By SHANNON O. WELLS

In her announcements at the May 1 Faculty Assembly meeting, Senate Council President Robin Kear praised the somewhat incongruous mix of activities on April 28 on the Oakland campus — commencement and protests — as demonstrating Pitt’s traditions as well as its legacy as a vibrant and engaged institution of learning and experience.  

Kear called the April 28 commencement ceremony at the Petersen Events Center, “a really wonderful event.”

“It's always wonderful, and this year was no exception,” she said, encouraging faculty to attend future such events if they haven’t already. “As you may remember, most of those graduating did not have a traditional high school graduation due to COVID. So it was an even larger, more joyous and raucous crowd.

“It was almost full, the Pete, even behind the stage where the students walk on,” Kear added. “It’s usually not so packed, but it was it packed. And it was a wonderful event to see all the students walk the stage and to hear their families cheer for them.”

Mentioning the “free expression and protests” on Pitt’s campus in support of Palestine in the past two weeks, Kear said she believes Pitt has “done a very good job at accommodating the students and balancing University needs at a very difficult time of year,” which included final exams, commencement and other graduation-based events.

“While we cannot and should not protect students from all harmful ideas, we must not forget about those students who are fearful or anxious over what is being expressed,” she said. “We should continue to listen and engage in dialogue and make sure that all are vital parts of our community.

“And from what we have seen across the country, and I think we'll continue to see for another couple of weeks, I think that we will see peaceful civil disobedience and destructive acts of protests that continue into the fall,” she added. “And we will need to continue distinguishing between the two of those, acting accordingly and continuing to make a community where conflicting views can coexist.”

Senate elections

In other news, Kear shared results from Senate elections, congratulating the newly elected Faculty Assembly members and Secretary Penny Morel for being re-elected for another two-year term.

“She has been with us for two more years. She cannot back out now,” Kear joked.

She noted that new members will get more information this summer, including an orientation of the Senate, “especially for those new to Assembly, before the first Faculty Assembly meeting. Just congratulations and welcome and thank you for to all those who ran for positions.”

The members elected to Faculty Assembly are:

A&S Humanities: Sam Pittman

A&S Natural Sciences: Marc Coutanche and Sybil Streeter

A&S Social Sciences: Carey Treado

Business: No candidate

Computing & Informaton: Ahmed Ibrahim

Education: M. Najeeb Shafiq

Engineering: John Brigham

GSPIA: Julie Santucci

Law: John Linarelli

Medicine: Vera Svobodova Donnenberg, Melanie Jean Grubisha And Doug Reed

Nursing: Shareen Ann Milligan

Public Health: Tom Songer

Social Work: Alicia Melnick

ULS: Chloe Dufour

Turning to the ongoing committee elections, Kear said there’s a “healthy slate for that as well,” with elected faculty serving in the Senate receiving ballots. “So if you did receive that, go ahead and please do vote.”

Senate committees will elect chairs, co-chairs and secretaries for the next academic year, “and some have already done so, which is great,” Kear noted. She asked that new leadership information should be sent to Lori Molinaro, director of the Senate office, by July 1, so she can update the website.

With committees now winding down for the academic year and having their last meetings in May, Kear thanked those who served on Senate committees for their work, “especially to those that take leadership roles.”

Other news

Budget training: A Budget Policies Committee forum was scheduled for May 2, for all unit-level planning and budgeting committee members to share challenges and successes and to recommend best practices. The resulting feedback, Kear said, will inform the Budget Policies Committee for their upcoming work.

Dependent care: Kear said she spoke recently with James Gallaher, vice chancellor for Human Resources, about the recommendations of the Senate Dependent Care Ad Hoc Committee, which ran for two years. He told her that HR is “not in a position to make significant changes to dependent care at this time. And if that sounds like a quote it is because I wrote it down,” she added. “I'm disappointed by the outcome. I wish it was better news, but I thank the committee and the committee chair for their work and their creative solutions.”

Linda Tashbook, librarian and adjunct professor in the School of Law, said the ad hoc committee’s recommendations “were so practical and sensible. It's disappointing. They put together a huge report.”

Policy news: While there are no University policies currently open for comment, Kear shared a minor edit the policy office made to University Policy R114, Research Data Management, which became effective last October. A section inadvertently excluded OneDrive, a Microsoft-based repository used by Pitt Information Technology, from being used. “There was a small language change to include OneDrive as a resource where research records may be stored,” she said, adding that the officers saw no issue with the change nor did Research committee co-chairs with whom Kear consulted.

Payments for research participants policy

Katherine Wood, Senate Research committee co-chair, presented Policy FN 29, Unit Level Payments for Research Participants and Students draft policy, to Faculty Assembly.

With Anthony Graham, senior policy specialist in the Office of Policy Development and Management, and Stephanie Ford-Jones, director of payment processing and compliance, presenting an overview about unit-level payments policy, Research discussed and approved the draft policy at its April 19 meeting.

Wood described the unit-level payments for students as a mechanism for per-diem payments when traveling for University activities as opposed to through purchasing. The designation of “other activities” is a mechanism for University payments to individuals who are not students or employees, such as in a study requiring people being brought to campus for interviews.

When the draft policy went to the Operations Council for questions and comments, Wood said a concern arose that the existing policy is not “sufficiently specific about what should not be paid with the payment system.”

When the policy currently in effect was developed, Wood said it took a more “positive approach” to what other activities for which the system could be used. As a result, it lacks the necessary specifics. Therefore, adjustments were made to sections on Students and Other Activities in the revised policy.

“Procedurally, nothing has changed, just the focus of the policy, which is now more about expenses,” she said.

Specifically, the draft policy authorizes payment processing and specifies compliance guidelines. Authorization requirements are described for the units of the researchers that make the direct payments.

Non-compliance with the policy can result in revoking use of Vincent Payment Solutions system, the payment system currently used at Pitt for research participants, as well as other sanctions.

In governing how payments are made, responsibilities are divided essentially between payment processing and the unit for the researchers making the direct payments.

“For payment processing, the responsibilities cover managing the process of your payments, providing a secure payment system to the University to protect Social Security numbers and the like, and monitoring or auditing the system periodically to ensure that there's proper payment initiation,” Wood said.

Unit research and responsibilities include maintaining the proper documentation for payments made, “again, keeping payment data secure, getting the proper paperwork for University tax funding purposes,” such as a W-9 or 1099, and getting an authorized waiver from the Human Research Protections Office for exceptional payments, such as the “man-on-the-street-type payments,” which Wood said have been a “bone of contention” for some Research committee members.

Wood clarified that the policy purposefully does not focus on the Vincent system or its thresholds. “It does not get into those details, so that there can be an easy swap if Pitt moves to another payment system,” she said.

Faculty Assembly approved the policy with 37-0, with five members abstaining.

Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.

Have a story idea or news to share? Share it with the University Times.

Follow the University Times on Twitter and Facebook.