By SHANNON O. WELLS

At a recent forum hosted by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), Senate Council President Kris Kanthak said she gained a sense of reassurance about Pitt’s structural strength and ongoing embrace of shared governance principles.

“I was heartened to be in the company of colleagues around the country who are facing many of the same headwinds that we're facing here in the commonwealth,” she said. “It was also very clear to me how comparatively well off we are here, as many of our colleagues are dealing with politicization of processes and legislative meddling that we're fortunate enough to have avoided thus far.”

At the March 27 Senate Council meeting, Kanthak shared her experiences — both encouraging and otherwise — of the “Faculty Governance: Does Restoring Trust in Higher Education Start with Us?” forum on March 24 in Cambridge, Mass.

The event — part of the AAC&U’s Public Trust in Higher Education Initiative and hosted by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences — brought together faculty senate and other higher education senior leaders, experts in shared governance, and faculty trustees to discuss how faculty governance “can lead the way in fostering improved trust with administrators and the public at large,” she said.

Calling the event “a great success,” Kanthak nonetheless said she was mindful of colleagues not present. “Those who would have represented colleges and universities but don't, because shared governance as a concept no longer exists there. It reminded me of the position of privilege we are in here at Pitt and the obligations that go along with that privilege.”

She acknowledged being “struck” by learning “how much of a unicorn this very body is,” noting that most of the shared governance leaders in attendance led faculty-centered groups, while Pitt’s Senate includes faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students and postdocs. “I don't think anyone else there had a University Senate. I learned that, in most places, shared governance is a thing that happens only between administrators and faculty.

“Many of the faculty there saw it as definitional that shared government meant faculty and only faculty,” she added. “But then there was an underlying question that a lot of these faculty leaders had — a seemingly insurmountable obstacle that many of them were facing — How do you include staff, students and postdocs and important questions of shared governance in these difficult times? And I was like, ‘I don't know. Listen when they talk at your University Senate meetings?’

“But it turns out at most places, that isn't an option. We're really fortunate to have this body. It is quite unusual. That's the good news.”

Then came what she called the “bad news.” At the event’s first session, Kanthak said Pitt was specifically called out by “a guy from a small liberal arts college” that she said teaches “tiny sets of offspring of the nation's wealthy on how to best be the next generation of the nation's wealthy.

“Which is, I guess, a way to make a living,” she quipped.

The critique was leveled at large research institutions, including Pitt. She quoted the person as saying: “Places like Pitt are medical centers with universities attached. Pitt is a collection of luxury brands under the same banner (whose constituents) don't know each other (and) can't create community.”

“We can't possibly ever be singular of purpose. We are too big to govern,” she recounted the critic saying. “And I heard also that we ‘lost touch with our core mission, which is educating undergraduates.’”

She also was told that Pitt has the “’poor breeding’” to rely not on tuition dollars, but on “’grant funding to cover the bulk of (its) operational expenses.’” The University would be “’better off to stop chasing the grant funding, the almighty research dollar, and stop looking outward and get back to (its) core mission, which is shoving information into the ear holes of people from the ages of 18 to 22,’” Kanthak said, acknowledging she paraphrased the speaker’s analysis.

Anchor institution

Although she was “not a fan” of the critique, Kanthak acknowledged that Pitt “should not be above criticism. In fact, I've criticized it myself, often from this very chair. But I found this critique to be inaccurate, unfair and frankly, dumb.

“If this is your first time at one of these meetings, you should know that hell hath no fury like a Kanthak scorned,” she said to Senate Council before recounting her rebuttal to the Pitt critic: “If Pitt decided to shrink back from all of our obligations, from all of our cutting-edge research and from all of our community engagement to focus solely on undergraduate education, the hit just to the economy of Western Pennsylvania would be devastating. That's not a brag. That's a fact.

“Pitt and places like Pitt are anchor institutions,” she added. “We are massive economic drivers in (our) regions. And given the complex and difficult times that we are in, we can step up to be massive cultural drivers as well. Shared governance matters, because while we are helping to shape young minds, we are also building the future those young minds will inhabit.

“We have obligations that go beyond our students and beyond our campus. Shared governance is, I think, a way to help build that future.”

Returning to a lighter tone, Kanthak said she was “happy to report” that two days before she heard the scathing criticism of Pitt, her youngest son committed to join the University this fall as part of the undergraduate class of 2030.

“I am a Pitt mom,” she said, before sharing what she “didn't say at that meeting in response to this criticism, because I am nice: ‘We do all of this other stuff, AND we provide a better educational experience for our undergraduates, because we teach our students that they're part of a larger community beyond their classrooms.’ ”

As an example, she noted that undergraduates at other schools can learn about the American experience by reading John Edgar Wideman’s “The Homewood Trilogy,” based on his upbringing in the Pittsburgh neighborhood.

“They can learn from the people of Homewood about the importance of resilience, community and a shared knowledge of historical facts,” she said. “At Pitt, when we're doing it right, our students from all over the world can learn with the people of Homewood, build community with them and co-create a future with them.

“This is because of the people who have been working here for years,” she noted, pointing out Pitt’s “amazing” staff, “to build real, meaningful connections in the communities around us. Pitt and other anchor institutions have a moral obligation to think beyond educating undergraduates.

“We can't be siloed in the same ways the little guys can. We just also happen to do better at educating undergraduates, too.”

From her experience at the forum, Kanthak said she realized “these two facts are intertwined: Pitt has this unicorn, a University Senate. We include everyone in shared governance. And Pitt is a massive economic and cultural driver in our region.

“If shared governance was (only) about what to teach undergraduates, with the occasional parking complaint thrown in, faculty could handle that just fine.”

Helping to shape what Pitt is and how it affects communities both near and far, however, “requires all hands on deck. ‘It's Possible at Pitt’ is a marketing slogan, but it's also a promise,” she said. “And in this room and on this zoom, we help define for ourselves as a community, what that ‘it’ is.

“So, I am very, very proud and grateful to share a ‘luxury brand’ label with each of you.”

Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.

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