TIME

Thursday, Aug. 7 – Christian Bryan Jones, a Pitt engineering student, died in a car accident… Thursday, Aug. 7 – Christian Bryan Jones, a Pitt engineering student, died in a car accident just after midnight. He was driving home from visiting friends at a camp outside Philadelphia, and wrecked when he swerved after almost falling asleep at the wheel, according to his friend, Brian White, who was not in the car.

Wednesday, Aug. 20 – Donald Love, 31, was shot in the head at about 1 a.m. in a house in the 3200 block of Ward Street. Love was not a resident in the South Oakland house, which is on a street populated by college students and older residents, about a 10-minute walk from campus.

Sunday, Aug. 31 – Police found the body of Bryant Gurley, 19, of Hazelwood, just after midnight in Joncaire Park, a playground near an area of South Oakland that houses many Pitt students. Gurley had been shot to death. Although the coroner’s office could not confirm a time of death, they believe Gurley died less than 24 hours before 12:27 a.m. on Aug. 31.

Friday, Sept. 5 – Pitt quarterback Rod Rutherford was formally charged with simple assault and indecent assault, along with summary criminal mischief, after an incident in the parking lot behind a Station Square bar. James Wymard, Rutherford’s attorney, denied the charges and was upset with the indecent assault charge.

Saturday, Sept. 6 – One person was shot outside a house on Semple Street in Oakland. The victim, who did not live in the house and is not a Pitt student, was shot in his right bicep. After hitting his arm, the bullet went into his chest.

Monday, Sept. 15 – Pitt chemistry professor Dr. Rex Shepherd, 57, died in his home. His death resulted from a heart condition, according to the city coroner’s office.

Friday, Sept. 19 – The University made a decision to no longer recognize Pitt’s Omega chapter of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity. Their national organization’s grand council reinforced this verdict on Sept. 24 with the decision to revoke the charter and immediately close the chapter. According to Bruce Hammond, the organization’s national director of communications, the fraternity violated the Delta Sigma Phi Policy on Responsibility and Accountability.

Saturday, Sept. 20 – Sewage began to enter the Campus Bookstore and seep into the storeroom below it. According to Pitt spokesman John Fidele, toilet paper delivered to Pitt on Sept. 8 had a higher-than-normal glue content, which prevented it from disintegrating when flushed. As a result, pipes got clogged, and sewage built up.

Wednesday, Oct. 1 – Former Director of Public Safety Deborah Furka took office as Pitt’s new director of Residence Life – a job left open when former Assistant to the Dean for Residence Life Denine Rocco resigned July 25.

Monday, Oct. 6 – The Nobel Assembly announced that Pitt alumnus Paul Lauterbur was selected to receive the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He shared the prize, which he received for his work in developing Magnetic Resonance Imaging, with Sir Peter Mansfield of the University of Nottingham.

Wednesday, Oct. 8 – A plan to begin selling the men’s basketball tickets online, using students e-mail addresses, their ID numbers and credit cards, did not go as planned, when a temperamental Web site made online purchases almost impossible. Many of the students who tried to buy tickets online ended up abandoning the site and going to the Petersen Events Center in person, calling the ticket office from cell phones while they stood in line.

Monday, Oct. 13 – Pitt professor emeritus of political rhetoric Ted Windt, an award-winning author, a professional campaign consultant, a political commentator and a Texan, died after being treated for cancer for several months.

Tuesday, Oct. 14 – Dorothy Nadler, an 84-year-old Oakland resident, was killed when a construction vehicle backed over her near the intersection of Darragh Street and Fifth Avenue. The vehicle, a cement truck owned and operated by Arrow Concrete Company of Pittsburgh, was working on the construction site of Pitt’s Biomedical Science Tower 3.

Thursday, Oct. 16 – Pitt’s College of General Studies’ Student Government President Todd J. Ridley, 39, unexpectedly died at his Homewood residence.

Monday, Oct. 20 – The University of Miami filed suit against the Big East Conference and four of the conference’s schools. Miami, along with Virginia Tech and Boston College, plans to leave the Big East Conference for the Atlantic Coast Conference. Pitt, along with the University of Connecticut, West Virginia University and Rutgers University, was named in the suit, in which Miami claimed it suffered “substantial monetary damage by remaining in the league.” Those schools are counter-suing Miami, claiming that it was involved in a conspiracy with the ACC to weaken the Big East.

Tuesday, Oct. 21 – United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan delivered a policy address in Pittsburgh Tuesday. He called for increased cooperation between the United States and the United Nations, the international association of sovereign states that he has managed since 1997.

Thursday, Oct. 23 – Pitt’s board of trustees approved the Differential Tuition Rate plan, which increased tuition by $1,000 for in-state, full-time freshman applying for the fall term of 2004.

Friday, Oct. 24 – Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, announced the designation of Pitt as a Marshall Center of Excellence at a presentation in Alumni Hall.

Tuesday, Nov. 4 – The Big East Conference announced that five institutions – Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and South Florida – had accepted invitations to join the league and would begin conference play in 2005.

Saturday, Nov. 8 – The ESPN College GameDay crew made its first appearance at Pitt before the Panthers’ home game against Virginia Tech on Nov. 8.

Thursday, Nov. 20 – “Driven” slate presidential candidate Brian Kelly was elected student Government Board president. Board member candidates Liz Blasi, Joe Pasqualichio, Joe Salvatore, Matt Hutchinson, Todd Brandon Morris, Amit Kotz, Charis Jones and Lauren Evette Williams also won positions on the new board, which will take office in January 2004.

Friday, Nov. 21 – The Food and Drug Administration announced that green onions from Mexico caused the hepatitis A outbreak that originated in a Chi-Chi’s Mexican Restaurant at the Beaver Valley Mall. The FDA is currently investigating several Mexican food suppliers as possible providers of the green onions.

Tuesday, Dec. 2 – President George W. Bush spoke at the Westin Convention Center hotel in downtown Pittsburgh.

Tuesday, Dec. 2 – After hours of debate, the outgoing SGB voted against increasing the student activities fee by $20 each semester for full-time students.

Wednesday, Dec. 3 – The Pitt News reported that a former Panera Bread Company employee had filed a federal lawsuit against the company, claiming he was fired from its Forbes Avenue store in Oakland after allegedly refusing to carry out discriminatory policies set forth by his superiors.