University Times

The convening of an ad hoc committee to review policies and procedures affecting Pitt’s transgender members’ use of campus facilities has been postponed at the request of the senior administration.

At last week’s Senate Council meeting, University Senate President Michael Pinsky said that he was delaying activating the committee until recently initiated litigation against the University is resolved.

Within the past month, two complaints have been filed with the Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations, one alleging discrimination and the other charging that Pitt is in violation of city ordinances in its treatment of transgendered students. (See May 3 University Times.)

Pinsky said he had been recruiting members to serve on the ad hoc committee, which would be charged with reviewing policies and procedures affecting transgender members of the Pitt community, including those covering the use of restrooms, locker rooms and dormitory rooms. (See April 5 University Times.)

“But because the issue [now] is under legal determination by the city, we’ve been asked to hold, until that is resolved, before the group meets,” Pinsky said at the May 9 council meeting.

“Except for the students, the rest of the committee has been created and I will post on the Senate web site the list of all the participants on the committee and their charge once they’re allowed to meet.”

In explaining the administration’s request for a postponement, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg told council members that there is precedent for suspending internal reviews due to related legal matters.

“I have a fair amount of positive experience in working with committees like the committee that Michael proposed we impanel,” he said. Nordenberg noted he served on a committee reviewing Pitt’s South Africa investment policies in the mid-1980s. “And I impaneled the special committee dealing with domestic partners more recently,” he said.

“We have taken the position that if we’re engaged in litigation, then our focus will be on litigation and will not involve activities of this other type,” Nordenberg said. After several years of legal battles in the 1990s stemming from a former employee’s domestic-partner benefits discrimination suit, Pitt prevailed in a lower court, which was followed by an extended stay of proceedings.

“That lull in the action gave us a chance to put a committee together and come up with a resolution that was good for the University. I remain hopeful that we can do something like that. I can’t really predict what course the litigation will take, or how long it might take to unfold. We’ve just been served with the papers, and we’ve just begun talking to outside counsel about representing us. If there is some way to move forward with the committee, we’ll look to find that way, but as I said to Michael, we’re not in a position to commit to that at this point in time.”

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In other council business:

• Members approved the amended guidelines for search committees for senior academic administrators, initially proposed by the Senate bylaws and procedures committee, and recently accepted by Faculty Assembly. (See Feb. 23 University Times.)

The document details the process for searches for certain administrators and the role of faculty, staff and students in that process.

The guidelines apply specifically to the following positions: academic deans, provost, senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences, regional campus presidents, the director of the University Library System and directors of selected University-wide centers, that is, those centers whose directors hold membership on the Council of Deans.

The guidelines do not cover the search for a chancellor, which is overseen by Pitt’s Board of Trustees.

Council members also approved posting the guidelines on the University’s web site.

• This year’s Award for Service in the University Senate was presented to long-time faculty members Lou Fabian of the School of Education and Carol Redmond of the Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH).

A faculty member since 1974, Fabian served on the Senate athletics committee, 2000-06, returning as its chair in 2007, a position he holds currently. He was a member of the plant utilization and planning committee, 2006-07, and has been a faculty representative on the Board of Trustees athletics committee since 2011.

Redmond, an emerita professor, served as Senate vice president, 1989-91 and 1999-2001. She was the Senate appointee to the University research committee, 1989-91, and a GSPH Faculty Assembly representative, 1992-94. In 1999-2001, she chaired the Senate task force on evaluations of department chairs and deans, and in 2000-01 chaired the Senate working group on revising integrity policy.

Redmond also was a faculty representative on the Board of Trustees institutional advancement committee, 2001-05. Since 2006 she has served as a Senate appointee to the University Research Council. She is a current member of the budget policies committee.

—Peter Hart