University Times

Pitt should not provide health benefits for same-sex partners

To the editor:

As a staff member of the University of Pittsburgh and a taxpayer of the City of Pittsburgh, I am strongly against providing health benefits to same-sex partners.

Until our lawmakers have created new laws expanding what a family is, this benefit should not be allowed considering the many ramifications that will follow. What a family is has many meanings, including the communities of men and women. If this benefit is to be in question, why just pick a particular section of the public?

I strongly suggest that a national health plan is what is needed; of course, then one will lose the power of choice of medical care and [face] the increase of taxes.

Also why not extend tax benefits of married couples to every adult? As an adult, one faces life with many discriminations, some of which are the result of choices. Life is hard and is not fair. I know because my choices have, at times, set me apart.

Elizabeth Phillips Iarrapino

Internal Audit

*************

Bellet CAS teaching award increased

To the editor:

I want to thank you for the coverage of the inaugural Tina and David Bellet CAS Teaching Excellence Award that appeared in the April 15 issue of the University Times. At this time, I would like to make two amendments to the information I provided for that article.

First, Mr. and Mrs. Bellet were so very pleased with the quality of the teaching dossiers, the program and the success of the dinner held on Saturday, April 17, as an event celebrating undergraduate teaching excellence in the College of Arts and Sciences, that they have decided to increase the recipients' awards for this and future years. Therefore, I am absolutely delighted to tell you that the cash prize is $7,000 plus the $3,000 grant for a total award of $10,000.

Second, in addition to those faculty members who submitted complete dossiers for review by the Bellet selection committee, there were seven other colleagues who were nominated for the Bellet, six of whom chose not to participate and one who was not eligible based on the criteria of the award. They are: Celia Brownell, psychology; James Franzen, biological sciences; Michael Golde, chemistry; Jon Johnson, neuroscience; John Norton, history and philosophy of science; Carey Ryan, psychology, and Bruce Venarde, history.

Beverly Harris-Schenz

Associate Dean

Undergraduate Studies

College of Arts and Science

*****************

Humanities salaries here called pathetic

To the editor:

Francesca Savoia speaks for most faculty in humanities departments in FAS when she expresses frustration about her miserable salary (April 15, 1999, University Times).

While we appreciate, I am sure, Dean Cooper's response that humanities faculties hold their own vis-a-vis AAU public universities, I would like to point to the significant disadvantage that Pitt humanities faculty endure by comparison with their counterparts at, let us say, Penn State. There, salaries as wretched as ours are regularly supplemented by lavish (by Pitt standards) additional funds for research, travel, attending conferences, using the telephone and the Xerox machine, research and work-study assistance, and the other indispensable support that the productive faculty at what claims to be a research university need.

In history of art and architecture, we receive a meagre $500 for ALL of our expenses and, for most of us, our assistants are unpaid volunteers. Yes, UCIS, West European studies, the Central Research Fund, will support us from time to time, and we are certainly grateful when they do — but those in a humanistic research field know they must spend thousands of dollars of their own money every year if they wish to sustain a proper level of research. It is simply not enough to claim we are compensated commensurately with AAU institutions. We are not.

Alison Stones

Professor

History of Art and Architecture

——–

N. John Cooper, dean of the Faculty and College of Arts and Sciences, replies:

For many years before I became dean of the Faculty and College of Arts and Sciences, I shared Professor Stones' perception and concern that FAS faculty did not receive the support they needed to achieve their potential as scholars and teachers. That is why, as a faculty member, I supported the proposal under the Phase IV Plan to reduce our tenured and tenure stream faculty numbers to 505, in order to provide additional resources for faculty support.

With the success of the Faculty Special Retirement Plan, FAS will be able to provide stronger support for our faculty. As outlined in the Strategic Plan for FY2000 and Beyond, we have asked the provost that $1.8 million of the FAS salary savings be reinvested in support of our undergraduate education, graduate education and scholarly missions, and $0.5 million of these funds are requested as additional support for faculty research and scholarship.

My office distributed a copy of this critical planning document to each faculty member (through the chairs of FAS departments), and additional copies may be requested by calling Mary Anne at 624-6090. I would urge all faculty members to read the document carefully — the proposed distribution of revenues in Table F-1 on page 53 is a blueprint for an improved future.

*************

Pitt should not provide health benefits for same-sex partners

To the editor:

As a staff member of the University of Pittsburgh and a taxpayer of the City of Pittsburgh, I am strongly against providing health benefits to same-sex partners.

Until our lawmakers have created new laws expanding what a family is, this benefit should not be allowed considering the many ramifications that will follow. What a family is has many meanings, including the communities of men and women. If this benefit is to be in question, why just pick a particular section of the public?

I strongly suggest that a national health plan is what is needed; of course, then one will lose the power of choice of medical care and [face] the increase of taxes.

Also why not extend tax benefits of married couples to every adult? As an adult, one faces life with many discriminations, some of which are the result of choices. Life is hard and is not fair. I know because my choices have, at times, set me apart.

Elizabeth Phillips Iarrapino

Internal Audit