Monday, September 28, 2026
By SUSAN JONES
Chancellor Joan Gabel gave her annual report at the Sept. 25 Board of Trustees meeting, which was once again interrupted by protesters.
Gabel also announced at the meeting at the University Club that Pitt leadership will host its sixth online town hall next month. The webinars were started last year to disseminate information to the entire Pitt community as changes on the federal level were roiling higher education.
“We look forward to providing updates at that time on how things are progressing on campus and beyond,” the chancellor said. “We’ll send out a save-the-date soon, along with a link to those who would like to submit questions in advance.”
Plan for Pitt progress
The chancellor’s annual report focused on the progress the University has made to meet the 2026 goals in the Plan for Pitt. The full report is available on the chancellor’s website.
“Over the past fiscal year, fiscal year 2026, the Pitt community has diligently advanced the work streams to make progress, achieving the board-endorsed outcomes and targets articulated in the Plan for Pitt,” Gabel said. “Because of these efforts, we’re stronger and better as an institution, and I want to express my sincere appreciation for the important progress we’ve accomplished together and in our shared commitment to advance this work, down to a person, across the institution.”
Under the “Student Success” goal, she highlighted the Pitt Finish Line Grants, which helped 152 students with $875,000 total in support to help complete their degrees, and the new tuition-free pledge at the regional campuses for students whose household adjusted gross income is $75,000 or less.
She also cited Pitt’s record four-year graduation rate of 78% and the recent listing in the top 25 among public universities in U.S. News & World Report’s 2027 rankings.
Pitt is meeting the goal to “Propel Scholarship, Creativity and Innovation,” Gabel said. Since fiscal year 2024, Pitt faculty have been elected to national academies 15 times, nearly double the amount from the previous four years.
“We are a research powerhouse serving our community with meaningful discoveries,” she said. “We had a very strong year in the area of innovation despite some pretty significant headwinds, advancing as one of the top 20 most innovative universities in terms of overall research productivity, startups and patents.”
Gabel said a Pitt Workplace Survey showed that nearly 90% of employees understand how their job contributes to the University’s mission. This has helped Pitt make the America’s Best-in-State Employers 2025 list by Forbes and contributed to the “Be Welcoming and Engaging” goal.
Globally, she said, Pitt has elevated its engagement, doubling the number of faculty receiving Fulbright awards. Locally, she cited the newly opened Hill District Community Engagement Center. Both of these contributed to the University re-earning the Carnegie Elective Classification for Community Engagement.
Under the “Hold Ourselves Accountable and Promote Trust” goal, Gabel said Pitt is “elevating a culture of dialogue and discourse with our participation in the Citizens and Scholars campuswide version, and … keeping our community safe, as shown by achieving the lowest campus crime rate in 15 years.”
Finally, she focused on “what it means when we say it’s Possible at Pitt. How do we commit to seizing special opportunities that have game-changing impact on the world around us, leaning into the incredible talent in our community and the incredible passion in our community for discovery?”
She cited several examples how Pitt is powering the future:
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Leading the life sciences century through Pitt Bioforge.
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Transforming assistive technologies to enable human achievement from mobility to restoring sight, through work by Rory Cooper, director of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories, and José-Alain Sahel, chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology who earlier this year received the prestigious 2026 Proctor Medal from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
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Advancing digital leadership for everyone, including the work of HAIL (Hub for AI and Data Science Leadership), led by Michael Colaresi.
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Powering a healthy future through innovative programming such as One Health; a new degree in gas, renewables and oil; and Pitt’s selection as part of the Resilient Energy Technology and Infrastructure (RETI) Consortium that includes 60 regional partners and an NSF award of $160 million.
After the report, Board Chairman John Verbanac said, “This year in particular, given the disruptive headwinds that higher education finds itself facing, the quality, innovation, the resilience of the University of Pittsburgh and your leadership team and all the members of the Pitt community once again turned in incredible progress in a year.”
Protest interruption
Three protesters stood during the Board of Trustees meetings to demand Pitt disclose the contents of its $6 billion endowment portfolio, divest from “companies directly involved in genocide in Gaza” and allow for community control over investment practices. The first protester cited a vote last year by Pitt students for disclosure and divestment.
All three — who are all enrolled students according to the University — were peacefully escorted from the meeting room by Pitt Police officers. The protesters represented the Sumud Coalition, which is not a registered student group. Members of the group also interrupted the February Board of Trustees meeting in the William Pitt Union.
Pitt’s endowment is largely invested in hedge funds, private equity or index funds. These funds are managed by outside companies and can include investments in a multitude of companies. The agreements Pitt has with these companies often include confidentiality clauses.
Last year, Jeffer Choudhry, Pitt’s chief investment officer, said there were more than 100 fund managers in the portfolio at that time.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times until her retirement on Sept. 30. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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