsburgh campus community, has expanded sections on topics including bicycling, home weatherization, sexual assault and community engagement.

An online version is at tinyurl.com/pittguide.

Pitt innovators were awarded a record 74 U.S. patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in fiscal year 2014 for innovations developed at the University, up from 51 awarded in FY13.

Pitt’s portfolio has grown to 615 patents since the inception of the Office of Technology Management in 1996. OTM now is part of the University’s Innovation Institute.

More information about the University’s innovation commercialization and entrepreneurship activities will be available in the Innovation Institute’s 2014 annual report, which is expected to be released in late September.

The Innovation Institute’s Pitt ventures program is running full-tilt now in its effort to transform more innovations emerging from Pitt research into potential startup companies.

The team-based program provides intensive education, mentoring and business planning assistance for Pitt faculty, staff and students whose innovations have startup potential.

So far in 2014, the program has worked with 16 teams that include faculty, staff and students, in partnership with local industry, investors, entrepreneurs and regional economic development leaders.

The program is launching an internship program this fall for students interested in entrepreneurship, business and science.  It expects to hire 10-12 paid interns who will work with institute staff and mentors to provide commercial viability assessment and business opportunity development on behalf of Pitt innovators and innovations with startup potential.

The institute will introduce a student entrepreneurship initiative Sept. 4 that includes numerous educational programs, competitions and startup incubation assistance.

Activities will be open to undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students from all academic disciplines. For information, contact Babs Carryer at bcarryer@innovation.pitt.edu.

This year’s annual Iris Marion Young Awards event will take the form of a panel discussion rather than a lecture.

Organizers in the gender, sexuality and women’s studies program aim to reach a larger audience by hosting panels focused on activism and social justice. The first panel, to be held at 4 p.m. Nov. 6 in the Twentieth Century Club, will discuss race and education in Pittsburgh.

Young, a philosopher and social and political theorist, was a faculty member in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs during the 1990s, a member of the women’s studies program and an activist for gender equity, labor rights and other forms of social justice.

The awards recognize those who work to promote justice in the University, at the local or national level or across the globe.

Targeting a greater need for safety engineers in industrial settings, especially within the region’s growing energy and health care fields, the Swanson School of Engineering this fall will launch a cross-disciplinary graduate certificate program in safety engineering. Housed in the Department of Industrial Engineering, the safety engineering program will target workforce needs and will include an online format, allowing professionals to take the course either in the classroom or from any location in the world.

Under the direction of Joel M. Haight, associate professor of industrial engineering, the safety engineering program will target the region’s construction, energy, health care, manufacturing and utility sectors, among other industries. The curriculum will prepare professionals as engineers rather than safety coordinators by focusing on the industrial engineering aspects of injury prevention, dynamic engineering principles, continuous function-based/quantitative analytical methods and design principles.

The Graduate Women in Engineering Network (GWEN) has been established at Pitt to retain women in STEM fields, promote women in leadership capacities and create an official network for women in engineering.

The network has held book club discussions, a speed-networking event for faculty and students, and hosted guest lecturers. Plans include at least one book club and one seminar speaker per semester.

In addition to loaning laptops and iPads, Hillman Library now loans Kill-a-Watt electricity monitors. The Kill-a-Watt monitors also are available at the Engineering Library.

The Swanson School of Engineering and Center for Energy will host the ninth annual Electric Power Industry Conference Nov. 17 and 18 at the University Club. The theme is “Industry and Technology in Transition.” The opening keynote speaker is Morgan K. O’Brien, president and CEO of Peoples Natural Gas and Peoples TWP; the evening keynote speaker is Pitt alumnus John A. Swanson, founder of ANSYS.

Registration is free for Pitt students, faculty and staff. More information is at engineering.pitt.edu/epic.

Pitt-Titusville will offer a new associate degree program in petroleum technology this fall. Courses will be delivered on the Titusville campus through a combination of face-to-face instruction and distance education, in conjunction with Pitt-Bradford.

