By SUSAN JONES
Even though Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the main state budget bill on Aug. 3, the funding for Pitt and the three other state-related universities remains in limbo.
Despite this, the Board of Trustees executive and budget committees passed a full University budget on July 26, including tuition and wage increases. During past state budget impasses, the University has gone ahead and set tuition rates but held off on other budget items, such as salary increases.
“Even in the absence of an appropriation, it was critical for Pitt to move forward with budget decisions to provide stability and continuity for all aspects of our University operations, especially our students, faculty and staff,” Pitt’s Chief Financial Officer Hari Sastry told the Trustee committees. “By having a comprehensive budget in place, we can better plan and allocate resources, ensuring a smoother and more effective academic year ahead.”
Wage increases
For non-unionized Pitt staff, one of the most significant pieces of the University budget announced last week was the new $16.50 minimum wage, which will apply to full- and part-time employees across all campuses, and the 3 percent pool for performance-based salary increases.
A separate 1 percent compensation pool for merit, market and equity-based increases will be used by responsibility centers to bring employees up to this new minimum wage, Sastry said. The raises will be retroactive to July, even though Pitt employees won’t see them until the September paycheck.
Staff Council President Lindsay Rodzwicz, who sat on the University Planning and Budgeting Committee, said she is “enthusiastic that Pitt is moving forward with raises for staff at this time,” particularly in light of fiscal constraints and the state appropriation still be undecided.
“While this is a definite positive for our staff and their morale with the continued high increases in cost-of-living, I do remain concerned that for the third year in a row, the raise pool has not kept up with inflation from the prior calendar year’s inflation, in accordance with our Salary Increase Policy.”
Senate President Robin Kear said she worked with Rodzwicz to advocate for the highest raise pool possible for staff and faculty.
“I don’t think the final salary pool number goes nearly far enough,” Kear said. “I am glad that our lowest paid staff will see a salary raise to $16.50 and that some staff salaries will be raised to be part of their new salary band. However, I think expecting 1 percent to cover all of these functions is not nearly enough. There could have been a separate budget item for compensation modernization.
“There will be salary compression that should have been accounted for this year, but hopefully (will be) in next year’s budget. The salary raise pool has not kept up with inflation these past three years. In addition to consumer items, other costs have risen, including next year’s health insurance premiums. I worry about Pitt employee morale and keeping great people.”
For those in the Union of Pitt Faculty bargaining group, the picture on raises this year is a bit cloudier. Union officials plan to tie compensation to getting a full tentative contract this year. Melinda Ciccocioppo, head of the union’s communication and action team, said negotiating compensation as part of the larger contract this year is important, “because it gives us the ability to push for higher raises, and to lock in those annual raises for multiple years in advance.” (See related story on union negotiations).
Kear said she has doubts that the union and the administration will come to a separate agreement on the salary raise pool this year, for the base rate or the market, merit and equity pool. “I think this year’s salary raise pool is being used as leverage to put pressure on the administration to finalize the negotiations,” she said.
Chancellor Joan Gabel said in a message to the Pitt community on July 26: “With regard to faculty and staff, the culture of collaboration and community that they have helped to create through their dedication and strong work ethic is one of the reasons I joined Pitt. Recognizing these invaluable contributions, it is paramount that we provide a competitive salary pool, and we are committed to reaching a fair and equitable agreement with represented faculty.”
Tuition and fee changes
The other big headline out of the budget announcement on July 26 was the tuition increase for students on the Oakland campus and a big price hike for housing and meal plans.
In-state undergraduate students in Oakland: Tuition up 2 percent, an additional $197 per term on average.
Out-of-state undergraduate students in Oakland: 7 percent increase, an additional $1,260 per term for most students.
Graduate students — both in-state and out-of-state — in Oakland: 3.5 percent increase, which equates to an average increase of $436 per term for most in-state students and $740 per term for out-of-state students.
Regional campuses: Tuition will remain the same as last year.
Housing costs will go up by 10 percent and meal plans by 6.7 percent on the Oakland campus. It was unclear if those costs will increase on the regional campuses.
Gabel in her message said that “students guide our daily mission, and we are certainly cognizant of the burden of higher education costs at Pitt and throughout the nation. We will continue to work diligently to control this burden while elevating financial assistance and overall quality.”
The message from Sastry stressed that, “The University is devoting a significant portion of its revenue to institutional financial aid for students, which more than half of all students now receive. As a result of substantial increases in financial aid, net tuition costs have only increased by an average of 1 percent for in-state students — or $86 per term — and 3.5 percent for out-of-state students — or $387 per term — between FY 2019 and FY 2023.”
Other budget items
The overall Pitt budget approved by the Board of Trustees committees includes:
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An operating budget of $3 billion, up 8.4 percent from the previous year.
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A capital budget of $389.9 million. The bulk of this will go toward essential preservation projects ($120 million) — Crawford Hall renovation, Thaw Hall roof replacement and Heinz Chapel spire repair — and development of BioForge at Hazelwood Green ($87 million). Another $42 million is for ongoing work on the Arena and Sports Performance Center.
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A projected research base of $1.2 billion, a total that Sastry said “reflects Pitt’s global reputation as a bellwether research university.”
State budget impasse
As the University continues to stress, the general funding Pitt gets from the state all goes toward reducing tuition for in-state students. That was one of the reasons to move ahead with the budget.
“Pitt knows that our students and families need clarity, and therefore, the budget approved by the Board of Trustees operates on the good faith assumption that the legislature in Harrisburg will ultimately fulfill its commitment and provide Pitt with its appropriation,” Sastry said. “We will continue to work with our lawmakers, emphasizing the importance of supporting Pennsylvania’s students and increasing funding for the state-related universities.”
On Aug. 3, the state Senate was called back into session in Harrisburg so the presiding officer could provide the constitutionally required signature to let the budget move to the governor’s desk. Republicans had balked at this final step after Shapiro backed off on his support of a school voucher program that would give taxpayer-funded scholarships to families of students in the lowest-performing public schools to allow them to enroll in private schools.
By signing the spending bill, the governor has allowed a majority of state dollars to be distributed, but several appropriations require code bills that dictate how state money should be spent. This includes the appropriation for Pitt, along with Penn State, Temple and Lincoln universities.
A measure that packaged funding for all four schools into one bill failed twice in June to pass the House. The nonpreferred appropriations requires a two-thirds majority for approval.
GOP lawmakers sought to have the schools commit to a tuition freeze and have expressed concern that the universities are not subject to the state’s open records laws and want assurances that state funding will only be used for in-state tuition discounts. All three schools have said repeatedly that the money from the state is used to reduced in-state tuition.
“We're encouraged by the latest developments in Harrisburg but remain eager for the General Assembly to act on the bill funding Pennsylvania's state-related universities," Pitt said in a statement. "Pitt uses every penny of this funding to reduce tuition by about $16,000 annually for our in-state students. We know the University community is very concerned, and our team is working with Pennsylvania’s leaders to secure Pitt’s funding and continue our 60-year partnership with the commonwealth.”
Further complicating the process is the resignation of Sara Innamorato (D-Allegheny) from the state House last month to focus on her campaign for Allegheny County executive. Her departure leaves the Democrats and Republicans tied at 101 members each in the House.
Under the governor’s proposal, all four schools would receive a 7 percent increase in state funding — the first increase since before the pandemic. Pitt would receive $162.3 million in general support and $3.6 million for rural education outreach in 2023-24.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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