By CAITLIN MCCULLOUGH

In addition to representing staff through shared governance, a core purpose of Staff Council is to serve as a communication channel between staff and the rest of the University, including officers and administrators.

Our latest event series, Coffee and Conversations, allows Pitt staff to connect with our leadership in an informal, in-person format.

During Coffee and Conversations, creator and host Samantha Young interviews Pitt leadership, asking people to share information about themselves and about their path into their current roles. They talk about why they are passionate about Pitt, as well as the challenges and initiatives they are focused on in their respective units.

When Young first got the idea for Coffee and Conversations, she was looking for ways to reconnect with colleagues and re-establish some of the camaraderie she missed after not only being a student at Pitt, but also working remotely during the pandemic. She wanted to bring people together and create a familial atmosphere that went beyond a lecture and that didn’t feel rigid.

“We’re all together, grabbing a cup of coffee and learning how leadership got to hold their current positions,” she explained.

It was seeking that same camaraderie, albeit under different circumstances, that led Young to join Staff Council in the first place. Since she was working in an off-campus building at the time, she was looking for a way to connect to campus and to her colleagues. “I was looking for that ‘Pitt-ness’ that I had experienced as a student.”

Coffee and Conversations furthers that connectedness while giving attendees a look into different career paths and lived experiences. “We’re getting to know these individuals so that others can aspire to be like them,” Young said.

Director of Student Success April Belback appreciated the opportunity to describe her path. “I love that question. I really do! When we think about talking about ourselves, sometimes we don’t want to do that, but I think it’s so important. I challenge my staff to do that too, because sometimes our students look at us and think, ‘You got here. You’re good. It was easy,’ but for many of us, it wasn’t so easy to get here. We had a couple of challenges. So I tell my staff: share your story!”

Since the program is designed to be a low-stakes environment, speakers get the questions in advance, but there is always the option to expand beyond the submitted questions.  

 “That allows people to feel a little bit more at ease with everything as we’re speaking. If they want to open it up at the end for questions from the audience, then that’s fantastic,” Young explained. She is more than happy to go off script. Pitt Police Chief James Loftus is one example of someone who did take questions, turning to the audience and asking directly, “Does anyone have any questions? Anything you want to talk about?”

Even with questions in advance, she still aims to have a conversation. “You have to listen — keep your eyes and ears open and hear what they’re saying versus just hearing them talk,” she’s learned.

Feedback has been great so far, with appreciation coming from both attendees and speakers alike. Staff have approached Young after events and expressed pleasant surprise at having this type of opportunity that many other colleges in the area don’t seem to offer.

The speakers have been appreciative as well. “I really think it’s great that you’re doing this to humanize the people that you’re interviewing. It’s fantastic,” said Senior Vice Chancellor for Business and Operations Dave DeJong during October’s conversation.

“One of the ways that I think we build strength as a University is when folks with more experience or different experiences can help those that are just getting started on their careers or even to navigate forks in the road … to give advice when someone says, ‘I’d really like to get to this point, what do you recommend?’ ” DeJong said.

In describing his path, DeJong shared that as a faculty member he’d wanted to serve on an administrative committee to understand better what was going on in his own school, but quickly realized the power of shared governance through external committees, which made him want to serve the administrative functions of the University. “I realized that there was shared governance, and thought, ‘Wow. The administration is listening to us and there are opportunities here.’ To me, that’s the key to success. When you’re operating in silos, it’s not as fun and it’s not as impactful.”

For Young, who has both a BS and an MEd from Pitt and works as a pre-health professions advisor and digital media manager, coordinating this program has been both fun and rewarding. She enjoys working with and talking to the leaders she interviews and she’s learned a lot about the University. “I’ve worked with students, alumni and incoming students (in various roles at Pitt) but this really gives me the opportunity to see the flip side of the coin.”

In addition to communicating with and advocating for staff and sharing in governance, getting involved in Staff Council even simply by participating in our programming allows you to see the operations of the University beyond your department or unit. It’s a fantastic way to meet and network with peers and learn more about how your individual role fits into our overall collective goals.

As Young says, “Staff Council as a whole, we’re all here for one purpose — to make staff life better in any way, shape or form. If you care about Pitt and about our staff, we would be really happy to have you on Staff Council.”

You can start by participating in our myriad events and initiatives serving campus. Join us next week as we talk to Interim Provost Joseph McCarthy at the next Coffee and Conversations on Nov. 6. Register, submit your questions in advance, and let us know who you’d like to see next and how we can continue to develop the program.

For now, Young is looking into more frequent sessions, expanding who she talks to and looking for other ways to similarly highlight staff.

“I feel like the sky is the limit and that’s the beauty of starting something.”

Caitlin McCullough is Staff Council parliamentarian and web content manager in the School of Public Health.