Three alumni elected to Board of Trustees

Pitt’s Board of Trustees elected three distinguished University alumni to their… Pitt’s Board of Trustees elected three distinguished University alumni to their membership during a public meeting Friday morning at the William Pitt Union.

During the meeting, Sam Zacharias, chairman of the Board’s Nominating Committee, proposed a resolution confirming Dr. Jack Smith, David Chavern and Brent Saunders as new members of the Board. Current members of the Board unanimously approved the resolution.

The Nominating Committee’s resolution comes after several meetings earlier this year in which the committee reviewed candidates for the Board of Trustees. During a public meeting held on June 13, the Nominating Committee endorsed the recommendations of Smith, Chavern and Saunders.

All three of newly-elected members of Pitt’s Board of Trustees received undergraduate degrees from Pitt and hold prominent positions in their field of business.

Chavern, a 1983 Pitt graduate, serves as vice president of the United States Chamber of Commerce. He’s also a member of President Barack Obama’s advisory committee for trade policy and negotiations.

Smith, who received his M.D. from Pitt’s School of Medicine, formerly served as president of Pitt’s Alumni Association.

Saunders, a 1992 Pitt graduate and former Student Government Board president, currently serves as president of Bausch &  Lomb, one of the world’s largest producers of eye and healthcare products.

The Board of Trustees also re-elected the Board’s chairman, Stephen Tritch. Zacharias commended Tritch for his dedication to the University.

“Your dedication and commitment to the University serves this Board exceptionally well, and we look forward to your continued leadership,” Zacharias said.

In addition, the Board approved the appointment of Eva Tansky Blum and Marlee Myers as vice chairpersons for the 2012-2013 school year. Myers and Blum will succeed Suzanne Broadhurst and Robert Hernandez who have served on the Board since 2003 and 2006, respectively.

Before presenting Broadhurst with a plaque honoring her contributions to the Board, Tritch lauded Broadhurst and Hernandez’s work as vice chairpersons, a position he said came with an ambiguous job description.

“As I have said on numerous occasions, our vice chairs really make significant contributions to the Board’s effectiveness,” Tritch said. “They do a lot of things behind the scenes. They cover some of the meetings that we’d like to have extra coverage on, take on special assignments.”

In the last two items of new business, the Board approved a resolution electing Hernandez and fellow Board member Michael Bryson to the University of Pittsburgh Trust’s Board of Trustees as well as appointing Board member Robert Paul  to the University Director of UPMC’s Board of Directors.

Board Member John H. Pelusi also reviewed capital projects approved by the Board of Trustees over the last year. Specifically focusing on additions made to laboratories on the third floor of the Chevron Center, Pelusi said the project cost approximately $2.63 million and generated 20 on- and off-site construction jobs.

Before the meeting, Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg highlighted the work of Pitt’s faculty, staff and students, while placing special emphasis on the work of the Pitt police over the past year.

“Let me begin by saying that I have the strongest feelings of respect, affection and gratitude for the University of Pittsburgh police,” Nordenberg said. “In fact, that sounds a little formal; in past occasions, I’ve said I loved the University of Pittsburgh police and meant it.”

Following Nordenberg’s dedication to the Pitt police, Tritch presented a plaque to each officer who was on location during the March 8 shooting at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. John Shick, 30, shot six people, killing one, before a Pitt police officer fatally shot him.

Nordenberg also dedicated a large segment of his introduction to honoring the accomplishments of Pitt students and faculty, focusing primarily on the University’s accomplishments between the years of 1995 and 2012. He said in 1995, the average combined math and reading SAT score of incoming freshman was 1100. This year, he said, the average was 1280.

Nordenberg also noted the large number of student and faculty who received academic awards, including Cory Rodgers, a 2012 Pitt graduate who received the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

Before closing his speech, Nordenberg honored the resilience and unity of Pitt’s student body. Using Pitt’s commencement ceremony as an example of what he called the “Pitt Community,” Nordenberg said the string of more than 100 bomb threats and the Western Psych shooting last semester united people associated with the University.

“This community came together in a literal sense at commencement,” Nordenberg said. “That ceremony always is special, but this year’s stood out. The Petersen Events Center was packed with people who would make the decision that no one was going to keep them from celebrating this major milestone in the lives of our graduates.”