University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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resources to keep in the rat-race of academia. there still remains the question of regionalism. I)r. Wesley Posvar, newly-appointed chancellor, has said the University’s most important function is to use its resources for the good and welfare of the region. Mis concerns plus the drop in out-of-state students have given many lingering thoughts about Trolley-Car U. Both Posvar and Dean of Student Affairs, Jack Critchfield have asserted the benefits of the regional concern. Posvar says the regional concern will only Ik one. though a primary one, focus of the school’s resources. Critch-ficld feels the priority given in-state students will not lower, but raise the quality of the student body. These men are helping the University maintain a precarious balance on the tight-rope of state-rclatcdness. The State of Pennsylvania must receive compensation for its funds by priorities to in-state students and community affairs. Faculty and students must feel they are in an academically above-average school. All wait on the sidelines to see how the challenge is met. Meeting the challenge now means meeting the community in unity. William Rea. new Chairman of the Board of Trustees, remains an active member of the civic wing of the Pittsburgh Board of Education. He and the newly-appointed trustees bring the governing board even closer to state and local concerns. Carnegie Tech President H. Guyford Stcvcr has already met several times with Dr. Kurtzman. Their new vision may be to change the concrete streets of Oakland into pulsating arteries of Knowledge. A short man with graying hair came slowly walking down Forbes Avenue one morning. He was clad in a well-tailored grey-flannel suit, a hat neatly placed on his small head, and a business man’s demeanor painted over him. As he passed a student meandering to class he gave a short friendly smile like a patriarch watching one of his children grow another inch. The man was David Kurtzman. Me was Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh. It was that image of the benevolent parent which he conveyed during his tenure. He summed it up in his commencement address by giving thanks to the students for the knowledge they had exchanged. During his stay as Vice-Chancellor of Finance and Chancellor, Kurtzman earned the reward of a bounty hunter. Fiscal soundness had 10

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Two years ago Pitt made the big-time. Headlines flashed in local and national publications about the dissolution of Edward Litchfield’s pipe dream. Science magazines ran a meticulously researched series on the causes of the fiscal problems. The flash was short, not sweet, and the past two years have been spent in quiet austerity. Dr. David Kurtzman came from the Eels Institute in Philadelphia to apply his financial wizardry. He and a corps of diehard University administrators and state legislators created the University of Pittsburgh in the Commonwealth System of Higher Education. State-related became the by-word of the new Pitt with guaranteed state funds reducing tuition costs for students and giving the University privied access to state resources. Now the University lias made the transition from the Litchfield era to the state-related era. The question remains— What next? Throughout the fiscal crisis there were continued worries about declining academic status. Talk grew of the reincarnation of a street-ear University geared solely to concerns of, by, and for Western Pennsylvania. Good academicians would then leave the University to produce automatons to fill the region’s needs. Yet the staunchest support during the crisis came from the faculty. Although some left the University, administrators said there was not much variance from the normal turnover rate. Salaries have since been made secure and a number of departments have begun vigorous expansion of programs and faculty. While the University has the

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 I alluded Pitt, threatening its image as an academic institution. He systematically sought out the culprits and secured a financial base from which to grow. Dr. Kurtzman, a political scientist specializing in public finance, took the role of the diplomat in addition to re-aligning the school’s finances. He dealt effectively with faculty, students and community leaders in all required situations. His heir now need not worry perpetually about being on the brink of financial disaster. I)r. Wesley Posvar can use the brinksmanship of a polished diplomat to develop a vital Pitt under statc-rclatcd-ncss. He also is a political scientist with an arm-length list of military and academic honors. His primary concerns as Dean of the Social Sciences at the Air Force Academy were strategy and decision-making. In physical stature Posvar resembles more the stern, disciplinary parent with heavy curling eyebrows and grim macing face. Yet Dr. Posvar faces a different, but equal challenge to that of Dr. Kurtzman. He must now learn to walk the streets of Oakland. n