By SUSAN JONES
Since a hiring freeze was announced at Pitt on March 10, many employees have had more questions than answers about what this really means.
“This creates a lot of chaos and confusion for our bargaining unit members,” said Jen Goeckeler-Fried, who has worked at Pitt for 30 years and is chair of the staff union bargaining committee “There’s panic. … Quite frankly, the chaos in Washington is leading to this chaos at universities all across the country, and there wasn’t a whole lot of information that we got in the email from Pitt’s administration on March 10.
“There’s just a lot of confusion right now. Some departments are offering their staff no guidance whatsoever. Other departments are kind of giving their staff members conflicting info.”
The March 10 message from Provost Joe McCarthy; Dwayne Pinkney, executive senior vice chancellor for administration and finance and chief financial officer; and Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences, said the hiring freeze would go through at least the end of the fiscal year on June 30, and asked responsibility centers to look carefully at discretionary expenses, such as travel and supplies.
At last week’s Faculty Assembly meeting, McCarthy said that in times of uncertainty it’s important for Pitt to focus on the current members of the University community. He said Pitt wants to make sure that “we are responsible and good stewards of that faith that you all put in the University when you joined our community, and if for now, that means that we’re a bit more measured in inviting new members to that community, I think that’s a responsible action on our part.”
He also said in these difficult times, it's really important for Pitt to lean into its mission “and our collectively established principles and values. And luckily for us, we've spent the last couple of years, since Chancellor Gabel joined us, really writing the roadmap for that (in the Plan for Pitt) and ironing out exactly what that means to Pitt as a community in very clear language.”
Senate President Robin Kear said that based on what she heard in the Faculty Assembly meeting and in discussions with senior leadership, “A freeze in hiring and an interim exemption hiring process for critical needs is a responsible reaction. Sending a message to look closely at hiring and some budget costs is responsible in this uncertain moment.”
More clarification about exemptions policies for staff and faculty hiring are expected next week from the Office of Human Resources and the Office of the Provost.
Pitt Staff Council said in a statement that it recognized “the difficult decision of implementing a hiring freeze and appreciates the University’s commitment to supporting existing staff.”
“We are mindful of the potential for job creep and recognize the importance of thoughtfully assessing workloads to help ensure they remain aligned with mission-driven priorities. We hope individual units will communicate openly with their staff, providing clarity and support during this time of change.”
Goeckeler-Fried, who works in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Dietrich School, also said the union hopes for more transparency about “what spending is OK, what spending is not OK, what travel is OK, what’s not. And really what positions can be filled and which ones can’t. And of course, we believe that the union, which represents 6,300 staff at the University of Pittsburgh, should be involved in making these these decisions.”
Tyler Bickford, president of the Union of Pitt Faculty and a professor in the English department said, “People are concerned about their programs and their students and their workloads. It’s never easy to get a new position approved in the first place. And when we do searches for new faculty or staff, those are motivated by real needs. So I think we’re all worried that important work won’t get done.”
As part of the faculty union collective bargaining agreement, departments are currently developing workload policies, unrelated to the current crisis, Bickford said.
But if the University “anticipates budgetary changes that impact our jobs, they have an obligation to notify us and give us an opportunity to meet and discuss. And in some cases, we may have rights to bargain over those changes, or at least the impacts of those changes,” he said.
Kear also said she’s heard “concern and fear from faculty and staff over future class coverage (also related to the uncertainty over Ph.D. and graduate student offers and acceptance) and the potential for spreading responsibilities too thinly among existing staff. I believe we must stay intentional about how to keep succeeding and imagining within our means, within this changed environment. I do not think this moment is over and settled, and it could be that other adjustments are necessary in the future.”
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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