University Times

What's the hot issue on the University Senate's agenda for the new academic year?

To paraphrase a campaign mantra from the Clinton years: It's the budget, stupid.

"The budget is going to be a huge issue again this year," said Senate President James Cassing.

"Money is tight, state funding is down, tuition is way up, and we're all going to have to work together at this University to balance the budget and make it work," the economics professor said.

Pitt's 2002-03 fiscal year began last month with news of:

* An unprecedented 3.7 percent reduction in state funding, coming on top of a 3 percent cut that the state imposed midway through FY 2001-02.

* A not-unrelated 14 percent tuition increase for Pitt in-state undergraduates, the largest tuition hike here since 1978.

* Multi-million-dollar losses in the value of the University's $1 billion-plus endowment, which Pitt officials blamed on the plunging stock market.

* Hefty increases in Pitt's utility bills and campus security budget (the latter largely in response to the Sept. 11 attacks) plus $4.2 million in new operating expenses associated with the Petersen Events Center, Sennott Square and the University's new, high-density library storage center.

Already, a huge, additional budgetary challenge looms for FY 2003-04: Pitt's current health insurance contract with UPMC Health Plan will expire June 30. "It seems pretty certain that we're going to take a big hit in our health insurance budget for next year," Cassing noted, with Pitt's premiums expected to increase by about 25 percent. "Senate representatives will be working closely with the administration during this year's [health insurance contract] negotiations, as we have during past negotiations."

Cassing's predecessor as Senate president, Nathan Hershey, said he plans to pursue at Faculty Assembly a question that he raises in a column in this issue of the University Times: Would Pitt employees, especially lower-paid ones, be better off if the University paid a larger share of their health insurance premiums in lieu of salary raises? See "Senate Matters" column on page 2.

Senate leaders say they also will pursue what has become a perennial issue here: Pitt health benefits for employees' same-sex partners.

Last spring, a special University committee (which included Senate representatives) concluded in a report to Chancellor Mark Nordenberg that Pitt should extend the benefits eventually — but doing so now "would not be prudent."

According to the committee, the most appropriate time for Pitt to reconsider its policy on same-sex health benefits would be after a new governor is inaugurated and a new legislative session has begun, and as the University negotiates a new health insurance contract. In the meantime, the committee wrote, Pitt should work with Pennsylvania's other state-related universities (Penn State, Temple and Lincoln) "and other interested parties" toward a common solution that "would mitigate the risk to the University's good standing with our elected officials."

Chancellor Nordenberg has not indicated when, or how, he will respond to the report's recommendations.

At a meeting today (Aug. 29), the Senate's anti-discriminatory policies committee is expected to approve a resolution asking Nordenberg to give Faculty Assembly a progress report on the same-sex benefits issue by Nov. 26, the Assembly's last scheduled meeting of the fall term.

"Basically, we would like to know how the administration plans to proceed on this issue," said anti-discriminatory policies chairperson Richard Tobias. By Nov. 26, he noted, Pennsylvanians will have elected a new governor and legislature, and Pitt's health insurance negotiations will be underway.

Tobias added: "Our resolution also will ask the administration to immediately proceed to consult with the other state-related universities as recommended by the special committee."

Also this year, the Senate's benefits and welfare committee will continue to push for faculty access to recreation facilities at the new Petersen Events Center. Currently, those facilities are limited to students.

And Senate representatives will continue to serve on a pair of provost-convened committees: one that is studying possible threats to academic freedom posed by outside funding agencies, and another that is reviewing the effectiveness of Pitt's 10-year-old University Planning and Budgeting System.

"Another thing the Senate will be doing this year is monitoring closely the University's new system for faculty evaluations of department chairpersons," Cassing said.

But the Senate president said his No. 1 priority for this year will be the same as last year's: "For the faculty to be involved in University governance, and to be taken seriously by the administration and the Board of Trustees.

"I think we're getting there," Cassing said. He singled out for praise trustees chairperson William S. Dietrich II, who, like Cassing, was re-elected in July to a second consecutive one-year term. "Bill Dietrich has shown nothing but the best possible attitude toward the faculty and its role in University governance.

"The faculty doesn't usually speak well of the Board of Trustees," Cassing added, with a laugh, "but I have nothing but good things to say about Dietrich so far."

— Bruce Steele