University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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OAKLAND By Maggie McKay A siren cuts I he early morning stillness, an ambulance rushes through the sleepy Oakland streets. It's 6a.m.. the beginning ol an ordinary day. The air is crisp and clean, still easy to breathe. A lew people stir restlessly in their beds, check alarm clock, groan softly and roll over lor another hour or two of sleep. The silver TAT buses rumble slowly down Fifth Avenue, the few passengers within them stare out the grimy windows at the empty sidewalks. 7 a.m.i traffic |ams the intersections. The city is awake, but just barely. The streetlights flash red. yellow, green cars race past them. Yellow lights flash damn. Drivers curse and speed through them, trying to beat the red light. Have to get downtown early or they'll never find parking places. A lone pedestrian dodges between PAT buses and sport cars, to sleepy to worry about being run over. 7 J0 a.m.i joggers hit the Oakland pavements on their way to Schenley Park of the Fitzgerald Field House. They are obscenely alert. Crazy people. The early morning commuters standing wearily at bus stops look at the runners with dull amazement. A person must be crazy to exercise so early in the morning. 8 a.m.i sunlight threatens to break through the cloudy skies. Students straggle out of their apartments and dorm rooms, books under their arms. Its a long one block walk to the Cathedral of learning for classes. They shake their heads. Classes before 10 a.m. should be outlawed. Students jam the streets not bothering to check out the traffic before they cross. Most drivers are Oakland veterans and patiently bide their time, motors idling. Other drivers irascibly honk horns and shout out their windows. Students ignore them. They're late for class. By midmorning the Oakland area is crowded. Students in jeans rush past Oakland residents the elderly people sweeping the sidewalks in front of their apartments. men on the corner selling newspapers or unloading truck, and the bag ladies the little old women who seem eternally rooted to the corners of Forbes clutching heavy battered brown bags with plastic handles. Lunchtimei The student has souk time to kill. The Student Union rec room has stopped serving its donuts and coffee. Burger Chef is too crowded. It's either eat in the cafeteria or head to one of the many fast food shops down the street. . . . walking down the street, he stops to talk to a friend. Time passes. It's only a half hour till the next class. Should he bother with lunch or just skip class? Seated at the Pancake Kitchen or Gustincs. he surveys the menue At 2 p.m. he steps out into the glaring Oakland sunlight. It hadn't seemed so sunny earlier. He blinks rapidly and shifts his books from one arm to the other while stepping over the inevitable puddle or pile of trash on the sidewalk. Where to now? The student heads toward Hillman library to do some reserve room reading. What a pain in the neck ... By -4 p.m.. he’s going crazy. By 4.10. he's back out on the streets. Maybe he'll head toward the Student Union to meet friends, or belter yet. back to the dorms for a nap. Rush hour traffic clogs up the streets again. The same motorists rush back from downtown. The traffic lights flash red. yellow, green Drivers smile and hum songs along with the radio. The day's over. They're going home . . . In a few hours the streets darken, but the flow of pedestrian traffic doesn't slow down. It's time for Happy Hour in the local bars. For some Happy Hour lasts until 3 a.m.. but even when the bars close, the streets don't empty. Don't some people ever sleep? Lights are still burning in dormitory rooms as students struggle to finish reading that last chapter in Political Science or Economics ... By 4 a.m.. most of the lights are doused and the streets settle down to a relative quiet... But all too soon, it's 6 a.m. . . sirens scream, buses roll, students groan. It's a brand new day in Oakland.

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THE UNIVERSITY After almost two centuries of development, the University of Pittsburgh has become a major institution of higher education serving the people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the nation. Private, state-related, and non sectarian. Pitt today is a complex of 16 schools. 97 departments. 34 special centers, and four regional campuses serving outlying regions of Pennsylvania at Greensourg. Johnstown. Bradford, and Titusville. The Pittsburgh campus consists of 53 buildings on 135 acres of land, dominated by the Cathedral of Learning, a historic landmark and. at 43 stories, the tallest school building in the country. Under the leadership of Wesley Wentz Posvar. who became the University's 15th Chancellor in I967. Pitt has experienced a period of extraordinary growth in the past fO years. In that period. University enrollment has more than doubled to its present 35. XO students. Full- and part-time faculty numbering 3.900 leach more than 836.000 credit-hours each year. While striving to conserve traditional values of scholarship through outstanding teaching and research, the University has also oriented its efforts towards public service and solutions to the problems of an urban environment and an international society. New schools and programs added in the past 10 years reflect these added dimensions the School of Health Related Professionsi new research centers such as the University Center for Urban Research, and the University Center for International Studies) special centers such as the Center for Arms Control and International Security Studies, and the Pennsylvania Ethnic Heritage Studies Center and the develop ment of interdisciplinary studies and programs, such as the consoli 12