By SHANNON O. WELLS
With sweeping executive orders now coming fast and furious from the White House, federal funding for university-level research is no longer a given.
At the April 9 Faculty Assembly meeting, Senate Council President Robin Kear addressed how communications efforts are underway at the University to get a handle on the changes and to promote the benefits of research funding.
Kear said although she’s heard some “dissatisfaction” with communication efforts, “sometimes silence is a message, but sometimes there isn’t something new to say. But I’ll tell you, I have been hearing that loud and clear, and I know you’ve been hearing it from your colleagues.”
Kear spoke of a coordinated communications effort — dubbed Pitt Research Matters — to emphasize the importance of research at Pitt in the wake of escalating federal scrutiny and spending-reduction efforts.
“I believe this is a beneficial kind of targeted message that you can put out to our community about the impact of our research here at Pitt,” she said of the partnership between the offices of University Communications and Marketing, Research and Government Relations, Pitt Health Sciences and the provost’s office. “It’s a coordinated effort to develop a new research communication effort, Research Matters, meant to highlight our contributions to improving the lives of all.”
The effort includes a “social media tool kit,” where suggestions and hashtags, including #pittresearchmatters, can be shared.
“I’ve been hearing much about people who don’t know what to do. They want to do something,” she said. “And I think this is one way that faculty can try to contribute what is meaningful about their work and the impact that it has in a concrete way to the broader community …
“Organically explaining the value of the research that you’re doing and its impact on the broader community in small ways, continually, I don’t think that’s negative. I think that just highlights what we’re already doing.
“So I applaud this effort,” Kear added. “I am glad that this part of the effort is happening.”
Kear discussed research funding concerns, along with the revoking of student visas and records by the federal government, Senate elections and other topics, including two policy drafts that Faculty Assembly approved at the meeting in Posvar Hall (see related story). With the May 7 meeting scheduled as Zoom-only, Kear noted this was the last in-person Faculty Assembly meeting she will lead before her presidential term expires.
Referring to communications related to the bevy of new federal directives, Julia Morgan, director of the Environmental Studies Program at the Pitt-Bradford campus, said she and some of her Bradford colleagues feel disconnected from the broader dialogue.
On Feb. 25, the American Council on Education and more than 60 higher education associations called on the Department of Education to rescind its recent Dear Colleague Letter regarding the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion policies on college campuses. A working group has been started at Pitt to look at this issue.
“I’m from Bradford, and we are hearing, like, absolutely nothing,” Morgan said. “We haven’t heard anything about the visas, and clearly our folks can’t make it (to Oakland) for OIS (Office of International Studies) lunches, and we do have international students. We’re not hearing anything about the Dear Colleague letter.
“We don’t do … as much research as you all do, but we definitely benefit the community,” she added. “So I’m just wondering if there’s a way that maybe this body can help us get more engaged with that. I have reached out to my dean, but, as they say, it’s crickets.”
Kear responded that some OIS immigration lounges are available virtually, “so any of your international students could also attend via Zoom. The Dear Colleague working group is new, and their work is really just thinking about that letter that was based around race discrimination, the one that came out in February. And they’re continuing,” she said.
“I know that everyone really wants to do something, do anything. As an individual, you can do anything. You have your own risk-tolerance level. You have your own sense of vulnerability in our current environment, and you make your own choices as an individual, and you have the rights of free speech as an individual,” she added. “I would argue that you wouldn’t be representing Pitt, per se (but) you can represent yourself however you want.”
Kear said she appreciates a “coordinated effort” related to Pitt research, which could include simple things like using the #pittresearchmatters hashtag to link related content.
“It doesn’t have to be, you know, an R1 grant … It could be something that you do in the community, that’s community engaged scholarship,” she said. “Or anything that you think impacts, and is representative of, the work that you’re doing.”
Senate elections
Kear also shared a reminder that elections for two-year terms for Senate Council president and vice president run through 11:59 p.m. April 18. “Please do vote,” Kear said.
Candidates for president are:
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Kris Kanthak, current Senate Council vice president and political science professor in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
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Adolph Yates, a professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.
Candidates for vice president are:
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David DeJong, an economics professor in the Dietrich School and former senior vice chancellor of business and operations
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Julia Meade, an associate professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine.
“Please encourage those in your units to vote,” she said. “We have had some robust voting already, I would say.”
Senate committee elections will follow, from April 25 to May 7. Only Faculty Assembly members are eligible to vote. “There are three slots on each committee that overturn every year for two-year terms,” Kear explained.
Remembering a colleague
In concluding her Faculty Assembly report, Kear provided an update on memorializing Laura Lovett, a professor in the Dietrich School’s history department and member of the Senate Benefits and Welfare Committee who passed away suddenly in early March.
“I mentioned (during the March 20 Senate Council meeting) that we lost Laura Lovett over spring break, and the Senate Benefits and Welfare Committee … has created a wonderful way to pay tribute to our Faculty Assembly member,” Kear said.
Linda Tashbook, adjunct professor of foreign and international law and comparative law librarian, said she contacted the Pitt Sustainability Office to ask about ways to memorialize Lovett.
“And they said, ‘Gosh, we’ve been wanting to build a pollinator garden, and we don’t have the funds for it, so the Benefits and Welfare Committee started a fundraising campaign.’ Actually, we did nothing. Sustainability did it all,” Tashbook said of their fundraising efforts.
Donations for the pollinator garden can be made electronically with the following instructions:
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Go to the PAE Give to Pitt donation page.
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Select “Choose Areas to Support”.
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Scroll to the bottom of the list and select “Other”.
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In the description box, enter “Office of Sustainability for Pollinator Garden in memory of Laura Lovett”
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Continue with contact information and submit.
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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