By MARTY LEVINE
Use of the Pitt Concern Connection — a hotline for Pitt issues large and small — has only increased through the years, and that “speaks to the general trust (people) have in the system,” Laurel Gift told the latest Staff Council Spotlight session on Sept. 12.
Gift, assistant vice chancellor for compliance, investigations & ethics — the University’s chief privacy officer — suggested: “Always use the Pitt Concern Connection, even in addition to supervisor conversations. There’s no harm in over-reporting. I would just encourage you to report and not be afraid of using that resource,” even to alert someone about an empty campus vending machine.
She uses this example often to show a seemingly trivial concern that was nonetheless useful for Pitt to hear about — and fix. “We would rather know about it than not.”
However, just as in 2023, when she last spoke to Staff Council about the Pitt Concern Connection, most calls to the hotline involve complaints of discrimination, sexual misconduct, harassment, employee relations and academic concerns (only the latter of which was not in the top five two years ago, when campus safety was on that list).
When a report of a possible issue comes in to the hotline, her office routes it to one of their own investigators or those based in schools or Pitt offices. Her office also tracks whether this results in a response.
Not every call requires an investigation, and calls may be made anonymously, she reminded those in attendance. “I try to take the more complex and more stressful matters,” Gift said.
Most investigations are concerning University policy violations, and her office works closely with others concerned in such matters: Pitt’s Title IX and Labor Relations offices most often, but also the athletics department and the Office of Research Protections. Concerns handled by the latter office may involve data integrity, conflicts of interest or “people not getting along in the lab environment,” Gift said.
It’s hard to say how long an average investigation could last, she admitted, since it may take a few weeks to arrange to talk to the complainant. Is it going to be a full investigation? Are there going to be documents? How many people will they need to interview?
“So it’s really hard for us to give certain timelines,” she said. The Office of Compliance, Investigations & Ethics, which she was hired to create in 2020, is just beginning to track investigation length, but “a minimum of 60 days” should be expected. “It certainly can be longer.”
Her approach to interviewing is “a very open-ended one,” Gift said, aiming to avoid assumptions and make sure the interviewee first understands the process. “We don’t have to get everything done in one session,” she explained. “There are no gotcha moments. Put any scenes you know from ‘Law and Order’ out of your head.
“A successful investigation has nothing to do with the outcome,” she added. “Has the investigation been used to improve or better the University in some way?
The Pitt Concern Connection began as Pitt’s COVID Concern Connection, then took on its broader role in May 2021. It also hears from parents and alumni, as well as “people who are encountering our students out in the world.”
It is not an emergency resource, she emphasized, although Pitt Police may be contacted for involvement with a serious allegation.
So far this year there have been 1,184 calls to the hotline — as compared to 1,150 total in 2023 and 1,357 total last year. Of this year’s reports so far, 957 have come from the Oakland campus — 808 from on-campus sources and 149 from off-campus. There were also 61 from the Bradford campus, 25 from Greensburg and 16 from Johnstown.
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
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