By MARTY LEVINE and SUSAN JONES
The University Senate’s Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Discrimination Advocacy Committee (EIADAC) is teaming with Staff Council and consulting with a Student Government Board (SGB) rep with the aim of increasing public safety during, and alerts before, local immigration enforcement.
“People are looking for a little more guidance,” said EIADAC co-chair Susan Graff, faculty member in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, at its Feb. 25 meeting. “What are you allowed to do? What would that look like? I think there is a lot of fear,” especially since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and federal border patrol agent actions in Minneapolis. “Any way Pitt can show support for taking care of faculty and staff” is desirable, she said.
Staff Council member Zachary Davis, chair of its Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee and director of Engagement and Wellbeing Programs in Pitt’s Office of Institutional Engagement and Wellbeing, recommended working with several local groups focused on direct response to immigration raids and support of the Latino community.
Some Staff Council members, he added, have taken ICE watch training on their own time and Staff Council may want “to bring one or more of these folks to campus to more directly train those who are on the front lines” of any ICE actions on or near campus. The staff group may also devise materials of its own to support staff with “education and resources around immigration enforcement,” he said.
Kylie Baker, representing the SGB on the committee, said that SGB has relationships with organizations that notify their constituents about the presence of ICE, and that SGB uses its own social media to pass on such alerts. But how can students share that alert system with faculty and staff, she asked, since they would like to help “all levels of people at Pitt?”
As one step, she said, SGB members are set to meet with Pitt Police to ask whether the Emergency Notification Service alerts that Pitt community members may now sign up to receive — used to report everything from snow closures to “a large police presence” on or near campus — might be used for alerts about the presence of ICE.
In her report on Feb. 27 to Senate Council, SGB President Marley Pinsky shared that board members recently met with Pitt Police to advocate for due process protection and student safety amidst concerns about the potential of ICE agents on campus.
“There has not been ICE spotted on campus, but they have detained people in the Oakland area as recently as this week, which has sparked widespread concern across the student body,” Pinsky said. “Pitt Police encourages University community members to call them if they are approached by a federal agent, so they can ensure that everything is lawful.”
“I don’t think I would agree with them about what rises to an alert,” in all instances, said Kristin Kanthak, Senate president, also attending the EIADAC meeting. “So I see a real opportunity to crowdsource … the solution in general.” She said that “there is a huge role for shared governance and for us as a community to play here,” suggesting that students might even develop a new app for Pitt alerts. “I hate the idea of ‘students have to fix this’ but I love the idea of a bottom-up approach,” she added.
Graff said that Baker, when meeting with Pitt Police, should ask them what situations currently create the need for an alert and what is their jurisdiction — does it include places that might attract a lot of Pitt community members (such as the Panera Bread on the Boulevard of the Allies) but which are not officially on campus?
EIADAC passed a motion “in favor of this committee supporting Staff Council … in reaching out to various community organizations and organizing some on-campus events to build up safety.”
Problems at other schools
While Pitt officials have said that there has not been any increased or targeted immigration enforcement activity on Pitt’s campuses, other schools are dealing with these issues.
At Columbia University in New York City, ICE agents entered a residential building owned by Columbia early Thursday morning and detained an undergraduate student, the New York Times reported. The school said in a letter to the campus that the agents had conducted the operation under false pretenses. Claire Shipman, the university’s acting president, said in the letter that the immigration officers appeared to gain access by saying that they were searching for a “missing person.”
The student, who ICE said was from Azerbaijan and whose student visa was terminated in 2016, was released after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he had brought up the student’s detention during a meeting with President Trump in Washington and the president said the student would “be released imminently.”
University’s policies
In a Feb. 20 email to the Pitt community, Clyde Pickett, vice chancellor for institutional engagement and wellbeing, said the University’s commitment “to a campus environment where every individual feels respected and supported” includes international students and scholars, “as well as others who may be navigating uncertainty. Our international students and scholars are a vital part of the Pitt community, and we are stronger with them here.”
He said that the Office of International Services (OIS) continues to “monitor relevant developments on the federal level, communicates directly with impacted individuals and provides guidance and support within its role as a compliance and advising office.”
He reminded the community that the University issued guidance in April 2025, for responding to visits from government officials, and said that guidance remains in effect and “continues to inform how we prepare and respond as an institution.”
The guidelines say that if an individual claiming to be a government agent contacts you or comes to your area requesting information or access, you should contact:
University of Pittsburgh Police Department at 412-624-2121 for help in verifying credentials and clarifying the purpose of their visit, as appropriate; and then the Office of University Counsel at 412-624-5674 for advice about how to proceed.
If the visit is related to a student, faculty or staff member on a Pitt-sponsored visa, you should next contact OIS at 412-624-7120.
Until the Pitt Police arrive, please ask the individuals to remain in the lobby/entrance area of your space, if applicable, and do not share information with them.
Pickett said that University protocols related to interactions with federal law enforcement agencies are coordinated through Public Safety and Emergency Management and are followed consistently across all units, in accordance with applicable law and privacy protections. “These procedures are designed to ensure that any engagement with government representatives is handled appropriately and consistently and reflects our responsibility to be prepared, transparent and supportive.”
Staff as PIs
In other EIADAC business, Kanthak said that Pitt should allow staff members to be co-primary investigators on grant applications, which is currently disallowed. Today, some grant-giving nonprofits and agencies even require that faculty bring in a community member as a co-PI. “If you are really taking seriously being inclusive with who is on our research teams,” Kanthak said, staff members should be eligible for a top spot. Currently there is no mechanism for making a staff member a co-PI, even “when they are doing as much work as I am,” she said.
One difficulty, Graff pointed out, is that conducting research helps faculty gain promotion, but staff conducting research may be seen as interfering with their jobs, so staff may only undertake it out of personal interest or to place on a resume when seeking work elsewhere.
Andy Stephany, past president of Staff Council, said the group would discuss with Kanthak working further on this issue.
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859. Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042. Shannon Wells also contributed to this report.
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