By SHANNON O. WELLS
Officially, David Brown serves as Pitt’s vice chancellor for government relations and advocacy, in the chancellor’s office.
In his presentation during the Government Relations Committee meeting on Nov. 11, however, he somewhat took the unofficial role of a post-2024 election therapist, particularly for those anxious about the implications for universities of a second Donald Trump administration.
Because Trump, who defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 6 presidential election, the newly GOP-controlled Senate — and possibly House, for which votes are still being counted — won’t take on their new roles for another two months, Brown acknowledged the need to “wait and see” what directions the administration chooses to pursue.
Despite Trump’s stated interest in eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and the Republican Party’s general disdain toward progressive, or “woke,” policies, including those based on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices, the tone of Brown’s 2024 election review suggested Pitt faculty and staff should stay calm and carry on until further notice.
“I think there's gonna be a lot of noise,” Brown said. “There's going to be some hearings. There'll be some letters written to universities requiring responses. But in terms of just the politics taking over and requiring curriculum changes and those types of things … I just don't see that happening.
“We'll be on the lookout for it,” he added, noting that DEI programs will “get some some pushback.”
Department of Education changes
Regarding the immediate future of the Department of Education, Brown said the Trump administration is likely, from an agency perspective, “to clean house.”
Brown said it’s likely Education and some related departments will become smaller, with fewer positions and “those types of things, including a lot of loss of institutional knowledge about how things actually work.”
That said, while it won’t be easy to transfer some responsibilities outside of the Department of Education, “I do think there certainly will be an impact. (The department is) not going to go away. I just don't see there's support for that,” he said. “There's some critical functions that have to continue.”
If Republicans control both chambers of Congress, Brown sees still-pending Higher Education Act reauthorizations as vulnerable. However, sweeping changes would “still be challenging,” with Democratic support needed to achieve a 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
In addition to scrutiny on DEI and free speech issues, Brown said he anticipates an effort to try to make, “for better or worse, universities more accountable and transparent in how we do things.”
Responding to questions about how quickly Republican-led changes in higher education policy might trickle down to schools like Pitt, Brown noted that the party’s narrow margins in both houses will make it difficult to pass sweeping legislation without substantial give and take with Democrats. The Senate will likely have 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats.
“The numbers are going to be incredibly tight in the House, even if the Republicans take the chamber,” he said of the still-pending election outcome. “In order for them to get anything really done, (they’ll need) Democratic votes to help them move something.”
“Of course, the Trump administration is going to have a ton of leeway relative to straight party-line votes on Cabinet members and Supreme Court justices that they can get to that point.”
With Republicans taking control of the Senate chamber, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) will chair the Health, Education, Labor and Pension committee. Brown called Cassidy “usually pretty good to work with,” although he’s been “picking on higher ed” during the 2024 election in areas such free speech involving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as universities’ emphasis on DEI.
Cassidy has questioned use of taxpayer dollars to support these positions “and the proliferation and the responsibility and the jobs and the policies associated with it,” Brown said of DEI, noting Cassidy is “focused on Pitt, probably even more so than Penn State. So we’ll see how that plays out.
“But we have a very good working relationship with the Cassidy staff, his higher ed leads, and their oversight staff,” he added.
Making Senate connections
Although longtime Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey has yet to concede in his race against Republican Dave McCormick, who the Associated Press has called the winner, Brown said he doesn’t see “any real path” for Casey to challenge the results. “And I don't think the votes are there, so we'll just wait and see.”
With McCormick then joining Democrat John Fetterman to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate, Brown said it would behoove Pitt to develop a connection with the Republican senator’s office.
“We don't really know a lot about where McCormick is going to be on things that are important to us, like research funding and student financial aid, where he is relative to higher ed policy,” he said. “There's going to be some work to do on our end, to build relationships with that office. But I do think that we're used to changes.
“We'll hit the ground running and get to work and make sure that the McCormick staff, when they're put together and finalized, are meeting with us and are familiar with the University,” he added.
State politics
Closer to home, Brown noted that despite upheavals in the presidential race, most things in Pennsylvania, “pretty much remained the same.”
Despite some Democratic Party seats gained and lost, he said the Senate in Harrisburg will maintain its Republican Party control by a 28-22 margin. The state House of Representatives will remain in Democratic Party control by a one-vote margin, 102 to 101.
“So, very, very tight there, but still consistent with where we left it prior to the elections,” Brown said.
This week, Democrats in the House re-elected Rep. Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia for speaker of the house. House Republicans elected Rep. Jesse Topper of Bedford as their new leader for the 2025-26 session.
That the legislature maintained what Brown called “more or less its status quo” should ultimately be a good thing for Pitt.
“We need to work both sides of the aisle anyway, right? We need a two-thirds vote to pass our (budget) appropriation.
“We need to maintain those really solid working relationships with leadership and rank-and-file on both sides of the aisle,” Brown said. “We'll work with whatever they give us, and what they gave us this year was pretty much status quo.”
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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