By SUSAN JONES
About 100 members of the faculty union bargaining unit crowded into the William Pitt Union lobby as the Board of Trustees met in private nearby on Sept. 29 to push for Pitt’s administration to move ahead with negotiating compensation issues and demonstrate “we all support fair pay for all faculty,” said Melinda Ciccocioppo, head of the union’s communication and action team.
But it was small groups of students who later disrupted the Trustees public meeting several times to demand action on resource centers for the LGBTQIA+ community and divestiture of Pitt’s endowment from fossil fuels.
After the meeting, Chancellor Joan Gabel said, “I absolutely respect their right to protest and we’re in a public meeting and they have the opportunity to protest, and then we restored the process of the board meeting in due course so that the business can continue. The opportunity to either have a regularly scheduled meeting — some of which we’ve already done — or to engage in other forms of protest at different events or different points on campus, I think is absolutely available to every constituency and stakeholder.”
Union rally
The main speaker at the union rally was Tyler McAndrew, a part-time instructor in the English department, who said in his nine years at Pitt he has been “hired and rehired 14 times,” which he said was damaging to his “personal and professional life, not to mention our students and the general well-being of our University.”
Not having automatic contract renewals can make it difficult to buy a house or car, have kids, “or even go on vacation when you don’t know if you’re going to have a job 13 weeks in the future,” McAndrew said.
The union and administration have reached a tentative agreement that says if a part-time faculty member is doing a good job and there is work for them to do, that they should be able to keep doing that job without having to reapply. McAndrew called this “the biggest change that this University has ever seen with regards to labor.”
“The work that we’ve done here to build our union and to fight for this contract is so important, because for part timers, this is the only concrete way we have to building a future.”
McAndrew cited the case of Margaret Mary Vojtko, an adjunct faculty member at Duquesne University who died destitute and nearly homeless 10 years ago at age 83 after teaching at Duquesne for 25 years, making no more than $10,000 per year and having no health insurance. McAndrew said since Vojtko’s death very little has changed.
Though the union won a victory on automatic contract renewals, McAndrew said the fight isn’t over. The next issue is compensation.
“We’re still facing an uphill battle,” he said. “We know that faculty here are not paid adequately for their work. We know that the cost of living raises each year do not keep up with inflation. … Is the administration going to just decide to pay us more? No, they are not.”
After the rally, the union supporters left the William Pitt Union before the public part of the Board of Trustees meeting started.
Student protests
Throughout the early part of the Trustees meeting, as members were trying to elect Louis Cestello as the board’s new chair, groups two or three students stood up repeatedly to voice their complaints and concerns.
Three of the interruptions came from students seeking more resources for the LGBTQ community on campus, including three fully staffed resource centers. Speakers for each of these three groups said they had sent multiple requests before the deadline set by the board to speak to the Trustees.
As the students tried to speak, Cestello repeatedly said, “There’s established procedures for bringing issues and concerns to the board. You have not been following these. As was announced at the beginning of the meeting, participation is limited to the members of the board and to those the board has invited to take part. Pursuant to the board’s adopted rules of conduct of its meetings, no one is permitted to disturb or interfere in any way. Continued disruptions preventing the orderly progression of board business will not be tolerated and further disruptions will be dealt with as appropriate.”
Students continued speaking as they were escorted from the room by Pitt police officers, although even those in the room could barely make out what was being said as Cestello reiterated board policies.
A spokesperson for the University said members of the public may request an invitation to address the board by submitting a written request 15 days prior to public meetings, addressed to the chairperson of the board and sent in care of the Office of the Secretary. The request should include the topic that would be discussed. But, the spokesperson said, “All requests will be considered by the chairperson. If an invitation is extended, it will be upon recognition by the chairperson at an appropriate time during the meeting.”
In at least the past five years, the only people who have addressed the board during its public meetings, other than Trustees, were members of Pitt’s administration.
The last student group to stand up and protest during the meeting held signs demanding Pitt divest immediately from fossil fuel investments in its endowment.In 2021, The Board of Trustees Ad Hoc Committee on Fossil Fuels’ recommended Pitt stay the course to allow private holdings in fossil fuel-related businesses to run off by the end of 2035, instead of the more drastic action long sought by some members of the Pitt community to divest the endowment immediately from fossil fuels.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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