By SUSAN JONES

Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel’s first appearance before the state House Appropriations committee started out cordially, but a few of the lawmakers used the Feb. 29 budget hearing to ask some rather pointed questions about Pitt’s finances and recent decisions.

“We’re very grateful for your support, for all that you do and all that we have the chance to do together,” Gabel said in her opening remarks, as she sat beside leaders from the three other state-related universities — Penn State, Temple and Lincoln.

She also expressed gratitude “for our nearly six-decade partnership with you, which represents a shared investment in the future of the Commonwealth and in the thousands of students that we have the honor of educating and serving, who at Pitt are graduating at record rates to become the highly trained, workforce-ready employees in our state, who allow our corporate partners to be so successful and do what society needs and deserves.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro has asked for a 5 percent increase in funding for the four state-related schools for 2024-25, but he’s also proposed a bold new blueprint for higher education that would tie funding for the schools to performance-based metrics. Shapiro’s plan also would put the funding in the Department of Education budget, which only requires a simple majority for passage. Currently, two-thirds of lawmakers must approve the funding, which has created several delays over the past few years.

When asked by Rep. Regina Young (D-Philadelphia County) about what the performance metrics should be, all four leaders said that they should be specific to each school.

Gabel said Pitt is “very much in support” of developing these metrics. “Having been in systems in earlier parts of my career that have used performance-based metrics, the ones that have been the most functional, that have had the fewest unintended consequences, have been the ones that have been developed collaboratively, … that represent the different types of institutions that are in the state; the different types of families, students, stakeholders in the state; the different goals of the state, and then come together to think about what it is that everybody wants to accomplish, and then move forward accordingly.”

Controversy over speaker

Rep. John Lawrence (R-Chester County) quizzed Gabel about an incident in February reported by WESA where Congressional candidate Bhavini Patel was asked to reschedule her campus appearance hosted by Pitt’s Frederick Honors College.

Gabel said that the invitation for Patel, a Pitt alumna, to speak was originally extended before she declared candidacy in the Democratic primary election against Summer Lee for the 12th Congressional District seat. “While we don’t have a formal written policy, just as a matter of operation, we generally don’t invite people who are running for office,” Gabel said. The primary is on April 23.

IRS rules specifically state that nonprofit organizations, like Pitt, are “prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”

While Lawrence kept saying that Pitt canceled Patel’s appearance, Gabel stressed that it was just postponed. “The idea is to be as nonpartisan as possible on campus and allow our students to have the opportunity to learn in ways that bring forth issues that create learning opportunities as opposed to platforms,” Gabel said.

Lawrence cited appearances by Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald in 2019 and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto in 2018 as contrary to Pitt not hosting elected officials, even though Gabel was clear that the University avoids appearances by political candidates. Both Fitzgerald and Peduto were in office when asked to be speakers at undergraduate commencement. Peduto was not a candidate in 2018, having run unopposed in 2017 for his second term. Fitzgerald was unopposed in the 2019 Democratic primary, which occurred in May of that year.

Gabel noted that Pitt is one of the founding members of the Campus Call for Free Expression, formed last year.

“We have been devout proponents of the First Amendment, which would require and insist upon the free exchange of ideas,” she said. “It is expressly noted in the development of our strategic plan, which is exactly why we did not cancel but merely postponed. We 100 percent agree with the necessity of the free exchange of ideas. … We regularly have sitting public officials speak on campus. We invite and encourage it. It is only in the midst of a campaign that we would postpone, not cancel.”

Funding questions

Gabel and Temple President Richard M. Englert also were quizzed about a funding mechanism that has been in place at both schools for many years.

Rep. Eric Nelson (R-Westmoreland) asked why around half of the money the state has earmarked for the two schools appears to go to UPMC and Temple University Hospital. 

Gabel and Englert said the schools receive all the money the state appropriates for them.

“This is part of a 20-year agreement that has been reported every year in our appropriation,” Gabel said. “It’s part of our general appropriation, and still just goes directly to our tuition support.”

The state set up this mechanism, under a 20-year deal, where some of the money comes through the Department of Health in order to get matching federal dollars. The matching dollars go to the hospitals, and the money appropriated for the two schools then goes to Pitt and Temple.

“We receive every dollar of the appropriation,” Englert said. “In terms of how we receive it, some of it is held back to use for matching funds for federal funding, which is a win, win, win, for the hospitals, for the Commonwealth, for everybody involved. … The match goes to the hospital, which as I said, does God’s work, and the university receives every penny of the (state appropriation).”

While admitting that the funding mechanism is confusing, Gabel said it is fully disclosed in the appropriation filing the University makes every year and is available to all House Appropriations committee members. Englert also said the process has been audited and reviewed by the U.S. inspector general.

Other issues

Gabel also addressed several other issues during the hearing.

On safety of students during difficult dialogues: “One of the things I think all of us have learned in different ways — and not just the four of us, but higher ed, in general — is that sometimes in order to keep people safe, you have to allow for some level of exposure, but that free speech also means that there can be a very delicate but absolutely important and critical boundary between openness, which is sometimes uncomfortable and even unpleasant, and unacceptable, which must be stopped and, where appropriate, with consequences exercised. …. We’ve always had to navigate through that. … This is sort of the nature of the university environment as you’ve described. … It’s never been as hard for me than it has been in these last few months. But I think what we are getting better and better at in real time is learning from the students themselves, who are amazingly articulate at advocating for their own needs.”

On viability of regional campuses: While admitting that the Bradford, Johnstown and Greensburg campuses are “struggling,” and do not have the historical levels of enrollment, Gabel said there’s no deadline for the schools to reverse that trend. She said Pitt is looking at a variety of ways to “leverage regional locations,” including articulation agreements with community colleges, and using applied experiences to attract students to those campuses.

On BioForge: Gabel called the planned biomanufacturing and life sciences facility in Hazelwood Green, “a transformational development made possible through philanthropic dollars to create an entire new sector around biomanufacturing, which creates a new research and manufacturing hub on cell and gene therapy. This is one of these intersectional moments that’s just kind of perfect. It’s new jobs. It’s new research for things that will cure disease. It’s new educational opportunities at every level, vocationally, bachelor’s level, Ph.D. and clinical care. And it’s a new opportunity to serve a community in an area of the city where there’s a real opportunity for elevation in partnership with all of the community engagement that’s already happening there, K through 12 and beyond.”

Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.

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