By SHANNON O. WELLS
Senate Council President Robin Kear prefaced her typically news-oriented report to Faculty Assembly on April 12 with poignant comments pertaining to recent hoax reports of active campus shooters, specifically an April 10 incident that created fear and confusion at Hillman Library.
“I find it heartbreaking that the state of our American society does not make the image of our students running out of Hillman Library a unique image at all, right? It’s a little harder when it’s our students,” said Kear, a liaison librarian in Pitt’s Library System. “The epidemic of gun violence, it impacts all of our lives. Some of us are impacted disproportionately, and we must do what we can to make it better for all. And I know we are tired. I know I’m tired.”
Ted Fritz, vice chancellor for Public Safety and Emergency Management, gave a report about the incident and answered questions from Faculty Assembly members (see related story).
Kear expressed empathy for students trying to enjoy the spring weather and the final weeks of the semester in such a tense atmosphere. “There does not seem to be any end to these complicated disruptions for our students this term, whether it’s this, or events that they find distressing, in fact, for the past three years of our lives, for our current students,” she said. “So please, let’s all keep that in mind and do what we can for them and for ourselves.”
Kear moved on to more uplifting items in her report, including acknowledgement of Pitt’s Chancellor-elect Joan Gabel, whose hire to replace Chancellor Patrick Gallagher was announced on April 3.
“We welcome our next chancellor, Joan T.A. Gabel,” Kear said. “We are excited to work with her and appreciate her efforts to reach out to the Senate on the day of her announcement. The Senate officers were able to meet briefly with her on that day and appreciated her stated commitment to shared governance.”
Kear expressed disappointment that, although Senate officers had asked to be included in the deliberations for the finalists, they were told it wasn’t possible.
“As the only representatives on campus who are elected by the entirety of the faculty, we thought it was important to include our shared governance viewpoint on the next leader of our University,” she said. “I expressed this formally to the search committee chair and vice chair. But regardless, we look forward to future collaboration and partnership with Chancellor-elect Gabel.
“There are many challenges to continue working on, and I’m sure there will be many opportunities that utilize her strengths as our next chancellor to move it forward,” Kear added.
Kear said she has not received any information yet on the search process or interim steps for replacing outgoing Provost Ann Cudd, who starts as president of Portland State University in July.
Union-shared governance communication
The standing committee to facilitate Union of Pitt Faculty-Senate communication that the union’s Council of Representatives voted to create met on March 21.
“I look forward to this continued communication,” Kear said, noting she and Senate Council Vice President Kris Kanthak also met separately with Michael Goodhart, who leads the standing committee for the union, “to share our views and to hear from him. So, I am glad to see that the union released a checklist of articles proposed by the union and administration.”
Kear encouraged everyone to look at the new information, although she said getting the full text of tentative articles, instead of a summary, would be helpful.
She also shared information regarding the Senate’s work on benefit issues that collide with union negotiations, including a dependent care ad hoc committee Faculty Assembly authorized 18 months ago “that has come to a stasis point” due to contract negotiations between the administration and the union.
“Although I think they had great potential, I don’t think it’s worth continuing the work of that ad hoc committee,” she said, adding she will ask for a final report on the committee’s work in May.
Kear also said the Medical Advisory Committee, which the University forms annually to provide input to the Pitt benefits team about health insurance for the upcoming fiscal year, is getting a later-than-usual start because of the need for “new benefits input processes with the Union of Pitt Faculty bargaining unit.”
The group typically includes the Senate president, Staff Council president, the Benefits and Welfare committee chair, and other faculty and staff at-large members. It looks at utilization data from the past year, the projected cost for the next year and provides collaborative input. The committee was set to convene for its first meeting the afternoon of the Faculty Assembly meeting. Kear recommended Senate Council Secretary Penny Morel, who’s a medical school faculty member, take her place this year, along with other medical school faculty assembly members who are not in the bargaining unit.
Kear said she’s also meeting with James Gallaher, vice chancellor for Human Resources, and Staff Council President Lindsey Rodzwicz to discuss “how we’ll function for staff and faculty outside the bargaining unit.”
On the subject of unit-level planning and budgeting committees, Kear said updated guidance from the provost to the Council of Deans allows union members to serve on those committees, with the meetings divided into two sessions. “Information and documentation relevant to the budget process can be shared with all members,” Kear said, including projected enrollment and general hiring information, but not specifics related to individual compensation. “And members of the administration would be careful not to discuss issues that are mandatory subjects of bargaining.”
If a second session is needed, then the unit-level PBC can discuss topics of mandatory bargaining, Kear explained, but the bargaining unit faculty members may not be present. “Please let the Senate Budget Policies Committee Chair Juan Taboas know if you have questions about how your PBC should be functioning in your unit.”
Kear cited a recent University Times article about the Budget Policies Committee and feedback from last year’s Planning and Budget Committee members “that was not encouraging. But hopefully we can continue working to make that information for those groups more available and accountable,” she said.
Other action
Free speech, hate speech: Responding to a series of controversial speakers at Pitt this spring focused on transgender issues, Kear plans to convene an ad hoc committee, pending Faculty Assembly and Senate Council approval, that would “allow a deeper discussion of free speech, hate speech and the responsibilities of our community members within the obligation of being a public university and our open intellectual environment. She asked for submissions of names of “people that you think should be involved in this conversation.”
Travel Cash Advances policy: Faculty Assembly unanimously approved a change in the proposed University Travel Cash Advances policy, whose main focus is how to handle cash advances for work-related trips to areas where a credit card or OneCard can’t be used. The policy stipulates that, per IRS rules, if there is any unused cash not detailed in an expense report, that money must be paid back to the University within 120 days, or it will be considered income and must be reported on your W-2. Instead of getting cash advances directly deposited into your bank account from the University, now you can get money using your OneCard at an ATM. But the advance has to be approved in advance and reconciled when you return.
Network Policy: Faculty Assembly also approved a change to the University Network that policy the Senate Computing and Information Technology Committee OK’d at its March 28 meeting. The policy change, under the heading of “Infrastructure Devices and Network Cabling,” says “Pitt IT will consider, in consultation with departments and users, special network configurations to support research or unique needs including networks not connected to PittNet or the internet provided that they do not pose information security risks to the University or negatively impact other PittNet users.”
Faculty Assembly earlier this year requested that the policy allow faculty the ability to create a “private network” not on PittNet, for “whatever purpose a faculty member needed to create,” Hart said. “And that’s the provision that we can’t accept … because it takes the teeth out of the entire policy.”
Hart explained at the March 28 SCITC meeting that “the issue (is) that if somebody creates a network off PittNet and it’s got wireless equipment or it’s got some other devices in it, that could pose a security risk,” he said. “Then the policy would allow that, even though it’s a bad practice and it has the potential of harming the network for all the rest of (Pitt) users. That’s why we could not agree to the change.”
Kear remarked that the policy rewording “seems to remove many of the questions” she had about private networks “that I still have, but this sets those aside, because it’s not written into the policy,” she said.
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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