By SHANNON O. WELLS
At the inaugural Faculty Assembly meeting of the 2024-25 academic year, Senate Council President Robin Kear expressed the joy and promise of a new fall semester while also acknowledging the gravity of the day, which fell on the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“I hope that many of you were able to take a mental break this summer. I found that I needed it … but as of today, it is very far away in my rear-view mirror,” Kear added. “But I do enjoy the wonderful whirlwind of students coming back, arrival week the classes starting and seeing them really bring the campus to life again, and the feeling of another new beginning and the chance to restart.”
In a meeting that included in-depth discussions of improvements in undergraduate advising services and a resolution streamlining requirements of campus affinity groups (see related story), Kear preceded her campus news report with acknowledgement of national unrest and campus violence.
She addressed what she called great social and election season-related “turmoil” and the potential stress it generates as well as an Aug. 30 incident in which a Pittsburgh man was charged with attacking two Pitt students wearing Jewish yarmulkes outside the Cathedral of Learning.
“I would also like to acknowledge the harm done to our Jewish community on campus through a violent act from a non-affiliate at the end of August,” she said. “I have heard from several of you on ways to improve the messaging and message timing for incidents such as that, and I’m currently bringing that forward to the administration in different ways.
“So, hopefully we can learn from that incident, at least about your reaction to it.”
Kear discussed several other topics in her report.
Faculty union and shared governance
With the Union of Pitt Faculty finalizing its first contract with Pitt earlier this year, Kear said the Senate is examining ways to keep the voice of the School of Medicine faculty, who are not part of the union, “strong in all matters of shared governance, and how to approach ongoing topics that have been bargained for a portion of faculty, but not all,” she said.
“The officers and I have decided to take an issue-by-issue approach this year to any specific items that arise in committees,” including items the administration indicates can’t be discussed in the presence of bargaining unit faculty.
To further that understanding as well as communications and potential options, Kear said the elected School of Medicine Faculty Assembly members and Senate officers met this summer, and will continue meeting this academic year.
She asked those outside the bargaining unit to let her know if they want to take part in the conversations.
“We will evaluate this process and determine if a formal Senate component is needed and what that could look like,” Kear said. “We’re just trying to roll with it and figure out what is best for all the faculty in the Senate.”
Kear also said she will meet with the Tenure & Academic Freedom committee and the faculty union leadership in early October to share information and questions about the grievance process regarding bargaining unit members and its impact on existing committee processes.
Free speech resources
Kear was part of a working group this summer with people from communications and marketing, the chancellor's and provost’s offices, Human Resources and Student Affairs to look at revamping Pitt’s Free Speech website, including its FAQs, and linking related policies together.
“So that went live right before the students came, Aug. 20,” she said of the website, noting that the provost’s office, Senate officers and co-chairs of the Student Aid, Admissions and Affairs and Educational Policies committee had input into the site. “If you have ideas for FAQs that are not there, that may be helpful (feedback).”
Testing center update
Kear mentioned recent discussions regarding the strain on the University Center for Teaching and Learning, especially during peak testing times, and “strategies for alleviating that pressure. So I want to call to your attention a new process that came out this fall related to the testing center.”
Noting she attended an open house at the testing center on Aug. 30, Kear said an email was circulated to instructors who have students who may require faculty to complete an alternative testing arrangement or agreement with Disability Resource & Services (DRS) at the start of term. The arrangements help provide equal access for students with disabilities and allow DRS to proceed with student requests for exam accommodations.
“So unlike previous years, a student will not be able to schedule an accommodated exam in the testing center until an alternative testing agreement is in place,” she said. “Just please be aware of these for the benefit of your students, and if you need assistance with this, since it is new, you can schedule a 15-minute walk-through of how to do this with DRS from their website. They have a scheduler right there, and they can help you do it.”
Policy updates
Education Benefit Policy draft: Policy ER 22 is open for comment through Oct. 2. “The policy will be reviewed by the Benefits and Welfare Committee before it comes to Faculty Assembly and Senate Council,” Kear said.
The draft policy consolidates and clarifies information from four current policies into one policy, she explained. It aligns eligibility for the benefit across employee categories and provides responsibility for establishing the benefit’s eligibility and value.
“So this does not propose changes to the education benefit or the eligibility and value,” she said, adding the policy will come to Senate Council in the coming months.
Federal Title IX regulations: The Office of Policy Management and Development coordinated interim edits to CS 20, a sexual misconduct policy, in case they needed to be in place by the original Aug. 1 deadline. “However, they will not be put into place at Pitt because we are part of a court injunction regarding their implementation. And if you follow the court injunctions, a couple of them are for various states and universities related to several different lawsuits.
“The regulations say that discrimination based on sex includes conduct related to a person’s gender identity, but most of the other regulations deal with other matters (including) how schools must handle complaints of sexual assault and harassment,” she said. “So it is still unknown for Pitt when these new changes might be implemented.”
In late July, Senate officers and co-chairs of the Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Advocacy Committee provided feedback in a “very short window” on the changes in case they were necessary.
“And we gave the feedback that the minor changes to these were reasonable for basic compliance with the federal regulations,” Kear said. “But we strongly encourage that the formal policy revision process start for CS 20, regardless of the pressure of these federal and legal deadlines. We believe that we could start having these discussions now and have time to consider them, irrespective of these legal deadlines that might be an improvement of a policy.”
Gift Advisory Committee: A committee was launched related to University policy AO 45 — Gift Acceptance and Naming. The policy covers governance and rules for the University’s acceptance of charity gifts and calls for a Gift Advisory Committee with one Senate representative.
Jennifer Murtazashvili, founding director of the Center for Governance and Markets and professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, will serve in this role for a two-year term, Kear said.
“We do have other Senate liaisons serving in various roles across campus that are representing us, including the LGBTQIA-plus steering committee,” among others, she added. “If you are ever interested in doing additional service, please let me know.
“I would love to have a short list of names to suggest when somebody inevitably steps back,” she said, thanking Murtazashvili “for all your service and dedication to short-term needs.”
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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