By MARTY LEVINE
“We are going through a difficult period for advancing this important work around difference-making,” Clyde Wilson Pickett, vice chancellor for Institutional Engagement and Wellbeing, told the University Senate’s Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Advocacy Committee on Sept. 19, when asked about his office’s mission.
“What is our focus and what are things we will put our attention on?” he said. “It is important that we lean into the values we have always prioritized. ... The values that define this office have long defined the University of Pittsburgh.”
Among his office’s current working priorities, he told the committee, are:
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“Accessibility ... and the way we look at culture, part of the work we have always done.”
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“Disability resources and services are still part of the work we do.”
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“Religious accommodations have always been a part of our work”
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Bias and harassment response, which will continue to be “front and center.”
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“Sexual misconduct prevention.”
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“How we value different communities.”
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“How we create that culture of success.”
“These pillars of our community are not going anywhere,” he said.
Asked what was happening with information formerly found on the Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion website, which Pickett also led, he noted that “there is a formal committee that is reviewing all of this information ... to make sure we are in compliance with any federal expectations.” Some parts of the former website “we plan to return ... updated,” he said.
Pitt closed the Office for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion as of July 1 and shut down its website. It was replaced by the Office of Institutional Engagement and Wellbeing. The new office’s website focuses mostly on prevention of sexual assault, disability resources and how to report bias incidents. Missing are the resources for different ethnic and affinity groups, including a list and contacts for the Pitt communities for faculty and staff, that were previously on the OEDI website.
To another question, he noted that information formerly on the website can be requested from his office by emailing wellbeing@pitt.edu.
Asked how the committee could support his office’s work, Pickett said he plans to hold focus groups on that subject in the future, which are to be announced.
“If there are places and spaces we should be, in terms of sharing information, let us know, whether it is department meetings or sharing in other forums,” he added.
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
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