The two-year degree will provide students with the training they need to become qualified petroleum technologists. Students will learn how to develop and operate oil and natural gas extractions and processing facilities, discover what it takes to drill for oil and natural gas, find out how the fuels are transported to other locations, explore the principles of the petroleum industry, and learn about geology, oil field mapping, environment and safety, oil and gas chemistry and well logging interpretation.

The University Honors College began a health sciences summer research program this summer. Modeled after the Brackenridge summer research program, the new program targets Pitt undergraduate students with interests in the health sciences.

Also this summer, UHC launched its Learning Lake Initiative in partnership with Pymatuning State Park. The initiative is designed to spur curricular opportunities for Pitt students and faculty from multiple disciplines to collaborate on inquiry-based learning and applied research projects.

UHC in March began awarding $2,000 scholarships to Pitt undergraduate students who have achieved a GPA of 3.5 overall, who are in their third, fourth, or fifth year at Pitt, and who have not received scholarship aid from the University.

For the first time, faculty from the University of Wyoming joined with Pitt faculty and members of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and The National Aviary in instructing the Wyoming field study course.  The multidisciplinary field course in geology, paleontology, ecology and environmental studies has been conducted on UHC property in southeastern Wyoming each summer for the past eight years.

This fall, UHC will roll out a series of one-credit honors supplements — honors courses attached to regular, three-credit courses. These supplements provide opportunities for a subset of students enrolled in regular courses to earn honors credit through in-depth exploration of standard course content.

The cooling and electrical systems at the University’s Network Operations Center (NOC) are being upgraded to support the increased demand for research computing. The upgrade has been undertaken with sustainability in mind. “Free” cooling will be available from water chillers installed to cool high-density research computer infrastructure, and hot and cold aisles will be isolated to allow for efficient use of the equipment cooling the research infrastructure.

A new Pitt Print Station for students will be placed in Bridgeside Point, raising the total number of shared printers available to students on the Pittsburgh campus to 60. A map of printer locations is posted at technology.pitt.edu.

CSSD has added eight charging stations in Alumni Hall for smartphones and other mobile devices. Four of the Alumni Hall stations will be available for general use and four will be used for special events in the Connolly Ballroom.

Frank Dolce, a graduate student at Pitt’s Confucius Institute, coordinates the Asian Studies Center’s weekly Culture Corner, which brings together anyone interested in China, native speakers or not. The group meets 3-5 pm on Fridays at Tang’s Cuisine on Semple Street. For information, contact Dolce at FMD8@pitt.edu.

Several majors in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences have been revised, effective in the fall term:

• In the actuarial mathematics major, MATH 1120 Actuarial Mathematics 1 will be replaced with MATH 0470 Actuarial Mathematics 1 and a grade of B or better in the course will be required for admission to the major.

• In the English writing major, ENGWRT 1120 Advanced Fiction is being replaced by a 1000-level elective for the fiction track; ENGWRT 1510 Advanced Poetry is being replaced by a 1000-level elective for the poetry track, and ENGWRT 1340 Advanced Nonfiction: Long Form Narrative is being replaced by a 1000-level elective for the nonfiction track.

• The honors Italian language and literature major will require a GPA of 3.5 or higher and students must write and defend in Italian a 25-30 page research paper developed in consultation with a faculty adviser and approved by a three-member faculty committee.

• The honors Italian studies major will require a GPA of 3.5 or higher and students must submit a portfolio of their best work from core culture and upper-level courses and a 10-page formal summary and evaluation of the outcomes of their multidisciplinary Italian studies.

The gender, sexuality and women’s studies program will focus its program this year on the theme “Embodiment,” including events on black masculinity, girlhood, nature/nurture and reproductive rights.

