All University Times back issues now available online

By MARTY LEVINE

More Pitt history has just come online: The entire run of the University Times, beginning with its first issue in December 1968, has been digitized by the University Library System (ULS) and is now available here and here.

While issues from 2006 to the present have long been available on this very website, issues from 2005 and before had yet to be scanned and rendered searchable. ULS is still determining how to combine the two batches of University Times issues onto one site.

The newly scanned issues, volumes 1-37, comprise 4,666 pages. The front page of the first issue shows that much has changed at Pitt since 1968. There is news of a faculty vote to determine whether the ROTC should continue its role on campus; how “student power” should be expressed in University governance; and on the formation of the Black Action Society. It also features a photo of Chancellor Wesley W. Posvar in an asbestos suit for protection as he lights the Homecoming bonfire

And it shows how little has changed, featuring reports on University funding levels and the annual Christmas party, and news that the football coach had quit and Pitt would be looking for a new one. It would be five more years until Johnny Majors signed on for his first stint here to lead Pitt to a national championship.

Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.