By SHANNON O. WELLS

A mention in the monthly chancellor’s report to Senate Council about Pitt’s $5 million investment toward city of Pittsburgh priorities, including neighborhood parks and public safety, sparked an exchange about how that expenditure fits into the University’s already constrained budget.

Staff Council President Lindsay Rodzwicz, director of special projects and strategic initiatives in the Swanson School of Engineering, asked Provost Joe McCarthy, who gave the report, if this is a good time for such an investment.

“With the external pressures you talked about from the White House, with steep cuts to research and education (programs), and the state budget,” Rodzwicz said at the April 23 Senate meeting in Posvar Hall, “how (are we) balancing that with the $5 million investment in the city of Pittsburgh and within Pitt’s budget.”

Dwayne Pinkney, Pitt’s executive senior vice chancellor for administration & finance, noted that the partnership with the city of Pittsburgh, “is important, obviously, and there is a lot that we rely on, depend on in that partnership. I know that it goes both ways.

“I'm not going to suggest that $5 million is insignificant. It's not,” he said. “We have a $3.2 billion budget and $5 million to support a partnership that is as critical as this one is — that is the context for that decision and for that support.”

Pitt’s decision to donate to the city follows years of calls for the city’s largest nonprofits to contribute more in lieu of property taxes.

The University and Mayor Corey O’Connor announced the voluntary commitment of $5 million throughout five years on March 30. In addition to neighborhood parks and public safety, the money is dedicated to O’Connor’s recently launched Main and Main Initiative for Business District Renewal program, intended to revitalize neighborhood commercial corridors through small business loans and facade improvements. 

McCarthy said in the report that the investments “build on decades’ worth of collaboration and support between Pitt and the city with a focus on city work that directly affects our faculty, staff and students.”

Thanking McCarthy and Pinkney for the additional clarity, Rodzwicz said she thinks it's “important for our staff community to understand that issue.”

Looking at FY27

McCarthy discussed the White House’s fiscal year 2026-27 budget proposal, which for the second year in a row asks Congress to make steep cuts to funding for scientific research and education programs across the federal government.

These include:

• 12% decrease in National Institutes of Health base funding

• 37% decrease in Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health

• 54% decrease for the National Science Foundation

• 90% decrease for federal work study,

• Elimination of funding for the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, Federal Trio programs and the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need program.

“Overall, the White House budget proposes cuts to non-defense funding by $73 billion, or 10%, and proposes to increase funding for defense by $445 billion, or 42%,” McCarthy said.

He also said that with the state budget, “We have seen flat appropriation funding for a number of years now, so I think it's somewhat safe to assume that we would see a similar trend this year, but we don't have any information either to confirm or refute that.”

McCarthy also noted that for fiscal year 2025-26, Congress, rather than taking the president’s budget recommendation, approved “much more modest changes to the research budgets for (certain higher learning) institutions. We're certainly hopeful that we'll see a similar trend this year.”

Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, visited Pitt in late March. The University’s Office of Government Relations and Advocacy helped coordinate the visit with U.S. Sen. David McCormick's office.

“Bhattacharya saw firsthand how federally funded research is driving real impact here at Pitt, from our transformative vision science and advanced rehabilitation to bench to bedside oncology at Hillman Cancer Center and commercialization successes like Avista Therapeutics, a Pitt spin-out now partnered with Roche,” McCarthy said.

The provost also shared several accolades:

• Alanna Schill, a member of the Frederick Honors College at Pitt-Greensburg, for being named that campus’s first-ever Fulbright Scholarship awardee.

• Pitt students Katelyn Chen and Alec Sciutto were recognized for being named Goldwater Scholars.

• Christy Ruffner, chief of staff at Pitt-Bradford, was named to the National Association of Presidential Assistants in Higher Education Board of Directors.

• Jill Millstone, professor in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Chemistry, and Ora A. Weisz, professor of medicine and cell biology in the School of Medicine, were recognized for their collective election as 2025 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest scientific society.

• Pitt's chapter of the National Science Society of Black Engineers was recognized for “not only earning the National Small Chapter of the Year award, but also the Regional Small Chapter of the Year Award at this year's National Convention in Baltimore,” McCarthy reported.

A penultimate experience

Senate Council President Kris Kanthak launched her monthly report by acknowledging the second-to-last Senate Council meeting of the 2025-26 academic year.

“It has always been a great dream of mine to be able to use the word ‘penultimate’ in a sentence, so it's with great pride that I begin this, my penultimate Senate president's report of the academic year,” she said.

She acknowledged Administrative Professionals Day on April 22, thanking the administrative professionals who “help Pitt run successfully, especially Lori Molinaro (University Senate director), who keeps us in cookies and agendas and more here at the University Senate. So, thank you, Lori.”

Senate committee highlights

• Campus Utilization, Planning and Safety has been “very busy these last several weeks,” in helping to facilitate flexibility to work from home during the NFL Draft events in Pittsburgh and in working with Pitt Public Safety and the city to “help facilitate a safer Oakland.”

• Benefits and Welfare Committee is working to get more information about possible changes to health benefits with the open enrollment period coming up, she noted.

• Bylaws and Procedures continues to examine the faculty collective bargaining agreement to create an information packet focused on procedures around grievances for represented and non-represented faculty, a process they will continue “as we get more of these collective bargaining agreements.”

Kanthak also noted “with sadness, that this is the last meeting for Senate Council Vice President Julia Meade, who's leaving the University” to practice medicine at West Virginia University. “I'm so grateful for Julia's partnership this last year. John Stoner, faculty member in the Department of History, will serve out the remainder of Julia's term, and I'm very appreciative of that.”

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

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