The World History Center will host the international workshop on a world-historical gazetteer Sept. 4 and 5. The event is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The center will present a speaker series this fall on “East Asia, Eurasia and the World.” Scheduled are: Sept. 12, Alexis Dudden; Oct. 10, Michael Khodarovsky; Oct. 24, Bin Wong; Oct. 31, Peter Perdue, and Nov. 21, Nile Green.

The center will hold a conference May 8 and 9 on “Researching World History in the Schools: Nationwide and Worldwide.”

The World History Center, coheadquarters (with UCLA) of the national Alliance for Learning in World History, is cosponsoring the development of a Grade 7 course in world history in the Mt. Lebanon Schools in 2014-15, the first step in a western Pennsylvania program.

The Department of Sociology is offering a thematic cluster certificate in health, environment and technology this fall. Sociology courses within the new cluster will provide students with in-depth knowledge of the challenges and issues of these interrelated fields. To earn the certificate, students must complete three courses in the health, environment and technology grouping.

The School of Social Work has introduced an integrated health certificate program. The certificate prepares graduate social work students specializing in direct practice with the knowledge and skills necessary to work with individuals, families, groups and communities in a variety of institutional and community-based health-related settings. With a focus on leadership and advocacy, the goal of the certificate program is to increase the number of students focused on health and social work.

“Configuring Disciplines: Fragments of an Encyclopedia,” will be on display Sept. 4-Oct. 5 at the University Art Gallery. The exhibit is developed from one of the Department of History of Art and Architecture’s first “constellations” collaborative seminars, which bring together graduate and undergraduate students, the University Art Gallery and arts institutions around the city.

Students and faculty have drawn on the resources of local collections to develop a display of how various disciplines in the arts and sciences are constructed, textually as well as visually, through illustrated books, atlases, photography and other media.

Dietrich school faculty members Dan Balderston and John Beverley of the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures are organizing at Pitt an interdisciplinary symposium on the Latin American “Pink Tide,” its achievements, its failures, its legacy and the ensuing critiques.

Six academics and independent researchers from Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile, the United Kingdom and the United States, with disciplinary backgrounds including political science, economics, history, philosophy, literature, journalism and cultural studies, will participate in this two-day event set for Nov. 14 and 15.

New courses in the Department of French and Italian Languages and Literatures this fall are: “French Kiss: Love, Sex, France” and “Italian America on Screen: Beyond Scandal and Stereotype.” Both courses will be taught in English, and are designed as introductions to the fields of French/Francophone studies and Italian studies.

Beginning in January, the French and Italian department will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a year-long slate of visitors, events and commemorations, culminating in an international conference in the fall of 2015.

The German department introduced two new majors in spring 2014: German language and cultural studies, and interdisciplinary German studies.

The German language and cultural studies major allows courses such as German for Professional Purposes and German for Social Scientists to count towards the major.

The interdisciplinary German studies major allows students to enhance their study of German language and culture by earning credits in German-related courses offered in other departments.

Visit www.german.pitt.edu for details.

The Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2015.

Anniversary events will include a series of talks by graduate alumni throughout the academic year, publication of a booklet featuring submissions from alumni, and a celebration in May that will include poetry readings by alumna Ana Merino, a faculty member at the University of Iowa.

The speaker series will include a talk in September by Beatriz Gonzalez Stephan of Rice University on 19th-century Venezuelan photography and its efforts to “whiten” the Venezuelan population. Mireya Camurati, professor emerita at SUNY-Buffalo, will speak in October on Jorge Luis Borges as an intellectual poet. In February, David Gies of the University of Virginia will speak on the representation of the “indiana,” as Spaniards who made a fortune in the New World colonies and returned to Spain, in four 19th-century Spanish plays. In April, Hugo Achugar, the national director of culture in Uruguay, will speak on a topic to be determined.

Pitt is among the sponsors of the Oakland Forever community celebration, which this year will mark the 175th anniversary of the neighborhood’s identity as Oakland.

