By SHANNON O. WELLS
The Union of Pitt Faculty and the administration have signed off on guidance that Faculty Assembly approved 18 months ago related to implementing community-engaged scholarship and diversity, equity and inclusion work in promotions and tenure decisions, Senate President Robin Kear was “very, very happy” to announce at the Jan. 10 Faculty Assembly meeting.
Kear said schools and departments can now work on implementing the guidance in their areas through their shared governance processes. She said the milestone has been “a long time coming,” and that she had “doggedly followed up on this topic with administration and with the union” during the 18-month interim period. The result is the union agreed “with no changes to the guidance that Faculty Assembly passed 18 months ago.”
The recommendation defines community-engaged scholarship as activities that “collaboratively generate, exchange or apply academic and community knowledge and practices through reciprocal partnerships among members of the university” and the broader public.
Approaches include community-based participatory research, engaged-action research and research-practice partnerships that result in sharing knowledge through academic publications, policy recommendations, technical reports, exhibitions and joint projects that “benefit the community and the University.”
Interim Provost Joe McCarthy shared a memo in the fall with the academic leadership team, including deans and heads of other units, authorizing implementation of the guidance, “so I really want to make this widely known,” Kear said.
“Both DEI and CES work advance the mission of the University and the Plan for Pitt, but are often unacknowledged in annual reviews and promotion and tenure procedures,” McCarthy said in the memo. “Both kinds of work can consume a significant amount of faculty members’ time, carry a risk of failure and often are not adequately recognized or rewarded.
“I am now directing that deans and presidents use their governance processes to revise key documents to acknowledge faculty members efforts in both CES and DEI work (in teaching, scholarship or service),” he said. “Such documents might include: promotion and tenure guidelines, annual review documents and CV templates. This is not an effort to require that your faculty engage in CES or DEI work, but to properly recognize it where it exists. The two recommendations are well-considered and can serve as resources for your schools and campuses as you evaluate the efforts of faculty who engage in these academically important pursuits.”
Acknowledging the recommendations will take time to be fully implemented, Kear encouraged suggestions to support the changes. “But I feel this is a huge step forward for Pitt, and it should be recognized as such,” she said. “… We are doing something that is not yet common everywhere, so I think we need to be recognized for that, too. And again, it's not required, but it is an attempt to recognize this important kind of work as academic scholarship.”
Kear thanked all those who worked on the guidelines “two years ago, to do that work. And thanks to everyone for putting it forward,” she added.
Testing accommodations
For the past 18 months, Kear said the Disability Resources and Services (DRS) Testing Center has been at capacity, especially during common testing times, such as midterms, finals, etc. The center saw a 31 percent increase in the use of testing services in fall 2023 over the previous year.
During peak use times, overflow space is often requested from testing center and the registrar. There has been a 250 percent increase in overall disability accommodations since 2000. “You may have noticed an increase in DRS notifications in your own classes,” Kear said. “I've heard as high as 10 percent. And depending on the size of your class, that can be very significant.”
Information and resources were sent to the top 50 classes that use the services of the testing center detailing short-term options to relieve pressure on the center. The suggestions and options in the emails are not mandatory, Kear explained, but meant to foster flexibility among the high-use areas. “Departments and faculty can respond with explanations of why this is or is not tenable for their classroom area.”
Kear engaged with Senate Council members and the disability resources director to gather more information and “to understand the situation further.”
“We discussed that a common accommodation is the lengthening of the test time, and most often timed testing leads to the need for (further accommodations),” Kear said, noting that other less-common accommodations include break requirements during a timed test, assistive technology, accessible tables, audio exams, and assistance with Scantron forms.
“The abilities of schools, departments and individual faculty to meet these testing needs varies widely,” she added. “The need for institutional support for a testing center will not ever completely go away, so I think we need to give thought to supporting more resources for the testing center, examine what kind of resources Pitt gives to universal design for classroom design overall, and other ways to engage in universal design and other potential solutions for the short and long term.”
Kear agreed with Tom Songer, assistant epidemiology professor in the School of Public Health, that the solution to the testing accommodations problem should rely not just on faculty changing their practices, but also an increase in resources related to the testing center and DRS office, or “multiple components” of the Pitt campus.
“I agree because I first heard the concern from a faculty member who teaches large classes … over 300 students,” Kear said, “and this person does not have a (teaching assistant) … and so that's a high number of students for what is a testing assessment that has a fixed length of time in that kind of class. So I could see how it was overwhelming for the individual faculty member to try and consider (short-term options) being suggested.
