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