Semester in review

September

12: “As The World Turns” held a casting call for all Pitt students,… September

12: “As The World Turns” held a casting call for all Pitt students, faculty and staff for an episode to be filmed on Pitt’s campus Sept. 19 and aired Nov. 12.

17: Pitt says it does not publish an average incoming freshmen SAT score that includes all students, excluding those admitted through “special access programs.”

22: Two women are sexually assaulted on University Drive behind Chevron Hall, where lights were reportedly not functioning after several calls to maintenance. The University later said it had no knowledge of the lights being out, but a source inside the University said that Facilities Management had received notice several times.

23: Former Pitt student Matthew Kaguyutan is sentenced to a mandatory life sentence without parole after being convicted of second-degree murder and arson, among other charges.

24: Pitt projects that tuition will rise 5 percent if the state approves all of the requested appropriations.

October

2: Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, billed as “a champion of peace,” spoke at Heinz Hall, which drew hundreds in protest and counterprotest.

3: Student Government Board member Bryan Thomas II was cited for underage drinking at the Pi Kappa Alpha house, where he said he moved a partygoer’s cup while trying to break up a fight.

Former Allegheny County Prosecutor Chris Conrad was attacked and stabbed in his car in Oakland, making him the victim of a daylight attack for the second time in two years.

5: Pitt Program Council sponsored its annual Fall Fest, including a concert by Blessid Union of Souls.

7: Greek Life adviser Sharon Malazich resigned from Student Life, which made her the third former Student Activities employee, along with former director of Student Activities Joe Cavalla and former Black Action Society Adviser Camille Flint, to leave the University since the summer.

8: Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement Carol Carter resigned from the University after five years of service in which she organized the most successful fund-raising campaign in the University’s 215-year history, nearly tripling Pitt’s annual revenue. She was replaced by Associate Vice Chancellor Albert Novak.

The School of Social Work, after firing two longtime employees, held a closed meeting about layoffs to the public and press, citing protection of employees as the reason.

10: Vice Provost and Interim Dean of Students Jack Daniel announced that Terrence Milani would be the Interim Greek Adviser for the fourth time in his 30 years at Pitt. Daniel also charged Director of Public Safety Deborah Furka with the compilation of a comprehensive report, due in December, concerning the best practices for Pitt’s Greek System.

11: A federal magistrate ordered Marshall University student Kenzi Snider to be extradited to South Korea for her trial in the beating and murder of Pitt student Jamie Lynn Penich in March 2001.

Midnight Madness kicked off the basketball season with a lottery to award 1000 lucky students the chance to buy student season tickets.

12: The American Jewish Committee ran an ad in the New York Times, naming 300 colleges and universities that have signed a letter pledging to fight anti-Semitism on campus. Pitt, not listed in the ad, received the letter, but did not sign. However, Pitt said it would fight prejudice in its own way.

16: Former Pitt swimmer Kristina DeWitt was not reinstated by a U.S. district judge, meaning she could not rejoin Pitt’s squad while her sexual harassment suit against the University continued.

18-19: After students began to camp out on the William Pitt Union porch in an effort to obtain almost 100 remaining student season basketball tickets, University administration decided to move them inside. There, they were given numbered wristbands according to their place on an informal list, which was originally brought by two students in an effort to make sure no one cut in line. In the morning, a group of about 10 students, unaware of the unannounced camping option, arrived at the ticket office early to buy tickets; Pitt police asked them to leave.

20: A fight breaks out at a party held by Phi Beta Sigma in the William Pitt Union. The fight, which some witnesses said was instigated by a few members of the Pitt football team, caused Pitt and city police to arrive at the Union, where dogs brought by city police bit at least one of the attendees. Following the event, several attendees were arrested, and several witnesses allege that Pitt police officers engaged in brutality. Pitt police chief Tim Delaney said there would be an internal investigation following official protocol.

26: A fire ignited at 6 Melba Place that damaged several houses, which displaced nine people from their homes. Several of the residents claimed that the fire was arson, which started when a couch on their porch was set on fire.

31: Pitt’s Board of Trustees voted to begin the building of the BST3, a biomedical science tower with 10 stories and 300,000 square feet devoted entirely to research. If all goes according to plan, construction will conclude in 2007.

November

2: Pitt’s unranked football team upset No. 3 Virginia Tech in Virginia, remained unbeaten in the Big East and entered the top-25 rankings.

16-17: Pitt students joined 10,000 others at Fort Benning, Ga., to protest the Western Hemisphere Institute of Security Cooperation.

20: Student Government Board approved Felix Yerace as the new chair of the allocations committee, following Jen Kolenda, who departed after two years as chair and four years serving the committee.

21: David “D.J.” Berry, an undergraduate in the School of Social Work, was shot and killed in his car in Greenfield, about two miles from campus.

A black Pitt English professor, Stefan Wheelock, discovered a small noose placed alongside a copy of Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” in the lectern before his lecture. The book, which Wheelock uses in his Introduction to Critical Reading class, is a novel that features race as one of its main themes. The University later said the investigation had been handed over to Pitt police, but it does not know why there was a delay between the incident and the investigation, which was opened Dec. 2.

December

3: Following poor attendance at the men’s basketball season opener against Duquesne University, the athletics department began selling season basketball tickets that had previously been reserved for sale to students at individual games. According to associate athletics director Jim Earle, the tickets were not supposed to go on sale until later in the week, but that a miscommunication occurred with the William Pitt Union ticket office. Earle later said he was unsure how many tickets would be sold as season tickets, but that the University may oversell seats in an effort to fill the stands.