“So yes, I agree it shouldn't be entirely on the faculty,” she added. “Especially if there are varied accommodations that are needed, that are perhaps not possible for them to have the knowledge to accommodate or they need support to know how to accommodate them, to do it within the guidance … And it’s not always possible for departments to do that, I think.”
Postdoc salaries
In late December, interim Provost McCarthy sent a memo to the academic leadership team announcing a new minimum salary and maintenance increase for Pitt’s postdoc scholars and associates, effective July 2025, Kear said. The minimum salary will be set based on the National Institutes of Health’s National Research Service Award minimum annual salary, currently $56,484, which is adjusted annually.
Despite the 2025 date, Kear said the memo “strongly recommended that units implement the new minimum salary this July 2024 and adjust their budgets accordingly.” Effective Jan. 1, 2024, all new proposals for external funding of projects that include postdocs should use this base level stipend amount and the amount for annual maintenance adjustments, the memo explained.
Email security
Noting the Pitt Information Technology presentation last fall regarding problems with email security, Kear said there's still “great concern” over the use of email forwarding to non-UPMC accounts by Pitt employees.
“I've been in discussions over alternatives, but those are hard to find. The email format and other fixes will be implemented first with alumni email accounts,” Kear said, adding she is “not optimistic about keeping the possibility of email forwarding for faculty.”
While there will be more opportunity for feedback this spring, Kear encouraged anyone with input to contact her or Pitt IT.
Policies open for comment
Assistance to Animals, Therapy Animals and Pets: Open through Feb. 7, the policy committee had Senate representation and will move through the Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Advocacy Committee before reaching Faculty Assembly.
FERPA: Access to and Disclosure of Education Records: The policy committee had a Senate representative and will move through Educational Policies before coming to Faculty Assembly.
ER 04 Domestic Partner Benefits potential decommissioning: Kear shared feedback she provided to the Pitt policy office. “While we do not have concerns in the present climate at Pitt for the decommission of domestic partner benefits, we do have concerns about benefits for domestic same-sex partners being changed in a future state or national climate that might be more hostile,” she said. “… Rights such as those related to the legality of same-sex marriage change over time.
“The domestic partner benefits policy was created in part to bring equity to same-sex benefits before the legal rights the same-sex marriage became nationalized,” Kear added, suggesting a “possible remedy” could be to consult the Benefits and Welfare committee if there are any benefit changes for faculty, staff and students regarding domestic partners in the future.
After the meeting, Tom Hitter, assistant vice chancellor for policy development and management, told the University Times the policy office had put the policy decommissioning on hold after this and similar concerns were raised.
Students in the Armed Services policy revision: Related to automatic re-enrollment after deployment, Pitt was compliant in its procedures, but not in official written guidance. “So the Department of Defense needed to see the change in our guidance, not just our working procedures, to remain fully compliant.” The change was posted on Dec. 15, in the University Catalog’s admission section and with the Office of Veterans Services.
Other items
Annual Senate Plenary: It will take place at noon March 7 in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room. The tentative title is “Bringing Disciplines Together to Solve Big Problems,” which will focus on how this can and does happen here at Pitt and in the Pittsburgh education community. Speakers and other details are still in the works, but Kear encouraged anyone with ideas on the topic or interdisciplinary teams to approach to get in touch with her.
Provost search committee: Work continues, and is now in a “confidential” phase, Kear said.
Dependent Care Ad Hoc Committee recommendations: Kear said she will follow up next week with HR and financial operations. With the departure of Hari Sastry, she is including future interim Chief Financial Officer Thurman Wingrove in the discussions. The final report can be found under Ad Hoc Committees on the Senate website.
Diversity and Equity Campus Climate Survey: Kear and Senate officers met with the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in early January to discuss the “high-level results” from the first Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium Diversity and Equity Campus Climate Survey. There will be further public rollout of the results and OEDI will also present “top-level information” to identify this spring, Kear said.
“There were some areas for concern, and there will be follow up with focus groups to determine the nature, extent and interventions that will be most beneficial,” she added. “So I invited OEDI to present the full package of results to (Faculty Assembly) after the focus group, when I thought it might be most beneficial.”
Learning Research and Development Center director search: The voting process is underway, which “should be concluded in a couple of weeks,” Kear said, adding “they’ll be on their way for the director search after those elections.”
Feb. 7 Faculty Assembly meeting: This will be completely virtual because the Posvar Hall conference room is being used for Board of Trustees meetings that week.
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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