The event, set for Oct. 10 and 11, will feature live music and performances at Schenley Plaza, art and photography exhibits, lectures and symposiums, outdoor activities, family fun, an artist and craft market, historical retrospectives, food trucks and restaurant specials, plus free admission to museums and cultural amenities.

Volunteer opportunities are available. Details are posted at www.oaklandforever.org.

Pitt-Bradford and Pitt-Johnstown are featured among the best colleges in the Northeast in the Princeton Review’s 2015 listing at princetonreview.com. The campuses are among 226 institutions in 11 states plus the District of Columbia named to the “Best in the Northeast” list.

Pitt-Johnstown has developed and implemented a seven-year strategic plan, The Next Level: Distinctive Excellence 2014-2021. A steering group led several task forces in exploring the future of Pitt-Johnstown in an effort that included faculty, students, staff and community leaders.

UPJ launched a new website Aug. 4, following a yearlong redesign.

With about 4,000 individual pages, pictures, videos and other graphic elements, the project is the first major redesign of the UPJ website since 2004.

The updates focused on availability in mobile formats, ease of navigation, convenient organization of helpful content, customizable experiences and the celebration of the achievements of Pitt-Johnstown’s students, alumni, faculty and staff.

Pitt-Johnstown hosted teams from around the country and as far away as Shanghai in June for the American Society of Civil Engineers’ annual national concrete canoe competition.

Twenty-three teams of engineering students participated, including Pitt-Johnstown, which has advanced to the national competition for the past seven out of eight years.

Pitt-Johnstown alumnus Richard Bross has endowed the Bross Family Scholarship in Business. The endowment will reward business majors who have demonstrated academic excellence, who possess strength in communication and interpersonal skills, and who have demonstrated ethical leadership. Bross and his wife, Susie, gave nearly $300,000 in initial endowment funding for the scholarship and have pledged an additional $250,000.

Computing Services and Systems Development (CSSD) reports that color printers are now available to students in each of the six Pittsburgh campus computing labs.

The Pitt Mobile site (m.pitt.edu) has been refreshed, and will be available this fall in the form of free apps in both Google Play and the App Store.

The University Library System (ULS) will host a series of workshops open to the entire Pitt community this fall. The topics to be covered are PITTCat+, Google Books, Google Scholar, EndNote, Mendely and Box. Details and registration information are available at www.library.pitt.edu/instruction-services.

A wine and cheese reception for faculty is set for 4-7 p.m. Sept. 23 at Hillman Library. The event will include details on ULS programs and services that support faculty teaching and research.

ULS is adding RapidChapters to its array of interlibrary loan and document delivery services. Instead of requesting an entire print copy of a book from another library, faculty and students may request that a single chapter be sent to them electronically. Visit www.library.pitt.edu/ILL for details.

Last spring the ULS undertook a “strategic audit” of support for digital scholarship on campus. The library interviewed Pitt faculty and support staff, talked with groups within ULS, and spoke with other research libraries that have developed services in this area.

In the coming months, the ULS will be formalizing support for various areas of digital scholarship. The process of creating a physical space in Hillman Library to support these efforts already has begun.

The Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) will mark its 50th anniversary with celebrations on Sept. 12 that include an early afternoon welcome to former center directors and a late afternoon reception to be followed by a reservation-only dinner with dancing.

The widow of former Pitt faculty member and ULS Latin-American bibliographer, poet and artist Eduardo Lozano has donated 27 of his paintings for silent auction during the anniversary gala.  Proceeds benefit CLAS’s Eduardo Lozano Prize. The paintings can be viewed at www.ucis.pitt.edu/clas/sites/www.ucis.pitt.edu.clas/files/web-EDUARDO_LOZANO_PAINTINGS.pdf.

A CLAS conference,“Reforming Communism: Cuba in Comparative Perspective,” will be held Nov. 6-9 in Posvar Hall. Fourteen speakers, coming from as far away as Cuba and the United Kingdom, will address topics including leftist politics in Latin America and Europe, reforms in health and social welfare, arts and literature, gender and sexuality, and race and society.

