By SUSAN JONES

The Board of Trustees passed the University’s 2026-27 budget on July 10, but there are still several questions about what the plan means for many Pitt employees and departments.

The $3.28 billion spending plan includes a research base of $1.2 billion; tuition and fee hikes for all students; and a potential 5% reallocation of funds from some responsibility centers to areas that are priorities in the Plan for Pitt.

The board also set a 2% performance-based maintenance salary increase — along with a half percent salary pool for merit, market and equity considerations at the discretion of responsibility center leadership — for all eligible employees not represented by a union.

The capital budget is nearly $300 million and is focused on expanding student housing, including funds to build a new first-year residence hall surrounding the Music Building. The capital priorities also include preserving and maintaining existing historic campus infrastructure.

Jack Tighe, chair of the board’s Finance and Budget committee, said of the 2026-27 budget:  “Institutions continue to navigate evolving enrollment patterns, uncertainties surrounding federal research funding, rising operating costs, and a rapidly changing intercollegiate athletics landscape. Against that backdrop, the proposed fiscal year 2027 operating and capital budgets position the University to continue advancing its academic, research and service missions while maintaining responsible financial stewardship.”

Salary pool

A message from James Gallaher, vice chancellor for human resources, on Friday afternoon said that raises for non-represented employees would be in September paychecks, retroactive to July 1, but those represented by a union should check their collective bargaining agreements for pay raise details.

For the smaller unions at Pitt — such as the Service Employees International Union, which represents around 400 people, and the Building and Construction Trades Council, with around 70 members at Pitt — those signed agreements do indeed spell out a schedule of pay increases.

But for the bulk of Pitt employees — faculty, staff and graduate workers represented by the United Steelworkers — there is no current contract. The Union of Pitt Faculty’s first contract expired at the end of June, while the staff and graduate workers are about 18 months into negotiating their first contract.

This leaves at least 9,000 Pitt employees in limbo.

The Pitt administration said in a statement: “The University is currently bargaining with these USW units, and salary increases are a mandatory subject of bargaining.”

During the first year of negotiations for all three groups, the unions and the University reached memorandums of understanding that allowed those represented employees to get the same raises as those not in a union. The staff and graduate workers raises were only retroactive to August last year, instead of July, and they weren’t in paychecks until January 2026, instead of September.

Jen Goeckeler-Fried, chair of the staff union bargaining committee, said in a statement: “During the Board of Trustees meeting to approve the FY27 budget, Chancellor Gabel called staff the ‘life force’ of the University, and commented on the great work that we do to make Pitt a world class institution. Those are lovely words, and very true, but the 6,000 staff who are represented by the United Steelworkers would prefer to receive meaningful raises that help us survive in this economy. Praise won’t help us pay our bills. In exchange for the ‘life force’ we give through our hard work and dedication to the university, we deserve fair compensation. We will keep fighting for that at the bargaining table.”

Reallocations

Pinkney said during the trustees’ meeting that “we also will be collaborating with our responsibility centers to reallocate budget resources to align with Pitt’s strategic goals.”

He stressed that the money would not be leaving the University, but that some responsibility centers would experience it as a budget cut.

“The impact that will have on things like programs and the like, it’s a bit early for us to know all of those details,” Pinkney said in response to a trustee’s question. “We’re working through scenarios with our partners and in the Office of the Provost and in the School of Medicine Division. I don’t have any specifics as we think and plan through what that 5% reallocation will actually look like once it’s operationalized.”

Many areas were also asked to cut 5% during the 2025-26 fiscal year.

In a statement, the University said: “Given the current environment as well as the University’s need to manage its expenses, continued fiscal discipline is of paramount importance in this fiscal year. Each senior vice chancellor area — offices of the Chancellor, Provost, Health Sciences, and Finance and Operations — is being asked to reduce costs, reallocating budget dollars to ensure Pitt’s priorities are being met. 

“This is a strategic process. Reallocations will be made at varying levels at the discretion of the senior officer.”

Tuition and fees

Tuition rates will be going up for all students, Pinkney said. Those increases include:

• 3% for in-state undergraduates

• 2% for in-state graduate students

• 4% for out-of-state undergraduate and graduate students

• 1% at the regional campuses

“Overall, Pitt’s tuition rates for the upcoming academic year remain competitive with the in-state and out-of-state rates of other major universities,” Pinkney said.

“We’ve worked to keep our tuition rates as low as possible, especially for Pennsylvania students and at our regional campuses,” he continued. “Since 2020, our average annual tuition increase for in-state students has averaged a little more than 2%, which is below the inflation rate for U.S. colleges and universities. During that same period, tuition for students at our regional campuses has increased less than 1%.”

In addition, the new budget includes $330 million in financial aid to students and their families, “an amount that has increased by nearly 40 percent since 2020,” Pinkney said.

Mandatory fees for students on the Pittsburgh campus will total $2,155 for the 2026-27 academic year, which represents a 22% increase from the prior year. These fees cover student activities, computing services, recreation and transportation.

Housing rates also will increase by approximately 5% on the Pittsburgh campus, and meal plans will be up by an average of about 4%.

Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.

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