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University of Pittsburgh

Volume 34 Issue 18

New SIS dean named >

May 16th, 2002

A national leader in information technology and digital library initiatives has been named dean of Pitt's School of Information Sciences (SIS), effective July 1. Ronald L. Larsen, 55, executive director of the Maryland Applied Information Technology Initiative, where he directs the activities of a consortium of 10 Maryland universities, will succeed Toni Carbo, who has […]

Feature,Volume 34 Issue 18

Same-sex partner health benefits inevitable, committee says, but urges University not to offer them now >

May 16th, 2002

Eventually, the University should offer medical benefits to its employees' same-sex partners — but doing so now "would not be prudent," Pitt's special committee on domestic partner health insurance benefits has advised. After 10 months of study, the committee concluded in a report to Chancellor Mark Nordenberg that "there is no simple solution" to the […]

Feature,Volume 34 Issue 18

Senate election produces tie for VP >

May 16th, 2002

Economics professor James H. Cassing has been re-elected to a second one-year term as president of the University Senate. Josephine E. Olson of the Katz Graduate School of Business has been elected as the group's new secretary. Their terms begin July 1. Voting for the Senate's vice president resulted in a tie between incumbent Thomas […]

Feature,Volume 34 Issue 18

Faculty elected to Senate committees >

May 16th, 2002

The following faculty members have been elected to three-year terms on standing committees of the University Senate: Admissions and financial aid — Otto L. Graf, education; G. Lance Lugar, University Library System (ULS), and Sheel M. Petel, pharmacy. Anti-discriminatory policies — Eric O. Clarke, Jane Feuer and Richard C. Tobias, Faculty of Arts and Sciences […]

Feature,Volume 34 Issue 18

Senate surveys part-time faculty >

May 16th, 2002

Part-time faculty who responded to a University Senate survey expressed a high degree of satisfaction with physical resources at the Pittsburgh and regional campuses (secretarial support, access to departmental computers and mailboxes) and moderate-to-high satisfaction with academic support (such as departments providing adequate grading guidelines, and matching teaching preferences with course offerings). Respondents were less […]

Feature,Volume 34 Issue 18

SAC to fill officer position next month >

May 16th, 2002

The Staff Association Council (SAC) will fill the office of vice president for communications next month in a special election. SAC vice president for communications Audrey Portis, who had been serving out the term vacated by a retiring staff member, has left the University. The position will be filled next month during a special election, […]

Feature,Volume 34 Issue 18

Turning the tables: The importance of student evaluations of faculty varies >

May 16th, 2002

For most academic units at Pitt, the term is over, exams are completed, students' grades are in. Now, the tables have turned and most faculty are awaiting "grades" from their students. As a matter of institutional policy, faculty at Pitt regardless of rank are required to be evaluated by their students at least once a […]

Feature,Volume 34 Issue 18

Turning the tables: How the evaluation process works >

May 16th, 2002

Deep in the recesses of the Cathedral's ground floor, four Pitt staffers and their boss, surrounded by half-stuffed campus envelopes, long for the day this month when the Mailing Services delivery truck will collect their term-long bookkeeping efforts. On the first day of each term, the Office of Measurement and Evaluation of Teaching (OMET), mails […]

Feature,Volume 34 Issue 18

Turning the tables: Students want access to evaluation results >

May 16th, 2002

Where's the student in student evaluations of teachers? Over the years, Pitt students have insisted that evaluations simply fall into a black hole. In 1998, for example, then Student Government Board (SGB) President Alyson Wallach complained about the evaluations to the University Senate, "We want to know how, who and why. Who is looking at […]

Feature,Volume 34 Issue 18

Some Pitt faculty salaries gain, some drop slightly in AAU poll >

May 16th, 2002

Average salaries of Pittsburgh campus librarians ($48,600) and assistant professors ($56,600) during the 2001-2002 academic year gained ground slightly over the year before, compared with salaries at other Association of American Universities (AAU) schools. Full professors' average pay here ($95,800) ranks about the same as it did the year before, compared with AAU peers. But […]

Feature,Volume 34 Issue 18