University Times

• March 11, 1958 — Pitt’s Board of Trustees approves establishment of the School of General Studies; Viers Wilson Adams is named first dean. Five concentrations are offered — humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, business and education.

• 1966-68 — Nine majors are added: English, French, geography, history, mathematics, political science, psychology, sociology and Spanish.

• 1969-70 — 14,458 students are enrolled in for-credit courses.

• 1971 — J. Steele Gow Jr. is appointed dean; Gow serves until 1983.

• 1972 — Courses begin at off-campus locations in Squirrel Hill, Mt. Lebanon and Downtown.

• 1973 — The University External Studies Program is established.

• 1974 — The College for the Over Sixty is established; local residents age 60 and over can audit University courses for a small per-course fee.

• 1974-75 — Enrollment reaches a high of 18,930 students.

• 1981 — SGS is renamed the College of General Studies.

• 1981 — The day program is added as “A selection of courses … offered on weekday mornings and afternoons for persons such as night-shift workers and mothers of school-age children.”

• 1979-81 — Community Series Informal Courses and Lectures is renamed the Pitt Informal Program (PIP).

• 1981-82 — Chancellor’s scholarship program for CGS students begins.

• 1983 — John Bolvin is appointed dean; he serves until 1994.

• 1984 — The college’s Computer Learning Center is established Downtown. Paralegal studies certificate program admits its first students.

• 1989 — The CGS general education requirements are last reviewed and changed.

• 1991-93 — Black studies, film studies and applied mathematics majors are added, for a total of 20 majors.

• 1993 — The Board of Trustees approves the charter for the College of Business Administration; the business administration/accounting degree from CGS is phased out by 1996.

• 1994 — Associate Dean Robert Comfort is named interim dean.

• 1995 — CGS offers 25 majors, five areas of concentration, eight certificate programs and approximately 600 courses per term.

• 1996 — Enrollment declines to 3,467; CGS staff is reduced from 51 to 34.

• 1996 — Robert Carter is appointed dean.

• 1997 — Jack Daniel, vice provost for Academic Affairs, is named interim dean.

• 1998 — CGS offers students the option of enrolling in the college and transferring to Arts and Sciences midway through their programs; such students graduate with an Arts and Sciences degree, while continuing to take evening and weekend courses.

• 1998-99 — The University mandates that the same degree program cannot be offered in more than one school. Duplicate majors are transferred to Arts and Sciences, reducing the number of majors in CGS to 10: the administration of justice, public service, legal studies, media and professional communication, humanities, natural science, social science, health services, dental hygiene and the self-designed major.

• 1999 — Susan R. Kinsey is appointed dean.

• 2002 — The McCarl Center for Nontraditional Student Success opens.

• 2002 — CGS is marketed as Learning Solutions, with new emphasis placed on workforce development and noncredit initiatives; the Computer Learning Center is closed and the Technology Center is established to provide training to the University community.

• 2003 — CGS reorganizes; the number of staff positions is reduced from 49 to 38.

• 2005 — The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute is established; PittOnline (courses offered remotely via web-based instruction) is launched; the University External Studies Program is discontinued.

• 2006 — N. John Cooper is appointed dean of the College of General Studies, in addition to his duties as dean of the School of Arts and Sciences; the marketing and recruiting functions and five staff members are transferred to the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid; the number of staff positions is 28. CGS is the fourth-largest undergraduate unit.

• 2007 — For the first time, more students transfer into CGS from other schools than transfer out of CGS. The Osher institute receives a $1 million endowment for exceeding 800 in enrolled membership.