By SUSAN JONES
While many universities are cutting budgets and employees, Pitt seems to be riding out the storm by being cautious but not draconian, at least that’s what the 2025-26 University budget approved by the Board of Trustees on July 11 seems to indicate.
The $3.2 billion budget is up $19 million from last year. The budget “assumes a commonwealth appropriation that is flat. Although the state has not yet approved its budget, we’re optimistic about receiving the continued support in the appropriation,” Dwayne Pinkney, executive senior vice chancellor for administration and finance and chief financial officer, said.
“In the wake of much uncertainty, this budget demonstrates our dedication to academic excellence, research, leadership, fiscal responsibility and community support,” Pinkney said.
Chancellor Joan Gabel said at the Board of Trustees meeting that, “We’ve been very strategic in this budget, and thinking about a combination of belt tightening and strategic circumspect use of reserves, so that we can be smooth, if you will, about how we control our expenses, while at the same time making sure that abrupt changes to our spending don’t undermine all of this really positive momentum, financial aid, support for our students — above and beyond the state appropriation — investments in innovation that generate new businesses and new jobs and otherwise reflects the way in which we serve the community and society as a whole.”
Key elements of the budget include:
Raises: All faculty and staff who are not represented by a union will receive 2.5% across-the-board, performance-based maintenance salary increase. There is no money in the budget for merit, market and equity raises, but responsibility centers have discretion over these, subject to budgetary restrictions.
Staff and graduate workers represented by the United Steelworkers union will not receive raises, because the union, which is negotiating its first contract, rejected a deal that would have linked any raises to the higher health and dental insurance costs that non-represented staff have had to absorb. Any staff member who doesn’t know if they are part of the USW bargaining unit can review this list, which is accurate as of June 30, 2025.
Raises for all other represented faculty and staff are included in their collective bargaining agreements, which can be found here. Salary increases will be included in the September pay, but will be retroactive to July 1.
Tuition: Rates will go up 2% for in-state undergraduate and graduate students on the Oakland campus; 4% for out-of state. All students on the regional campuses, where rates have not gone up the past two years, will see at 1% tuition increase.
Research funding: The projected research base for fiscal year 2026 is $1.2 billion. “We recognize we are operating in a dynamic environment,” Pinkney said, “and we are prepared to be flexible. At same time, we want to continue to support the dynamic research that takes place at Pitt, which enables us to attract top students and faculty and expand our partnerships with industry and government.”
Capital budget: This part of the budget has $267 million, primarily for preserving and maintaining existing campus infrastructure, such as $20 million for renovating the Soldiers & Sailors parking garage, and completing construction projects already in progress, such as Fifth & Halket building interior completion for the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and the BioForge build-out for ElevateBio.
Financial aid: The budget has nearly $315 million in financial aid to students, an amount that has increased by nearly 30% since 2020. Pinkney said more than half of all students, in state and out of state, receive financial aid. For Pennsylvania students, that aid is over and above the in-state tuition discount.
Housing and other fees: Housing rates on the Oakland campus will go up by an average 6.7% and meal plans by 4%. Students also will see mandatory fee increases for transportation, wellness and technology.
After the meeting, Senate President Kris Kanthak said, “Given all of the uncertainty surrounding higher ed right now, I was bracing for higher tuition increases and lower raises, so I think in that sense, I’m somewhat pleasantly surprised. … The devil is always in the details. I think the Senate and its committees will be spending some time learning more about the budget and its implementation over the next fiscal year.”
Staff Council President Lindsay Rodzwicz said, "It is important to note Pitt’s priority on our people during this year’s difficult budget circumstances. For non-represented staff, we are glad to see the continuation of Pitt’s historical commitment to equal raise pools for both faculty and staff, along with maintenance increases keeping pace with cost of living. Staff Council looks forward to future discussions with administration regarding merit, market, and equity for non-represented staff – and the continued commitment to advancing compensation modernization. We also recognize the increase in medical benefits and encourage staff to take advantage of the increase in wellness incentives."
