University Times

Pitt’s senior administration grabs most of the headlines. The faculty here get noticed when they bring in research dollars, win teaching awards or publish in their fields.

But behind the scenes, University staff, some 6,900 strong across five campuses, often toil in jobs ranging from the mundane to the esoteric.

From mailroom workers to data entry specialists, costume designers to biosafety officers, photographers to accountants, staff at Pitt perform tasks great and small, year-in and year-out, for the greater good of the University.

Like the proverbial purloined letter, some staff, such as secretaries, receptionists and maintenance workers, go unnoticed even though daily they plug away at their jobs in plain view.

This is one in an occasional series profiling University staff, providing a glimpse of some of the less recognized employees whose primary business is making Pitt work.

For faculty and staff at Pitt, directly or indirectly, the job is all about the students.

Ensuring students succeed is the focus for many: From support offered by the Academic Resource Center and resources such as the math assistance center and writing center, to services for international students, life skills programs for student athletes and discipline-based initiatives, support for students takes a broad range of forms.

“If we’re not keeping our students here, we’re not doing something right,” said Kenyon Bonner, associate dean of students and director of Student Life. “I think there is something going on in every school in every area that deals with that, because retention and success is one of the major ways we measure our effectiveness.”

Pitt’s overall freshman retention rate is high — around 92 percent — tying for 8th place among the national universities compared in the most recent U.S. News & World Report college rankings.

Not surprisingly, Ivy League schools dominate the retention rankings, but Bonner said Pitt’s rates are competitive.

“I think it’s the quality of students, the programs we have, the commitment the University has from the chancellor on down. This is something we want to pay attention to, to ensure all our students are successful,” he said.

Retention can be a bigger issue for underrepresented students who may be affected disproportionately by factors that have a strong effect on staying in school. The risk is especially high for African-American males. Nationwide, two-thirds of black men who enter as freshmen don’t return for their sophomore year, Bonner said.

But Pitt has been much more successful in its retention efforts. According to University figures, Pitt’s freshman-sophomore retention rate for African-American males averaged 90.1 percent for the 2007-2009 freshman classes, the three most recent years for which data are available.

Retention is a complicated issue. Was the student’s college preparation adequate in high school? Are they getting connected to their peers, to Pitt and to faculty? Do they have financial issues? Do they have family support? Can they get advice from parents?

“First-generation college students regardless of race or gender struggle because they don’t necessarily have a parent or guardian or brother or sister who can show them the ropes and talk about their experience,” Bonner said.

“We know that it’s not enough just to put students on a college campus. You have to do some work. You have to get them connected. Environment is important — whether or not they feel like they matter, whether they feel there are resources to assist them that are unique.”

This Making Pitt Work focuses on a few of the many people at Pitt who go the extra mile to ensure that all students have the tools and support they need to succeed.

Bonner directs Pitt’s RISE (Reaching Inside your Soul for Excellence) program, a project instituted by Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey to deal with retention, particularly among African-American males.

Tiwanda Taylor, an adviser in the College of Business Administration, coordinates minority student programs and assists with diversity recruitment. Following the departure of a fellow staffer earlier this term, she resumed her role as adviser to CBA’s Roberto Clemente Minority Business Association, a student group that serves as a resource for minority students.

Alaine Allen, director of the Pitt Engineering Career Access Program (PECAP), oversees undergraduate and pre-college preparation programs aimed at supporting underrepresented students in the science and engineering fields. Allen’s efforts were recognized earlier this year with the Chancellor’s Affirmative Action Award.

Tiwanda Taylor’s main responsibility is as an academic adviser, with an advising caseload of more than 200 students whom she follows throughout their time in the College of Business Administration.

She said CBA has a strong focus on career planning, academic assistance and leadership development, which have been brought together in the new Center for Student Success. In order to register for classes, each CBA student must meet with an adviser. New students must take a 1-credit business orientation course to help them understand majors and certificates and to start the focus early on career planning and identifying their strengths and unique qualities in order to develop a personal “brand” to aid in their job search.

Because students arrive with various levels of preparation from a wide range of school districts, these requirements help to level the playing field. “The idea is for students to be on the same page,” Taylor said.

While external and personal factors can affect retention  — a student may have some personal reason for departing — “as far as the resources and support these students have access to, it is incredible,” she said.

“The school has done a lot to make sure students don’t just graduate but receive career planning emphasis. The school makes sure they prepare early,” she said.

Taylor also collaborates with the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid in hosting departmental visits for prospective business students from underrepresented groups. “It’s mostly a supplement to make that family’s visit more personal,” Taylor said.  “We are vying for a population everybody wants,” she said.

That hospitality may include chatting with the student and his or her parents over lunch accompanied by a student from CBA’s Roberto Clemente Minority Business Association (RCMBA).

