By SUSAN JONES
At the state House and Senate Appropriations Committee hearings for the four state-related universities, Pitt’s Chancellor Patrick Gallagher was front and center.
This is Gallagher’s ninth and final year in the hot seat in front of state lawmakers. He has the longest tenure of the four state-related school leaders. Penn State’s Neeli Bendapudi has been president for just 10 months and Karen Allen has been president of Lincoln University since 2017.
Between the March 23 House meeting and March 30 Senate hearing, Temple President Jason Wingard, who had been at the Philadelphia school just 18 months ago, resigned after a tumultuous year that included a strike by grad student workers and the on-duty death of a campus police officer. Ken Kaiser, Temple’s chief operating officer, filled the seat for the Senate hearing.
The hearings started out with Rep. Eric Nelson, whose district includes the Pitt–Greensburg campus, questioning why Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed a 7 percent funding increase for the state-related universities as compared to a 2 percent increase for community colleges and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) schools.
The numbers aren’t quite that clear cut. Last year, the legislature approved flat funding for the four state-related schools, but former Gov. Tom Wolf used money appropriated to the governor’s office for “pandemic response” to give the state-related schools a one-time payment that equaled 5 percent of the amount passed by the legislature. Therefore the 7.1 percent hike proposed by Shapiro is actually only 2 percent above what the schools eventually received for 2022-23. In addition, the PASSHE schools last year received a record high 16 percent increase from the state.
The hearings both touched on some of the same key areas. Video recordings of the hearings can be found online for the House and the Senate.
On retaining graduates from Pennsylvania colleges:
Gallagher said at the Senate hearing that the students who are attracted to come to school in Pennsylvania often want to stay, “the rate limiting issue is the number of opportunities they have after graduation. And so one of the things that I think would be very appealing is a much closer coupling between the higher ed agenda, including funding and opportunities, with what we’re doing with DCED (Pa. Department of Community & Economic Development) and economic development and opportunity.”
On the cost of a college education
“There is no bigger issue in American higher ed than this cost issue,” Gallagher told the Senate committee. “And unfortunately as a country, we’re actually moving away from the sort of public good funding toward private good. And of course, the burden falls on families and because not all families make the same it falls very unequally on families. …
“The fastest-growing cost part of the University of Pittsburgh has been in financial aid. It’s up 200 something percent and all other areas have been flat or declining. And it really comes back to this request. What you support is actually addressing this. It does provide an ability right off the top for the citizens of the Commonwealth to access these great institutions at lower cost. But again, compared to our peers around the country, Pennsylvania just lags and that’s one of the reasons why the debt levels tend to be higher here. Only New Hampshire beats Pennsylvania in terms of (lowest) per capita support for higher ed and that’s not much of a bragging right for the commonwealth.”
On making the universities more transparent:
There have been long-standing efforts in the General Assembly to look at the appropriate right-to-know framework for the state-related universities, and the question came up in the House and Senate.
Gallagher said Pitt remains supportive of working with lawmakers on this issue. “The amount of information is already high, but part of it might be the usefulness of the information being disclosed,” he said, noting that much of Pitt’s information on spending, on the diversity dashboard and the hiring rate are live at all times and searchable.
On how Pitt is addressing workforce shortage in the state:
“The universities tend to play a large role on both the supply and the demand side of this,” Gallagher said to the House appropriations committee. Universities respond to the needs of employers by expanding programs where appropriate. “A good example of that for us … has been in the critical stress that’s been on the the health care sector, in particular in skilled nursing, therapists, doctors. All of those programs have seen very substantial growth (at Pitt). And in fact, the growth has not just simply been to make the existing programs larger, but to expand it. We’re offering those programs on more of our campuses, and some of the largest increases in our nursing program and our allied health programs have been on our regional campuses because the needs in rural parts of the state are so high.”
On providing a living wage to employees, particularly adjunct faculty:
“Our employees, our faculty and our staff, are the heart of the University and what carries out its mission. They’re also the largest single economic piece in our budget,” Gallagher said, noting that compensation and benefits make up two thirds or more of Pitt’s total budget. “And it’s always our top priority. We work very closely with our shared governance to make sure that we’re providing compensation that’s responsive to inflation demands, is competitive, and most importantly, … is also responsive to a basic living wage. This has been a focal point for the University and our discussions with our faculty and staff for the last several years. We’re doing several things including a modernization of our HR system, which allows us to do full market comparison and specifically to set … salary limits that move us up so we don’t have anyone below unacceptable levels of compensation. And I should point out, our faculty, with the exception of the medical school, are now being represented through the United Steelworkers. And this is an active part of those ongoing discussions.
On freezing tuition if the schools get a 7 percent increase from the state:
All of the leaders told the House committee that they could not commit to this and would have to look at everything before making a decision.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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