There'll be no more complaints at Pitt about honoring "great Americans" with a holiday in March. The University officially has renamed its day off during spring recess, Spring Holiday. Elizabeth Baranger, vice provost for Graduate Studies, said the name change is permanent. "The holiday will still be the Friday during spring recess," she said. Spring […]
ENERGY: Facilities Management takes harder look at big-ticket item >
May 2nd, 2002With utility bills running more than $14 million a year on the Pittsburgh campus, Pitt is getting serious about its comprehensive energy plans, according to the associate vice chancellor for Facilities Management. Citing what she referred to as "the intricacies of energy management," Ana Guzman reported last month on a multi-pronged approach to coping with […]
If it's a lock, it's a safe bet Roy Watters can open it >
May 2nd, 2002No safe is safe from Roy Watters, as he proved again last month. Watters, a master machinist whose fulltime job for 22 years has been making scientific instruments for Pitt's chemistry department, was named the second-fastest safecracker in the world during a contest at the Safe and Vault Technicians Association convention in Reno, Nev. The […]
China exaggerated economic growth, prof's research shows >
May 2nd, 2002While neighboring countries have struggled to recover from the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, China has been claiming economic growth rates of 7 percent or better in recent years. But a Pitt economics professor says those claims are exaggerated — so much so, that China's growth since 1997 may have been only 40 […]
Who stands to lose? >
May 2nd, 2002Who stands to lose from China's exaggerated reports of economic growth? Probably not U.S. and other foreign investors, according to Pitt economist Thomas G. Rawski. "Many foreign firms invest in China because it's part of their global business strategy," he s aid. "They need a presence in China, and they don't pay much attention to […]
Off the beaten path: Hiking is serious business for physics prof >
May 2nd, 2002The word "professorial" comes to mind when you see Richard H. Pratt in his Allen Hall office, catching up on some reading while munching a banana, at a desk stacked with physics journals and floppy disks. The emeritus professor's unruly, thinning gray hair droops low across his forehead, one strand obscuring his eyebrows. He's wearing […]
Employees can still sign up for long-term care insurance >
May 2nd, 2002It's official: Pitt will begin providing its employees optional, long-term care insurance at group rates beginning July 1, now that the required 5 percent of eligible staff and faculty have signed up for the plan. Some 9,600 employees (including full-time and tenured part-time faculty, and regular full-time staff working at least 18.75 hours per week) […]
Clinical educator training program started >
May 2nd, 2002Pitt's medical school has approved the new degree-granting Clinician Educator Training Program (CETP), designed for fellows and faculty in general medicine, sub-specialty medicine, pediatrics, family medicine and psychiatry whose career focus is medical education and clinical teaching. CETP has three components: (1) core courses plus observed teaching activities focusing on adult learning, enhancing classroom and […]
May 4 recycling sale to benefit Pitt program >
May 2nd, 2002A recycling sale will be held from 1 to 6 p.m. May 4 at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill to support Pitt's LINCS community-building project and other non-profit groups. Items can be donated from noon to 5 p.m. tomorrow, May 3, in front of the William Pitt Union. The sale is the brainchild […]