By ROBIN KEAR

It has been another remarkable, challenging and impactful year in the University Senate. In my role as president of this elected and appointed body, I do so much listening. I cannot overestimate how important it is to listen for what people are saying and what they are not saying. I absorb their complaints and hopes, their disappointments and praise, their conflicts and sometimes their resigned acceptances, and their ideas for change. Through it all I never doubt their commitment to Pitt and to our students.

I channel all of this when representing you. This role is really a privilege and I thank you for entrusting it to me. When times are difficult, when tragedy occurs, or an issue seems intractable, I draw strength on this commitment to our community that I witness every day.

As part of that community, I have witnessed great dissatisfaction from some of our students with the state of the world, specifically war and terror and death. At Pitt, we have had good faith efforts to engage with these students and allow them to freely speak and dissent peacefully, while respecting other students and other views. We will continue to need our skills for listening, dialogue, humility and compassion to seek to understand each other, co-exist when we don’t agree, and work toward positive outcomes.

Before I go any farther, I want to thank the Senate officers (Vice President Kris Kanthak, Secretary Penny Morel, and Past President Chris Bonneau) and the Senate office (Lori Molinaro and Linda SantaCasa) for their hard work and collaboration. They make it fun and worth the effort.

The Senate settled into working with new leadership this year, from the chancellor and provost to deans that started in the past year, to a recently announced dean in the School of Education, and others that are forthcoming soon, such as in Engineering and LRDC. There will be other new impactful hires finishing up shortly, such as the next vice provost for student affairs and the chief financial officer. Administration is a dynamic environment and as administrators change, the Senate officers and I continually stress the goals and importance of shared governance. I am encouraged and reassured by efforts this year by our new leadership to engage the Senate.

Our Senate committees continue to be active and robust; our elected members and chairs are thoughtful and dedicated. The committees have brought attention to various items this year, some raised by faculty at large, including Testing Center pressures, student healthcare increases, keeping Zoom available for all, keeping tabs on FAFSA issues, navigating changes to our work by artificial intelligence, promoting open educational resources, improving research workflows, making our campus safe, and being involved in campus master planning. Some committees continue work on important items started this year, such as unit level planning and budget committee issues and making room for more voices through affinity groups in the Senate.

About half of the faculty that the Senate represents have reached ratification and implementation for a new collective bargaining agreement. I am glad to see this completed, and I hope it brings clarity as we all transition into something new. I appreciate the effort that it took by all parties to reach this agreement. I believe there are opportunities for positive collaboration that will serve faculty.

The Senate will largely continue working as we have over the past two years, focusing on all areas outside of the contract for those in the contract. For medical school faculty and those other faculty outside the contract, we continue work in all areas of our wide purview for their best interests.

The Senate passed six University policies through our shared governance this year ranging from research data management to service animals on campus. University policy creation, revision and discontinuation require the work of Senate representatives and chartered policy committees to reach consensus; deliberation and consensus take time. When these drafts are shared, they are out for public comment, reviewed and endorsed by Senate committees and then the entire Faculty Assembly, still being crafted and changed along the way. Finally, they reach Senate Council and then the chancellor, and the content is better for having gone through this deliberative process. I think this policy process is an underappreciated strength of our shared governance work.

An important change created by many Senate partners in shared governance and vision, the Senate endorsed guidance for community engaged scholarship and diversity, equity, and inclusion in promotion and tenure processes was finalized this year as a provost’s memo to academic leadership. This guidance is important for different kinds of research, scholarship and service in the academy, and is being implemented and considered in the schools. I believe this guidance will make Pitt more attractive to new faculty and will positively impact our research and community impact.

In these short descriptions, I have tried to share the breadth of what your Senate does for you in one year. I trust you can see that it takes so many dedicated people to move the work of shared governance forward. There are so many positives and so many impacts I did not mention. Sometimes there are setbacks too, as I have not been able to achieve what our shared processes envisioned for advances in dependent care benefits, however, I don’t believe the work is in vain. The need is stated and known, will not recede, and will move forward some day in some way.

I have found that there are obstacles until there are not, and sometimes it is not always clear why a shift has occurred. What does not shift is the dedication we all have to Pitt, our students, our community, and to open dialogue and discussion, which we will continue to need in the months and years ahead.

Robin Kear will begin her fourth year as Senate Council president in July and is a liaison librarian in the University Library System.