CHANCELLOR'S LETTER

Dear Members of the University Community:

As you have probably heard from recent news reports, the City of Pittsburgh has submitted a proposal to Google—with the support of the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the Pittsburgh Public Schools—to make Pittsburgh a test bed for Google Fiber, an ultra high-speed, 1-gigabit-per-second network that will deliver the Internet to our homes at a speed more than 100-times faster than what most of us have access to today.

For this tremendous opportunity for the city and the University to come to fruition, though, your help is needed. If you would like to help, please express your support for our application at http://www.pittsburghgoesgoogle.com by the Friday, March 26, deadline. Also encourage your friends and colleagues to do the same.

At this Web site, you can click on “Add Your Voice” to leave a comment, nominate Pittsburgh through the Google Web site, and spread the word to your friends and neighbors.

This technology has the potential to enhance the University’s distance and online learning capabilities, give our faculty and students the powerful connectivity they need to manage and manipulate large data sets, and help drive the redevelopment of Pittsburgh even further into a technology-based economy. It also will present exceptional opportunities for Pittsburgh’s arts and health care industries, in which our University community plays an important role.

Google has made it clear that community support will be one of the key factors in its decision on test bed sites, so your help is crucial. Please join me in supporting our proposal today at http://www.pittsburghgoesgoogle.com.

Sincerely,

Mark A. Nordenberg
Chancellor