June 7, 2000 Dear Colleagues: I am pleased to announce that Dr. William I. Brustein has accepted my offer to become the Director of the University Center for International Studies (UCIS) effective January 1, 2001. Dr. Brustein is currently the Distinguished McKnight University Professor and a Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. My offer also includes his appointment as a tenured Professor in the Department of Sociology within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and as a UCIS Professor. Dr. Brustein completed his baccalaureate degree in Political Science at the University of Connecticut, Master's degrees in Sociology at the University of Washington and in International Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and his doctorate in Sociology at the University of Washington. Dr. Brustein rose from Assistant to Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Utah before accepting a position in the Sociology Department at the University of Minnesota. In 1992, Dr. Brustein began serving as the Director of the Center for European Studies at the University of Minnesota, and from 1995, he agreed to Chair Minnesota's Department of Sociology. He was a visiting scholar at the Free University in Berlin in 1989 and at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1999. Dr. Brustein has international stature as a scholar of historical sociology, with well placed publications, external funding from the National Science Foundation and other sources, and election to the prestigious Sociological Research Association. His most recent book, The Logic of Evil: The Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925 - 1933, was the winner of the 1997 James S. Coleman Distinguished Contribution to Rational-Choice Scholarship from the American Sociological Association, Rational-Choice Section. He received awards for his exceptional teaching while at Utah and Minnesota. The University Center for International Studies occupies a very high priority position in the array of the University of Pittsburgh's academic units. I have great confidence in Dr. Brustein's ability to provide the leadership that will ensure the maintenance and strengthening of the international dimension at the University of Pittsburgh. He clearly possesses relevant past administrative experience and has demonstrated an appreciation for the accomplishments realized by the University Center for International Studies as well as the challenges that it is facing. I look forward to working closely with Dr. Brustein in positioning the University of Pittsburgh to meet the challenges of the coming years. Sincerely, James V. Maher