The Center for Russian and East European Studies was awarded 21 Department of Defense-funded Project GO (Global Officer) scholarships for ROTC students from across the nation to study intensive Russian language at Pitt’s Summer Language Institute (SLI).

Ten students took beginning or intermediate-level classes at Pitt, while 11 advanced-level students went abroad to Narva, Estonia — a Russian-speaking city on Russia’s border. An additional 28 Project GO scholarship recipients funded by other universities — Indiana University, San Diego State University, University of Texas-Austin, University of Mississippi, and Virginia Tech — also enrolled in Pitt’s SLI Russian courses.

The Slavic and East European SLI added a Near Eastern component to its language offerings with an intensive eight-week Arabic course this summer. SLI plans to add Persian next summer. The Near Eastern language courses are cosponsored by the Global Studies Center.

Two new study abroad programs to Africa are being launched for summer 2015.

Pitt in South Africa is a five-week program based at the University of Cape Town. Students will study South Africa’s history, contemporary literature and social entrepreneurship efforts. Students can take up to six credits and can fulfill two foreign culture requirements.

Designed for graduate students and some undergraduates, Pitt in Zambia offers the opportunity to complete research and data collection in connection with the USAID-funded Read to Succeed Project, which strives to improve student performance in the public school system with a specific focus on reading and math in the early grades.

The program is a cooperative effort among the School of Education, the African studies program and Study Abroad, as well as the Institute for International Studies in Education and the University of Zambia.

The School of Information Sciences is offering two new certificates of advanced study in security assured information systems (SAIS) and big data analytics. The certificates are available at the post-bachelor’s and post-master’s levels. Courses will begin to be offered online for the SAIS certificate in spring 2015.

Also at the school, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has funded a new doctoral fellowship program for information sciences students worldwide who are working on digital projects designed to enhance scholarly productivity and enrich teaching. The $726,000 award will support 10 “iFellows” who will supplement the work of the Committee on Coherence at Scale with independent dissertation research. The committee was formed in 2012 by the Council on Library and Information Resources and Vanderbilt University to examine emerging national-scale digital projects and their potential to help transform higher education in terms of scholarly productivity, teaching, cost-efficiency and sustainability.

A four-year, $1.2 million partnership between the Swanson School of Engineering Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and The Lubrizol Corp. will give engineering students the opportunity to learn about industry needs and to develop ideas and products in the Lubrizol Innovation Laboratory in Benedum Hall. Students will be able to access the program as sophomores.

Lubrizol is an Ohio-based specialty-chemical company that serves customers in the global transportation, industrial and consumer markets. Its technologies include lubricant additives for engine oils, other transportation-related fluids and industrial lubricants, as well as fuel additives for gasoline and diesel fuel. In addition, Lubrizol makes ingredients and additives for personal-care products and pharmaceuticals and manufactures specialty materials, including plastics technology and performance coatings in the form of specialty resins and additives.

This spring, Pitt-Greensburg faculty member John Prellwitz, associate professor of communication, and graduating seniors Nathan LaSor, Alicia DiPaolo and H. Camdon Porterfield collaborated with Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Shoulder to Shoulder to film the documentary “Think Small” in Honduras.

The documentary, which has five-minute, 30-minute and 45-minute versions, highlights the work of Shoulder to Shoulder brigades composed of U.S. medical students and medical residents who provide health care in San Jose del Negrito, Honduras, through a partnership with the San Jose Health Committee.

The five-minute version can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjqpAQDJMuk.

The documentary was produced through Pitt-Greensburg Media, a collaborative effort of faculty, students and staff that seeks to provide hands-on experience in digital media.

Pitt-Greensburg has been awarded $700,000 from the R. K. Mellon Foundation to support critical technology infrastructure improvements, including a network infrastructure upgrade.

Wireless PittNet will be available this fall in all student residential areas at Pitt-Greensburg as the campus finishes deployment of its residence halls wireless project.

