The Pitt News
The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | April 11, 2018 | Volume 108 | Issue 146
PITT JAZZ PROFESSOR DIES AT AGE 81
IT’S RAINING CAPS AND GOWNS
Mackenzie Rodrigues News Editor Nathan Davis, a former professor at Pitt’s department of music and renowned jazz musician, died on Monday from natural causes. He was 81. Davis came to Pitt in 1969 as the director of the jazz studies program. During his time at Pitt, he founded and directed the University’s annual jazz seminar. He also helped create the International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame — located inside the William Pitt Union — as well as the William Russell Robinson Recording Studio and the Pitt Jazz Ensemble. Davis also set up the Sonny Rollins International Jazz Archives and taught music courses, including African American Music, Jazz Improvisation, Saxophone and History of Jazz — an introductory course that still uses Davis’ “Writings in Jazz” textbook. “We got a history,” Davis said in a 2008 interview with The Pitt News. “And it’s just as valid as anybody else’s history, and we need jazz people teaching it.” Outside of Pitt, Davis founded the Jazz Studies Program at the Paris American Academy in France and conducted extensive research in the field of ethnomusicology across Tunisia, Brazil, Turkey, Morocco and the Caribbean. Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Kansas and a doctorate in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
Students take a survey at Graduation Central in Alumni Hall Tuesday. Students can also visit Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. to receive instructions about commencement and purchase caps and gowns. Anas Dighriri STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
LAWMAKERS PUSH FOR STATE-RELATED TRANSPARENCY
John Hamilton and Christian Snyder The Pitt News Staff
State representatives unveiled legislation Tuesday that would expand transparency and public access to records at Pennsylvania’s staterelated universities. Pitt, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln — Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities — are currently exempt from the Right-to-Know Law, which gives the public access to records from state and local agencies. Joined by state auditor general Eugene DePasquale, three Republican representatives — Aaron Bernstine, Jim Christiana and John Maher — held a press conference to discuss the legislation. The proposed legislation would expand the Right-to-Know requirements of the four univerSee Davis on page 4 sities and subject school trustees and employees
to the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act, requiring employees to submit statements of financial interest. “Like our state-owned schools, these universities receive a tremendous amount of tax dollars,” Christiana said. “Taxpayers deserve to know that their money is being used for the right reasons.” The four state-related universities receive more than $560 million in public funding annually, which goes toward decreasing tuition for instate students. Pitt received $158.9 million in 2017 — 7 percent of its operating budget. “A lot of the transparency measures in the past have been a product of bad decision-making,” DePasquale said about the introduction of Pennsylvania’s second Open Records Law in 2008. “[And] I think we need to continually expand transparency measures in Pennsylvania.” DePasquale, then a representative, introduced
legislation that year to limit the state-related exemption to the Right-to-Know Law, but said “it went nowhere.” Now, a decade later, it’s being considered again. This time, the legislation is based on an audit of Penn State that DePasquale conducted in June. “Over the past decade, we have raised the standard of transparency on behalf of the taxpayers,” DePasquale said. “It’s time for our state-related universities … to be held to the same standard.” Along with expanding the Right-to-Know Law and Ethics Act, his audit recommended shrinking the size of the Penn State Board of Trustees. Penn State and Pitt each have 36 voting members, including public officials. Tuesday’s legislation would shrink Penn State’s to 21, but doesn’t mention Pitt. DePasquale supports a similar shrinking See Transparency on page 4