He became known as Nordy to many Pitt students, who voted to name a recreation center and arcade in the William Pitt Union as Nordy's Place, and is also the namesake of the university's endowed Nordenberg Scholarships and the Nordenberg Hall dormitory on the university's campus.

[4] He served as Dean of the School of Law from 1985 until 1993 and as Interim Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs from 1993 to 1994.

My clear intention is to remain in Pittsburgh and at Pitt once that next year has concluded, and I have agreed to make myself available, as requested, to assist my successor, particularly in matters involving external relations.

Beyond that, I would expect to teach and to remain engaged in public service projects focused on the advancement of the region.

At the same period, Pitt faculty members have been recognized multiple times as Fulbright Scholars, Boren Scholars, Whitaker International Fellows, National Science Foundation Fellows, Critical Language Scholars, and Humanity in Action Scholars; they received prestigious awards such as the National Medal of Science, the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the MacArthur Foundation's "genius award," the Charles S. Mott Prize in cancer research, and the Andrew Mellon Foundation Distinguished Achievement Award for exemplary contributions to humanistic studies[7] During Nordenberg's tenure, Pitt re-established its reputation as a national and world class research university,[7] and its yearly research allocations grew from $230 million in 1995 to $800 million currently.

Pitt is prominent in physical, life and social sciences: along with Johns Hopkins, Washington, Michigan, and Pennsylvania universities it is one of the top five largest recipients of the federal science and engineering research and development support; in comparison, in 1995 Pitt was ranked the 24th in the same list.

[8] Despite the Great Recession of 2008 and continuous cuts to the state contribution to the university's budget, Pitt under Nordeberg maintains an AA/positive long-term ratings from Standard & Poor.

In December 2007, by resolution of the Pitt Student Government Board, the recreation room on the ground floor of the William Pitt Union was named Nordy's Place in honor of the Chancellor whom the board deemed a student favorite and worthy of the honor.

[17] On April 8, 2014, Nordenberg, along with former Carnegie Mellon University president Jared Cohon, were named recipients of the Elsie Hilliard Hillman Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Public Service.