For the first time, Pitt-Greensburg live-streamed its commencement ceremony via the Internet. Anyone desiring to view the ceremony from their personal computer, tablet computer or smart phone was able to log onto www.greensburg.pitt.edu/graduation/live to watch.

Pitt-Greensburg’s Village Coffeehouse now features a “Proudly Brewed Starbucks” and expanded hours that will have it open when the Wagner Dining dinner service ends. Later in the term students will be able to use their meal plan there.

In addition, UPG’s dining services has added three commuter declining balance meal plans.

Pitt-Greensburg has two new majors: a BS degree in public policy that draws on courses in philosophy, political science, economics, statistics and communication, and a BS in Spanish education that augments the early childhood education major and secondary education major and prepares students for certification as public school Spanish teachers.

Pitt-Greensburg’s manufacturing management program has become a certificate program. Initiated in 2013, the program is designed for workers who have technical training in manufacturing and have been identified by their employers as candidates for future leadership roles. It provides courses in management and related areas most relevant to current work experiences and allows the 24 credits earned to be applied toward a bachelor’s degree in business management. Classes meet one Friday and Saturday a month, with students taking two courses per semester for four semesters.

The Graduate School of Public and International Affairs has added an energy and environment major as part of its MPA program. The major addresses the policy implications of energy and environmental issues both within western Pennsylvania and around the globe. As new technologies generate billions of dollars from the extraction of unconventional gas, creating thousands of new jobs, controversies have stemmed from issues ranging from the environmental impacts of fracking to the optimal mode of taxing the extracted gas.

The business school has initiated a new campaign, “From the Classroom, to the City, to the World” for its undergraduate program. The new brand articulates how undergraduate business students will obtain a well-rounded education geared toward real-world business experiences that demand student action, engagement and exposure to a variety of issues that affect the current market.

See the brand video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaHGi6_PoUk&list=PL5P7qxDYXHlb-IAJOReYoiwrmgFMg_2kO.

The business school is launching a nine-credit undergraduate honors program this fall for Bachelor of Science in business administration students. Details are at www.cba.pitt.edu/academics/honors.php.  The business school also has created its own version of the Outside-the-Classroom curriculum. The program, which has 10 different categories, will track the progress of students who complete extracurricular activities that contribute to their development into well-rounded business professionals.

The University’s classroom management team has designed AV credenzas for the Nationality Rooms.

The credenzas will hold a flat-panel screen and other technology-based teaching aids and exteriors will be customized to fit the decor of each room. The new furnishings are in place in the French and Lithuanian rooms, with installations in the Chinese, Greek, Italian and Norwegian rooms to follow.

The Nationality Rooms received a 2014 certificate of excellence and are featured among the top attractions in Pittsburgh on tripadvisor.com.

The Nationality Rooms website www.nationalityrooms.pitt.edu has been updated with a new format that features better photographs and clearer narrations.

The Health Sciences Library System will host the National Library of Medicine’s traveling exhibit “And there’s the humor of it:  Shakespeare and the four humors,” Sept. 29-Nov. 8 in Falk Library.

Two lectures are planned to complement the exhibit content. Gail Kern Paster will present “William Shakespeare and the Four Humors:  Elizabethan Medical Beliefs” at 6 p.m.  Oct. 2 in 1105 Scaife Hall, followed by a reception in the library.  Robin Maier will present “A Clinician Looks at Shakespeare and Medicine” at 6 p.m. Oct. 21 in Scaife Hall lecture room 5.

Read Green is having an effect on paper use in Mailing Services. In fiscal year 2014, nearly 1.24 million pieces of paper were saved by those who used Read Green.  The electronic delivery option for University mailings reduced six tons of paper waste, saved 102 trees, spared 18 cubic yards of landfill space and conserved 42,000 gallons of water, according to Mailing Services.

In addition, 2,280 gallons of oil were conserved, 360 fewer pounds of air pollution was added to the environment and 24,000 kilowatts of energy were saved.