The focus of the conversation “isn’t on who they are culturally or racially, more it’s on achievement level,” Taylor said. In making the connection with an RCMBA student, “They meet someone they can identify with,” she said, noting that feedback she receives almost always includes a mention of the student host.

Once prospective students choose Pitt, Taylor works to pair incoming freshmen with RCMBA peer mentors. “They’re excited to share their experience with somebody else,” she said of the mentors. Social outings and events are a big part of the bonding.

The matches are made early in summer and the incoming freshmen are encouraged to communicate with their mentors before the fall term begins. The aim is to have new students arrive on campus knowing someone. In early fall, the first formal mentor/mentee event is the annual “Meet CBA” reception at which faculty, staff, administrators, upperclassmen and the RCMBA steering committee come out to welcome the new students.

RCMBA’s stated mission is “to develop well-rounded students through academic support, professional development, volunteerism and social activities” in order to fulfill its vision of transforming the corporate world through diversity.

Taylor takes pride in watching students develop into what they wanted to become. Having bonded over time, “The saddest part is at graduation when you have to say goodbye,” she said. Taylor’s workstation, papered with thank-you cards, attests to students’ appreciation of her efforts, and many stay in touch online or through alumni activities, she said.

“Whether the students choose a corporate path or nonprofit, or grad school or start families, it’s rewarding that I got to spend a little time with them,” she said.

Student Affairs’ RISE program matches students with faculty, staff and alumni mentors to help them navigate the University, and graduate students who offer personalized attention as academic coaches.

Although designed to address retention among African-American men at Pitt, RISE is open to all undergrads. In fact, of about 125 participants, there are more women than men, program director Kenyon Bonner said, attributing that in part to men’s tendency not to seek out help as readily as do women.

“We are trying to get more men to buy into the notion, first that they need help, and then taking advantage of help,” Bonner said. To boost men’s participation, Bonner speaks at freshman orientation about the program and has initiated peer-to-peer recruiting efforts.

“Some of the issues that underrepresented students face in college are not feeling like they should be here, not feeling like they’re adequate. This whole issue of performance anxiety — they’re very capable but because they’re so worried about confirming the negative stereotype that they shouldn’t be, they actually don’t do as well because of performance anxiety,” Bonner said. “The more students are connected to each other and the institution, the better they perform. That’s also a purpose of RISE — to bring them together to form a support community.”

RISE participants must take part in at least six hours of study sessions per week. To build community, there are monthly dinners and an annual overnight retreat. A student board plans events and community service activities.

The overnighter, held at the Oglebay Resort in West Virginia, includes social time, team-building exercises and practical sessions on financial literacy, money management and academic skills such as time management and test-taking strategies.

The monthly Sunday dinner workshops cover a variety of topics, including campus academic services, opportunities in various career fields, how to learn and even a program Bonner presents on “embracing your inner nerd.”

He explained, “Our students are very intelligent at Pitt and sometimes we believe because of the way we’re socialized that we should be ashamed of the fact that we’re intelligent and that we study and pay attention to academics. This is more of an issue for men than women, but it’s an issue overall.”

Noting that financial issues are among the factors that affect retention, Bonner said the program includes tangible incentives. If participants put in the required study hours, attend workshops and the annual retreat, they receive a $250 book award for the next term.

“Surprisingly, they tell us the most valuable component is the study sessions. The students always comment on how much the study sessions help them to focus and structure their week and become more disciplined in studying around other students,” he said.

Bonner said the efforts at Pitt aren’t “feel good” programs. They actually must retain and help students graduate. “There have to be intended outcomes that are met. And if they aren’t met, we have to modify the program or eliminate it,” he said.

“Retention and graduation are the two main things we look at. Are freshmen coming back their sophomore year at a rate equal to or higher than our campus stats? The answer to that is yes.

“We’re looking at our students moving through Pitt to graduation. Are they graduating at a rate equal to or greater than campus? And they are,” he said.

Bonner said his involvement with RISE helps fulfill a personal passion to offer the support he wishes he’d had as an undergraduate.

“I see myself in these students,” he said. “This is my opportunity to try to provide some of the things that I didn’t have or I learned about later. I can provide those things for our students.”

Having gone to high school in Cleveland where the community included large African-American, Jewish and white populations, Bonner said he experienced some culture shock as a freshman on the largely white Washington and Jefferson College campus.

“There were 34 or 35 black students and about 1,200 white students,” he recalled.

Although he had excellent mentors and a great college experience, Bonner said, “One of the things I missed out on was a program, or even faculty and staff who looked like me, who could have assisted me and my peers with some of the things we were facing. … There are some things that folks who have a common experience can assist you with that other people can’t.”

He also finds professional value in being involved with RISE.

