By SHANNON O. WELLS
A key aspect of Kris Kanthak’s political science research has involved exploring why more women don’t choose to run for public office.
After recently being elected Senate Council president following four years as vice president, Kanthak said she found that many women “need to be asked to (run), because they don’t tend to think of themselves as qualified.”
It took awhile, however, for Kanthak to take the plunge herself.
“Several years ago, when my friend Chris Bonneau encouraged me to run, it had never really occurred to me to run for anything,” she says, referring to her fellow political science professor and past Senate president. “And I realized it was hypocritical of me to run around encouraging other women to run for stuff if I wasn’t willing to do it myself. So I did.
“I learned I kind of had a knack for it, and I enjoyed getting to work with diverse groups with different views to come up with the best policy proposals,” she adds. “And really, the people in this University who have chosen to be part of the Senate are some of the best people I’ve gotten the chance to work with.”
Julia Meade, assistant professor of pediatrics, who was elected Senate Council vice president, says she’s “absolutely delighted” to work alongside Kanthak, who she’s “grown to admire and love learning from in the short time we’ve started working together since the election.
“I am grateful to participate in a system of shared governance with the goal of amplifying the voices of our students, faculty, staff and administrators,” Meade added, “as we navigate uncertain funding, changing political and legal impacts on the University, and maintain a sense of unity at Pitt.”
Kanthak took a post-election moment to talk to the University Times about her new role in the Senate and goals for shared governance during a time of change and uncertainty at Pitt and in higher education in general.
UTimes: What ultimately inspired you to run for a higher leadership position beyond Senate vice president?
Kanthak: Really, I’m term-limited out of the vice presidency and I’m just not ready to stop working with these people. So I had no choice but to run for president.
I would never have considered running for this position were it not for the amazing, smart, hard-working people who are dedicated to shared governance.
University Times: How would you describe your interest in/passion for shared governance?
Kanthak: As a political scientist, the notion of shared governance is just fascinating to me. The real power of the Senate is “soft,” in the sense that we are somewhat limited in terms of the demands we can make or the power we have to force leadership to do things. But leadership’s lives are a whole lot easier if their actions have the imprimatur of shared governance via the Senate.
Plus, the University community is full of smart people who care a lot about this place. Their thoughts about what’s best for the University are generally right. The Senate’s job is to distill those thoughts and make sure this big amorphous blob called ‘the University community’ gets a spot at the table. Wrangling that and trying to represent it is really politics at its finest. It is incredibly important and so, so interesting.
UTimes: What have you enjoyed about serving as vice president?
Kanthak: I have loved being vice president. I’ve enjoyed working with the amazing people I’ve gotten to work with. I feel like I need to work hard every day to “earn” my spot at the table with them. One of the nice things about being in the Senate leadership is that you see more of the bigger picture.
Really, the action of the Senate is all in the committees. But Senate Council is attending all the committee meetings and seeing what all of the committees are doing. I’ve loved getting to help facilitate the synergies among the committees as they are working on similar issues from different perspectives.
UTimes: Would you say that you and outgoing Senate President Robin Kear made a pretty good leadership team and were often on the same page?
Kanthak: I do think Robin and I make a good team. She is very consultative and has a good sense that just one person can’t possibly know everything about a topic. And she always, always leads with integrity, which I really appreciate. We aren’t the same person, so we didn’t always agree on everything to the letter. But she always had a good reason for why she did what she did and always had a willingness to explain her thinking to anyone who asked.
Honestly, one of the bigger factors in my decision to run for president was knowing that the Senate bylaws make the role of the immediate past president an important one. I still have a lot to learn from Robin, and so I’m glad she’s still on the team.
UTimes: Do you envision taking a significantly different approach from Robin in your new role?
Kanthak: Observing and learning from Robin’s leadership style has been one of the great benefits of the last four years as vice president. But the main thing I learned is the importance of creating a leadership style that is truly and authentically your own.
Robin leads her way. She brought her authentic self to the job, and I hope to emulate that aspect of her leadership. It’ll look different for me. But I really respect the way she always leads with integrity, and I hope I can live up to that model.
UTimes: How well do you know Julia Meade? What are you looking forward to as far as working with her in leading University Senate?
Kanthak: I had never met her before she was elected. But you know how sometimes you meet someone and there’s just an audible ‘click’? I feel like that’s how it is with Julia and me. She’s an amazingly accomplished woman and a big thinker. I think we’ve become fast friends, and I’m really looking forward to working with her.
UTimes: Going into the summer months, what are your priorities/concerns from a shared governance perspective for this fall?
Kanthak: I think the diffuse, committee-based structure of the Senate is one of its real strengths. But the challenges we face over the next several years require us to work together and build community. My priority this summer is to work with committee leadership to figure out ways to develop a united front in places where we can, while at the same time protecting the uniquely diffuse nature of the Senate.
UTimes: Do you suspect the recent executive orders negatively affecting federal research funding and international student security will increasingly dominate the dialog? Will some previous priorities have to be put aside to address these conundrums?
Kanthak: We are coming up on some massively challenging times for higher education. That is, of necessity, going to take center stage in the Senate over the next several years. But honestly, my priorities going into this were to strengthen Pitt and be a champion for Pitt and for higher education. And I think that is the exact right response to the current challenges.
I don’t really see this as an either/or proposition. Pitt is at its greatest when it is creative, diverse, respectful and kind. I think the Senate, via shared governance, has a role in sharpening that and promoting it.
UTimes: Do these challenges present an opportunity for higher education to reassert its role, status and value to society, or is its status on a slippery slope based on perceptions of intellectual elitism?
Kanthak: I am a bit of an eternal optimist, and so every challenge looks like an opportunity. But I really do think there are great opportunities over the next several years for us to double down on our commitments to our true core values.
With my political scientist hat on, I look at the polling. I know that much of the public is unconvinced that colleges and universities provide value to the community at large. But, it turns out, they also don’t like it when they feel like universities are being attacked. The public is really ripe to hear about what’s great about places like Pitt if we are willing to be honest about our own propensity toward elitism and ‘othering.’
This stuff isn’t easy to traverse, because it requires some self-reflection at the exact moment we are scared and want to demonize people. The challenge for Robin, Julia, Penny (Morel, professor of immunology and Senate secretary) and me over the next several years is to figure out how to bring this big diverse community together over those shared values when the pressure pushing into our silos has never been greater.
UTimes: Is there anything else you’d like to share regarding your new role or about Pitt shared governance in general?
Kanthak: I know a lot of us are feeling hopeless right now, but for me, the Senate represents a place where smart people come together to work hard on solving difficult problems. The people dedicated to shared governance keep me from falling into that quagmire.
I’d really encourage anyone who is feeling that sense of hopelessness to give working with and in the Senate a shot. And the nice thing is, the Senate is where the whole Pitt community comes together: students, faculty, staff, post-docs, everyone.
If you are part of the Pitt community, the Senate is where you belong. And just being here, seeing the people who want to work with you, is incredibly heartening.
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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