Tapingo.com or the Tapingo mobile app can be used to pre-order coffee or lunch for pickup at many dining facilities on the Pittsburgh campus. The app allows users to pay with campus funds or store a credit card for payment.

Tapingo can be used to order at: Cathedral Coffee; Cathedral Café; Old World Deli; Cathedral Cafe: Hometown Favorites; Cup and Chaucer; Common Grounds at Pitt; Einstein Bros. Bagels in Benedum and Posvar halls; Cafe Victoria; Bunsen Burner, and Cafe at the University Store on Fifth.

Panther Central is adding an online chat feature to enable users to ask questions live online with a customer service representative.

Incoming freshmen were able to use the RoomSync Facebook app to search for a compatible roommate. Students created a profile then searched other students in their network. Once the students mutually requested and accepted each other, the information was sent to the Housing database for assignment.

The University now is offering 12-month housing in Tower A (for freshmen) and Tower C (for upperclassmen), so students can contract to stay in the residence halls over the winter and summer recesses.

Pitt Panthers football will kick off its 125th season this fall. Three-game mini-packages are new this year.

Faculty and staff are eligible for a 20 percent discount on season tickets with payroll deduction payment plans available.

Call 800/643-7488 or visit pittsburghpanthers.com/facultyandstaff for details.

The School of Education launched a redesigned Doctor of Education (EdD) program this summer in response to student needs as well as to a national emphasis on distinguishing PhD programs, which prepare researchers, from EdD programs, which train professional educators for higher-level positions.

Graduates will be prepared to be leaders in K-12 schools and institutions of higher education in the U.S. and abroad; ministries of education and health; international nongovernmental agencies; community-based organizations; research and development institutes; health care organizations; health and human service agencies, and the government.

The three-year program is cohort-based with clear timelines and milestones; coherence in courses, including specifically designed research methods courses; and executive and hybrid course delivery structures to accommodate the needs of working professionals.

Areas of concentration are: special education; language, literacy and culture; science, technology, engineering and math; education leadership; higher education management and social and comparative analysis in education.  Additional areas for health and physical activity and applied developmental psychology are to be added in fall 2015.

An interdisciplinary aspect allows students in various areas of focus to work together and introduce different ways of thinking. The program also provides opportunities to engage within Pennsylvania through projects, internships and research seminars.

Pitt-Bradford has launched a virtual campus tour. The tour also is optimized for mobile devices and is GPS integrated, making it easier for first-time visitors to get around while on campus. The virtual tour provides a prompt when visitors with a mobile device are near a particular location. They then can access that stop on their device to learn more.

Each of the 20 stops features photos, links to more information and video narration by a UPB student. Some stops include academic-related videos or 360-degree panoramic photos. Visitors can navigate the tour by choosing stops from a menu, or by clicking on an interactive map that will zoom in on the stop and launch the student narration. In addition to highlighting on-campus locations and activities, other tour stops focus on off-campus opportunities in Bradford and on regional points of interest.

The tour can be viewed at tour.pittbradford.org.

Pittsburgh campus shuttle service riders have seven new buses: Four 20-passenger buses, two 43-passenger buses and a new disability vehicle are being added to the fleet.

In addition, Buffalo-bound students traveling via Buses Home for the Holidays will have a new stop at the Kmart, 2055 Walden Ave., Cheektowaga, New York.

The Katz Graduate School of Business’s full-time MBA program offers its graduates the highest immediate return on investment (ROI) of any program in the United States and the 19th highest ROI worldwide, according to a recent report by The Economist. The Katz MBA yields a 42 percent ROI one year after graduation, according to the report.

The Financial Times found the Katz two-year MBA program yields a 132 percent increase in salary.

The Dietrich school’s College in High School program has added two courses: Intermediate Latin: Prose, and American Politics. These offerings bring to 18 the number of courses offered through regional high schools.