By SHANNON O. WELLS
Ideally, the final Senate Council meeting of the academic year provides an opportunity to celebrate progress and triumphs before the relative tranquility of summer break sets in.
While plenty of positivity was expressed at the council’s May 9 meeting at Posvar Hall, Chancellor Joan Gabel did not avoid addressing difficult developments from the final weeks of the 2024-25 academic year, including a tragic construction-related accident that killed a UPMC employee on May 3 and the pro-Palestinian demonstrations during finals week.
Aleia Lopez, 51, of Pittsburgh’s North Side neighborhood, was killed near the Petersen Events Center when a large metal cylinder rolled off the construction site for Pitt’s new Arena and Sports Performance Center and struck her near DeSoto and Terrace streets. (See related story)
“We very much mourn the passing of Aleia Lopez,” Gabel said. “I know you join me in sincere condolences to the family and friends and several members of our community and many of our partners who are very much affected by this tragic loss.”
Continuing her report, Gabel also addressed the series of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus in late April. She noted that the “liberation zone” on Schenley Plaza that formed the hub for walks and marches were “largely peaceful.” Partnerships with the city of Pittsburgh, neighboring Carnegie Mellon University and other community stakeholders, she added, helped create an atmosphere of respectful “expression of voice as part of people’s First Amendment rights.
“We are hearing a variety of points of advocacy right now — as you might imagine, a very wide set of opinions,” Gabel said. “The feedback that we’re receiving is extensive. And we are responding as appropriate to the feedback that we are receiving.”
Gabel said the administration is working closely with Pitt’s Division of Student Affairs. She said Carla Panzella, interim vice provost and dean of students, is there to support students and their “expression of voice, and also make sure that they’re aware of the sources of support and the liaisons that we have, and also that we have policies around time and place, like everybody does, and that we are consistent in (how those) policies are upheld.
“We are content-neutral about our time-and-place policies,” she explained. “We want to be consistent in that space, even when it is sometimes uncomfortable to be …
“And I suspect that things will be much like they are right now over the course of the summer. That’s what we’re predicting, although it remains to be seen,” she added, “and we don’t know what to predict for the fall with the upcoming election. I would expect that things will be … interesting. So we’ll see how that unfolds.”
FAFSA situation
The Office of Admissions and Financial Aid continues to address problems with revised FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) forms, which significantly delayed the information colleges and universities nationwide need to determine financial aid, while narrowing potential students’ decision-making window.
“We’ll call it a situation,” Gabel quipped. “The intent was to roll out a simplified FAFSA process. Let me just say that out loud. And that has not been what has occurred. We would normally be well into a pretty fulsome understanding of who would be in our incoming class for this year. As of May 1, 11,000 offers would be out.
“As of now, we would have had offers in hand by the first week of February, and we are in a totally different situation this year,” she added. “We’ve pushed to May 15, along with many of our peers in terms of the notification.”
Noting that the delay is impacting student deposit behavior nationally, she said she is “very hopeful that May 15 will give us the window, but we really won’t know for sure. And it is very hard to model what our incoming class will look like at the end of the day.”
Gabel expressed sincere appreciation to Marc Harding, vice provost for enrollment, and his team. “Not only for how they’ve had to pivot and pivot and pivot again, but also for doing a lot of extra and very personalized high-touch communication with the incoming class — who have themselves been in a window of very high uncertainty — and making sure that they feel very seen and supported during this period of time.”
Some good news
In lighter news, Gabel reflected on Spring Commencement on April 28, her first such event since becoming chancellor in July 2023. She noted that close to 4,000 students walked to receive diplomas in the main ceremony at Petersen Events Center and other, smaller ceremonies around campus “peacefully and successfully.”
She recognized Joshua Nguyen, who has a bachelor of science degree in microbiology, as the Omicron Delta Kappa Senior of the Year, and Benjamin Leslie, who has a bachelor of science degree in bioengineering and minor in chemistry, winner of the Emma W. Locke Memorial Award.
Recognizing the “beautiful ceremonies” at Pitt campuses beyond Oakland in April, as well as at graduate schools and School of Dental Medicine and School of Medicine ceremonies on May 18 and 19, respectively, Gabel noted the special nature of this year’s rites of passage.
“For our undergraduates, in particular, most of them did not have high school graduation ceremonies because of the (COVID) pandemic, so it was nice to be able to offer their university graduations,” she said.
Gabel called the May 15 faculty and staff picnic a “well-deserved annual tradition” that she’s “very glad to inherit and carry forward.” She also will honor several long-serving staff members later this summer. “We have 17 staff with 40 years of service that we will be honoring. Others too, but 40 years of service for some of our staff.”
Pitt’s United Way Campaign wrapped up on April 30. Gabel thanked Kelly Gilliam, Pitt’s United Way campaign manager, and David DeJong, senior vice chancellor for business and operations and the Pitt United Way campaign chair.
“With thanks to Dave and special thanks to Kelly Gilliam, this was a really successful year,” she said. “We raised more than $723,000. That exceeded last year’s goal by $20,000. So that’s a great outcome for our community, reflecting our community’s generosity.”
Leadership changes
Regarding recent changes in Pitt leadership positions, Gabel said she was pleased that Eboni Zamani-Gallaher, professor of educational foundations, organizations and policy, was named the new dean of the School of Education, effective May 1. Gallaher has served as interim dean since August following her role as associate dean for Equity, Justice and Strategic Partnerships.
Also, dean searches in the schools of Law and Engineering and for the vice provost for student affairs continue to move forward.
The search for a chief financial officer is “coming toward the end,” Gabel said. “We’re at that phase of the year, so I expect several announcements to start rolling out soon.”
Government relations
Gabel also recently visited Harrisburg for a series of meetings in the governor’s office and with House and Senate leadership. She said discussion topics included the governor’s blueprint for higher education and a series of bills recently introduced by Republicans.
“It really wasn’t adversarial, just that natural series of bills that come forward, thinking about how both the Democrats and Republicans are looking toward performance-based metrics, which I’ve been discussing with all of you for the better part of the year since I was on the governor’s task force,” Gabel said, adding that Provost Joe McCarthy has been working on the follow-up on regarding how the commonwealth’s priorities and align with Pitt’s mission.
“In the meantime, we’re looking forward to seeing how this all plays out,” Gabel said. “We expect the negotiations to pick up as we get closer to the first budget deadline (June 30). And we’ll see how it goes.”
Looking ahead to this summer, Gabel said “we’re looking forward to implementation” of the strategic Plan for Pitt. The Board of Trustees will host virtual meetings on June 21 and July 12, addressing bylaws updates, continuing work on board governance restructuring, the budget and other topics as they come up. “But they are on a relatively traditional schedule at this point,” she added.
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
Have a story idea or news to share? Share it with the University Times.
Follow the University Times on Twitter and Facebook.