By SHANNON O. WELLS
In her final Faculty Assembly meeting as Senate Council president, Robin Kear — whose four-year term concludes in June — began her report on May 7 with an approving nod to Pitt’s 2025 commencement ceremony held on May 4 at PPG Paints Arena in downtown Pittsburgh.
“Commencement on Sunday was a wonderful event,” she said, praising the relocation to the “new venue” from the more traditional Petersen Events Center location as being “great to accommodate the very large amount of undergraduates that we had in the room. Over 3,000 attended, and their families, of course.”
“The speakers were great, and the families and students were so excited, and it is always a very wonderful reminder of what we’re all doing here,” Kear added, during the virtual meeting. “It’s been an interesting and challenging academic year, but it seems as if I have said that every year that I have been finishing up — and this will be my fourth year finishing up — and next fiscal year may be a more challenging test as well for the budget.”
She went on to acknowledge the April 30 Town Hall led by Chancellor Joan Gabel. The virtual meeting sought to clarify Pitt’s positions and address concerns related to recent White House executive orders affecting research funding, international students’ status, and the University’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
“I think it was informative. I think that Chancellor Gabel explained her positions and methods. I think that it was well received,” said Kear, acted as moderator for the webinar.
She also shared that Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for Pitt Health Sciences, met separately in April with elected Faculty Assembly members from the health sciences.
“That discussion seemed well received from those members,” Kear said. “Shekhar detailed plans for the future, for three years, for decreased federal grant revenue on the horizon, as he described those broadly in the Town Hall.”
Kear and newly elected Senate Council President Kris Kanthak met with a School of Medicine faculty member involved in the grassroots effort called “Pittsburgh Health and Science Workers.” She noted that the Senate “looks forward to future discussions” with that group this summer.
“There has been a range of viewpoints among Senate committee chairs on how to respond to federal government changes and the most effective methods for that,” Kear said, “and we will have an expanded executive committee meeting of all the Senate chairs and co-chairs later this month.
“We normally have that in the fall … to welcome new chairs, as a reminder of what to do in committees and also what might be coming through the year, but we’re going to have one in May as well.”
Planning and Budget Committee
Kear also provided an update on the University Planning and Budget Committee (UPBC) shared-governance advisory group regarding the overall Pitt budget.
The University Senate seven members on the committee — four at-large appointments and three leadership appointments, including the Senate president. The committee also includes Staff Council leadership appointments, as well as rotating deans and other leadership appointments from Pitt Administration.
“I bring it to you because that group’s work has finished for the spring (and) the academic year, and the work of the group has changed,” she said. “And I remain concerned about its effectiveness. With increased union representation among faculty, staff and graduate students, compensation was not discussed at all, due to conflict with mandatory subjects of bargaining.”
In the past, Kear explained, the group had more direct recommendations on financial tools available for which the group could advise. “And this year, it was definitely more … indirect recommendations with qualitative feedback given.”
“I have made suggestions and expressed that. I continue to be concerned about the voice of unrepresented faculty and staff, in the areas of compensation and benefits, especially,” she said, noting she’s suggested changing appointed representation to include unrepresented faculty.
“We do have one of those at-large positions turning over this summer (involving) three-year terms for the Senate at-large representation,” she added. “We will continue to discuss the changing role of the UPBC senior administration. Kris (Kanthak) is well aware of my thoughts on this topic.”
Passing the torch
Acknowledging she was presiding over the last Faculty Assembly meeting of the year, Kear noted that the University Senate will not officially meet this summer, “but your leadership will continue working after that and in the summer.”
She encouraged everyone to attend the final Senate Council meeting of the academic year on May 15 at Posvar Hall.
Shifting to the recent University Senate elections, Kear offered well wishes to the winners and those who participated.
“A big congratulations to our new officers, (including) Kris Kanthak, our current vice president, who will be moving into our president role for a two-year term. And congratulations to Julia Meade, who is our next vice president,” she said of the associate professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine.
“Congratulations to all new Faculty Assembly members,” she added. “And thank you to all who ran for elections as well.”
Kear said no one ran for Faculty Assembly positions from the schools of Dental Medicine, Social Work and Public and International Affairs, and the Health Science Library System. Those roles will be filled by appointments, she said, and recommendations should be sent to Kanthak and Lori Molinaro, director of the University Senate office.
“We can approach the person and see if they’re actually interested,” Kear said. “It’s very important to have as many voices (as possible) and to have the representation for those areas full as well.”
Here are Faculty Assembly election results:
- Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, Humanities: Claude Mauk, Linguistics; and Dawn McCormick, English Language Institute
- Dietrich School, Natural Sciences: Peter Bell, Chemistry; and Jennifer Cousins, Psychology
- Dietrich School, Social Sciences: John Stoner, History
- Dental Medicine: No candidate
- Education: Veena Vasudevan
- Engineering: Ahmed Dallal, Electrical and Computer; and David Schmidt, Mechanical and Materials Science
- Health Science Library: No candidate
- Medicine: Andrea Goldschmidt, Psychiatry; Ray Pitetti, Pediatric Emergency Medicine; and Katherine Wood, Vascular Medicine Institute
- Nursing: Jackie Calhoun
- Pharmacy: Martha Ndungu
- Public Health: Lisa Parker
- Health and Rehabilitation Sciences: Katelyn Allison
- Social Work: No candidate
- Public and International Affairs: No candidate
- University Library System: Bill Daw
Senate committee elections ran from April 25 to May 7, with three slots on each committee up for election for three-year terms.
HR Advisory Committee
Kear said she and Kanthak recently met with James Gallaher, vice chancellor for Human Resources, regarding transitions in senior leadership.
“We will be adding a senate representative to something called the Human Resources Advisory Committee, which was developed as part of the Office of Human Resources Strategic Plan within the past year,” Kear explained. “The representative will be our incoming vice president, Julia Meade. … We wanted to appoint a faculty member who was not represented by a union.”
This is part of efforts to make sure more voices are included in benefits and other decision-making processes, Kear said.
“It’s a space for discussion, engagement and feedback between University representatives and (Human Resources) about the employee experience,” she said.
Rather than an advocacy group, its goal is to provide “constructive, fact-based evaluations” on information received from HR regarding strategies and endeavors. “I think it’s an important role for us: a place for us to be, and for a not-represented member from the Senate to be as well.”
To conclude her Faculty Assembly report, Kear offered a recap for the 2024-25 academic year for Faculty Assembly, which she details in the Senate Matters column in the May 16 edition of University Times.
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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