Jack Tighe, chair of the trustees’ Finance and Budget committee, said, “This budget is not balanced on the backs of students and their families. We continue our conservative approach to tuition increases, and that’s warranted, as the students and faculty combined are the heart and soul of the University and this budget protects them as best we can.”
Controlled hiring
Pinkney told the trustees that Pitt is transitioning from a hiring freeze, which expired on June 30, to a controlled hiring process.
A University spokesman said, “Controlled hiring is designed to retain the discipline that was established during the freeze while allowing departments to staff positions that meet the highest priorities of the University community. Many of the internal control processes established during the freeze will remain in place.”
In response to a question at the Board of Trustees meeting, Pinkney said, “Controlled hiring will look a lot like a freeze, but it’s different in this regard. We know that we have strategic hiring decisions to make to support the critical mission work that the University conducts and needs to conduct, consistent with the Plan for Pitt, consistent with supporting this large first-year enrollment that we’re anticipating showing up here in just a few weeks, and all of our faculty and staff.”
He said this new process will include a review piece. His office “will be reviewing reports on hiring periodically to make sure that we understand what the trends are, so that we know where to lean in and have conversations. It is not our intention to slow down in areas where we know we have critical needs and we need to accelerate to support the mission. But we also don’t want to be making decisions in a fashion without any oversight and coordination.”
“We’ll be doing that not just in our respective responsibility centers, but across the enterprise, because we may have capacity in some areas to support other areas that when we’re working more or less in isolation, we don’t necessarily have line of sight.”
Staff Council's Rodzwicz said that with the large incoming class and the controlled hiring process, "it is critical that we ensure units are staffed appropriately, so that staff are not overburdened."
Incoming class
Both Gabel and Pinkney discussed what is expected to be a record-setting incoming first-year class this fall.
Gabel said the Oakland campus received a record number of applications for fall 2025, nearly 65,000 — a more than a 6% increase over last year. She said enrollment at the regional campuses will be the same or slightly up from last year. “They’re stable and improving, which is a reflection of a really strategic effort around enrollment management retention and the program offerings being really meaningful for the students.”
In Oakland, she said, “We anticipate an excellent first-year class with the commonwealth extremely well represented, and it’s going to set a new watermark for Pitt, both in terms of size and quality, and is very much in line with our commitments in the strategic plan around our enrollment goals.”
To provide housing for this large incoming class, the University is looking to leverage existing space — converting some doubles to triples as well as triples to quads — along with obtaining additional housing at leased sites throughout Oakland. No other details were provided about the leased space.
Other items
House settlement: The ruling that allows universities to now pay student-athletes directly has made waves throughout higher education. Gabel and Athletic Director Alan Greene said that the important thing to remember is that Pitt’s student athletes are students first.
Tighe, chair of the trustees’ budget committee, noted that, “The athletic environment is very challenging. … But I would just like to emphasize when you look around the country, there’s various ways that schools and universities are attacking the athletic budget issues, but we are not cutting sports and we are not cutting roster spots, so our student-athletes are somewhat protected in that regard, and that makes us a little bit unique from what I see around the country.”
Indirect costs: Pinkney said although the budget assumes no change in indirect cost reimbursement from the federal government, “we have shared some perspective in meetings with the finance and budget committee and other forums about at least the contours of the contingency plans that are underway.” He said this includes space and staffing considerations.
“Sharing facilities, sharing core equipment or equipment, those are some of the primary considerations and plans that we’re taking and also, as the chancellor indicated earlier, making sure that we’re doing everything that we can in an appropriate use of our reserves, so that we’re not experiencing whiplash in these critical areas.”
New and returning trustees: The board voted to elect current special trustee Jeffrey Martchek as a term trustee, as part of the plan to transition all special trustees to term. It also re-elected Louis Cestello, Vaughn Clagette and James Covert and elected Peter Varischetti as University Directors of the UPMC Board of Directors.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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