As an administrator, “you have to make a concerted effort to stay grassroots and in touch with students and what’s going on, what’s working and not working,” Bonner said. “RISE has provided me with that more day-to-day student contact that you might miss out on if you don’t have a program like this. It’s allowed me a better understanding of our students, their experiences and some of the things we can do globally to help our students.”

As director of the Pitt engineering career access program (PECAP), Alaine Allen oversees the staff who support pre-college students and undergraduates from traditionally underrepresented groups in preparing for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) field careers.

The pre-college Investing Now program recruits students, mostly from Pittsburgh city schools, at the end of 8th grade. It provides academic advising, tutoring, hands-on activities, college planning workshops and summer enrichment sessions for 9th-12th graders.

Students must qualify for the program with at least a 3.0 GPA in math and science, and must submit essays and recommendations.

The program is challenging, aiming “to prepare the students to take the most rigorous classes possible, to get all the preparation they need to be competitive in this environment or another school,” Allen said. About 10 percent of the program’s participants do come to Pitt, she said.

“The goal is to get them to major in science, technology, engineering or math,” she said. “If they come to Pitt, that’s a nice bonus for us. We want to see them move on to higher education, we want to see them major in a STEM field.”

For Pitt undergraduates, the EXCEL diversity engineering program, open to all students, provides academic counseling, tutoring and community-building activities.

“I want Pitt EXCEL to be an authentic diversity program. I want it to be a place where students from underrepresented groups feel comfortable — African-American students, Latino students, female students, Native American students, low-income students,” she said. “I want it to be a place where anyone can come, anyone can participate, anyone can plug in and take advantage. And our students really become the diversity ambassadors from the school. And that’s our goal.”

Recruiting for EXCEL begins once students are admitted. In conjunction with campus visits, Allen said students are invited to attend an overnight “diversity in engineering” event. Engineering undergraduates speak about the University’s student organizations and opportunities for peer mentoring, tutoring, research, co-op programs and study abroad.

Allen, sometimes accompanied by faculty members, takes parents to dinner to give them the opportunity to ask questions before they depart for the evening, while students participate in a hands-on engineering activity, then spend the night in the residence halls with current students.

EXCEL also offers a summer engineering “boot camp” two weeks before the fall term begins. For two weeks, students have math, chemistry, physics and engineering problem-solving classes 8 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m., with 7-10 p.m. mandated study sessions.

“We try to make it as rigorous as mid-terms would be. We want them to experience the pressure of engineering during that two weeks,” she said.

Participants also have fun. On weekends there are game nights, trips to Kennywood and Pirates games.

The two weeks are a boot camp of a sort for staff as well. “During the summer engineering academy, the staff is just pretty much here,” she said. Given the intensity, “You really get a chance to get to know the students in that two weeks.”

That familiarity is invaluable. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach,” she said. “When you get to know them as an individual, then you’re available to deal with those different things, to talk them through or be supportive.”

While the program goal is retention and graduation, “Another big part is encouraging students to go to graduate school, encouraging them to reach for the stars, encouraging them to fulfill their potential and to do all that was put in them to do, to be excellent in their field,” she said.

Along the way, Allen said her role alternates between big sister, mom, coach, cheerleader and disciplinarian. “It’s like having multiple children. You interact with different children in different ways based on their personality,” she said.

“There are some people you can push, push, push and they’re always going to do better. There are some people who that pushing is going to break them. You discern that as you go.”

She attributed the program’s success to her staff. “It’s important having a team of people around you. If you can’t impact one person, maybe there’s an approach someone else uses that’s more effective,” she said.

The best part of her work, Allen said, “ is seeing the students mature and develop over time — from being accepted in 8th grade, to graduating high school to becoming EXCEL freshmen.”

The downside is those who don’t make it. “The challenge, particularly with engineering, is it’s a tough major,” she said.

“Watching them not make it is hard. It’s like a personal devastation if someone is dismissed from the University or doesn’t quite make it to college.”

Allen knows firsthand the challenges students face. She found her career niche after having been an engineering student herself. Although she interned over the summers, “I never found what grabbed me,” she said. A summer job at Lincoln University’s Upward Bound program changed all that.

“I loved investing in students and seeing them change, and seeing them grow and seeing their excitement when they learned and getting to know them. I loved it.”

To the dismay of her college adviser, she left the science honors program and began pursuing plans to be certified to teach, graduating with degrees in physics and secondary education. Following some high school teaching and a graduate degree in policy planning and evaluation, she became Pitt’s Investing Now program coordinator.

Allen said she had excellent mentors in high school and college to guide her, as did her staff. “That’s the great part about our team. They are people who received a lot of support and encouragement through our educational process so we just find it our duty to give the same thing.”

And those values are being passed on to the students they work with.

“We try to ingrain in them that it is important to give back. This is not just for you. We invest all the time and energy we invest so that you can invest that time and energy in others in the future.”

—Kimberly K. Barlow