NEWS & VIEWS: FROM THE CHANCELLOR

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Welcome to a New Academic Year!

August 24, 2007

During a recent business dinner in New York City, I was approached by the former president of one of the country’s most respected universities. At an early point in our discussion, he looked at me and earnestly asked, “What have you people at Pitt been doing? Your university always has been a good one, but your progress over the last several years has been amazing. Everyone has noticed and is talking about it.”

I share that exchange with you now for three related reasons. First, you are the “people at Pitt” to whom my dinner companion referred. It is your efforts, in the many forms they have taken, that have helped propel Pitt ever higher within the ranks of America’s finest universities. For that, everyone who cares about our University should be grateful. Certainly, I am grateful, and, therefore, I begin this message with a heartfelt expression of thanks.

Second, my dinner companion served as a reminder that people who are focused on pushing forward often do not take the time to reflect on how far they already have traveled. Our trip together has been extraordinary. Looking back at just the last year, some of the milestones that we reached stand as telling symbols both of our current momentum and of our sustained strength—bursting through the billion-dollar mark in our capital campaign, celebrating the 220th anniversary as a frontier academy, and marking the 70th birthday of the Cathedral of Learning by launching the initiative to preserve our unique and inspiring signature structure.

Looking back over the course of the past several years, advances worthy of celebration—in terms of the accomplishments of alumni, faculty, staff, and students and also in terms of significant measures of institutional achievement (some of which are highlighted below)—have become increasingly frequent. That should be a source of great satisfaction to all who have contributed to our collective progress.

Finally, the progress we have made carries with it both opportunities for future successes that would not be attainable in a less well-positioned institution and an obligation to do all that we can to build on our shared legacy by taking full advantage of the rapidly expanding potential of Pitt.

That, in a way, takes me back to my first point: that it is you—the talented, committed, and ambitious people of Pitt—who have fueled our past progress, and it is your work that will provide the foundation of our ongoing efforts to build a University that becomes increasingly well known for even higher levels of quality and impact.

I look forward to pursuing that noble and never-ending goal in your company and do extend my very best wishes for what I hope will be a wonderful new academic year.

‘What Have You People at Pitt Been Doing?’

In the broadest sense, we have been working to advance the aspiration adopted by our Board of Trustees: to “establish that this is one of the finest and most productive universities in the world.” This year’s The Top American Research Universities report, issued by the Center for Measuring University Performance, provided welcome confirmation of our progress by placing Pitt in its very top cluster of public research universities—with Berkeley, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, UCLA, and Wisconsin. That clustering is tied to performance across nine measures—total research, federal research, endowment, annual giving, national academy memberships, faculty awards, doctorates granted, post-docs appointed, and SAT scores. The following overviews provide a further sense of Pitt’s progress in some of these areas.

Enhanced Student Body Strength

In 1995, the freshman class on our Oakland campus was drawn from an applicant pool of fewer than 8,000 and had an average SAT score of 1110, with 19 percent of class members ranking in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating classes. This fall’s freshman class, which was drawn from an applicant pool of nearly 19,000, currently is projected to have an average SAT score of 1248, with 48 percent of class members ranking in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating classes. Making those significantly enhanced academic credentials even more impressive is the fact that we also increased the size of our Oakland-based freshman class by more than 40 percent — from about 2,400 to more than 3,400 — during that same period.

A Dramatically Expanded Research Base

Our annual research expenditures have grown from about $230 million in 1995 to more than $620 million this past fiscal year. We currently rank 7th among all U.S. universities in terms of the National Institutes of Health grants awarded to members of our faculty and 11th in terms of total federal science and engineering research and development support. Reflecting our general momentum, we continue to climb in both rankings.

Remarkable Forms of Recognition

Since 1995, Pitt students have captured two Rhodes Scholarships, six Marshall Scholarships, four Truman Scholarships, four Udall Scholarships, and 29 Goldwater Scholarships — clearly underscoring the fact that nurturing high-achieving students has become one of our defining institutional characteristics. Pitt faculty members have been elected to membership in such prestigious organizations as the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the World Academy of Art and Science, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Faculty members also have received a broad range of highly distinguished awards, including the National Medal of Science, the Andrew Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award, the Mott Prize for Cancer Research, the MetLife Foundation Award for Medical Research, and the Chauvenet Prize in Mathematics.

Significant Growth in Funds Raised and Invested

In 1995, we attracted less than $40 million in total voluntary support. By last year, that total had tripled to more than $120 million. In 1995, the value of our endowment stood at about $460 million. At the end of the last fiscal year, it had grown to $2.2 billion, nearly five times that earlier amount. Much of that growth can be tied to our capital campaign, which has passed the $1.1 billion mark, but Pitt also has been ranked among the country’s most successful universities in managing its money. The return on our endowment during the past fiscal year exceeded 21 percent, adding well-deserved luster to that reputation, just as it has added significantly to our privately generated resource base, which has become more essential as public support for higher education has lagged and as Pitt has begun to compete directly with a stronger and better-financed group of universities.

From the Chancellor

Fiscal 2009 Operating Budget
August 19, 2008

United Way Campaign
October 15, 2007

Welcome to a New Academic Year!
August 24, 2007

Budget for the New Fiscal Year
July 25, 2007