By SHANNON O. WELLS
Reflecting the increasing ubiquity and sense of uncertainty surrounding generative artificial intelligence, an upcoming student-led campus town hall will focus on Gen AI in higher education.
During her report at the Feb. 26 Senate Council meeting in Posvar Hall, Student Government Board (SGB) President Marley Pinksy invited those interested in hearing from “both faculty and students about their perspectives around AI in the classroom” to come to the Academic Affairs Committee’s “Academia and AI” town hall on Wednesday, March 18, from 5-6 p.m. in the Hillman Library’s Latin American Reading Room. The event is co-sponsored by the University Library System.
Chancellor Joan Gabel also mentioned that a just-announced March 19 online town hall — the fifth in the past year featuring senior leadership — will include, among other topics, an update on Pitt’s partnership with AI service providers Anthropic and Amazon Web Services.
Praising the acknowledgment of AI integration at several shared governance meetings, Pinsky said it was “great to hear (discussions) of a more coordinated institutional-level approach to AI. … Many of our student government members are highly interested in AI and sharing student perspectives among staff and faculty’s conversations about their approach to AI.”
AI technology coordination
Gabel shared updates on the strategic Plan for Pitt, including one of the “moonshot” pillars involving AI-related efforts.
“You may have seen the email describing a coordinating group that will meet regularly and facilitate information-sharing and be assigned to help create a more coordinated, institutional level approach around AI,” she said.
“Obviously, none of this precludes individual action, but we also want to make sure that we are creating something greater than the sum of its parts, given all of the stakeholder interest and intellectual creativity and areas for concern and potential improvement related to AI.”
This group includes Michael Colaresi, strategic advisor to the provost and director of the Hub for AI and Data Science Leadership Program, or HAIL; Provost Joe McCarthy; Rob Cunningham, vice chancellor for research infrastructure; Hooman Rashidi, associate dean of AI in medicine; Rebecca Roadman, chief of staff for finance and operations; and Joe Yun, director of AI enablement.
“The idea here is right-hand, left-hand,” Gabel explained. “It is not to preclude students, staff, deans, any other stakeholder group, from coming in and out. This is just the core group that’s sort of the hub that the spokes will spin off.”
The group emphasizes Pitt’s “specific focus under that umbrella,” at the intersection of AI and technology and health, including a “big global summit in that space” last October.
Gabel also mentioned the Vanscoy Winter Academy, held Feb. 6 in Naples, Fla., which she said was on the theme of health, AI and tech, and had “very good attendance and a lot of our faculty and staff traveling down there to create community and fellowship and some learning in that space.”
State support
The chancellor said that the four state-related universities will testify before the Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee on March 11 in support of Pitt’s annual request from the commonwealth.
“Now is when that starts to gain momentum. I would hope to have more news for you after I’ve been there,” she said, noting that this involves funding to support the in-state tuition discount for state residents, “and is sort of the core bridge of our partnership with the commonwealth.
The administration is working “really closely” with the Office of the Povost — and the vice provost for graduate studies, the deans and undergraduate student affairs — “primarily at this moment on grad student loan limits and the legislative changes that affect them,” Gabel said. “We will … express our concern with how the programs and the students in those programs are likely to be impacted.
“We feel very strongly that those programs are critically important components of our educational offerings, and the impact those graduates have on the constituencies that they serve,” she added. “We want to make sure that their pathways to completing those degrees remain intact.”
With student government also taking part in the advocacy process, “we’re all rolling, so to speak, as an institution, with a lot of the meetings being received and accepted. And we’re having good conversations,” she said.
Leadership changes
Gabel called Marc Harding’s announcement to step down as chief enrollment officer and retire this summer “bittersweet.”
“As we all know, his leadership of Admissions and Financial Aid has been extraordinary, transformational and also put us in a very good position for the future,” she said, noting that the 71,000 applications Pitt has received for fall 2026 surpassed the original goal of 60,000, and “we’re not done yet.”
“It’s an incredible momentum in that office, stewarded by them, but also a reflection of everything that everyone else is doing to make the brand strong, the desire for students to be here strong.”
Kellie Kane, associate vice provost for enrollment, is now serving as interim vice provost for enrollment.
Gabel continued with the “last but equally bittersweet” decision by Betsy Farmer to step down as School of Social Work dean and return to the faculty, effective this summer. A search for a new dean is well underway.
“The goal is to have a transition that won’t require an interim, that would be a smooth baton pass, and we are on track to do that,” Gabel said.
Moving on to unionization, Gabel said “we’re chugging along with our … three active collective bargaining processes,” including the faculty union which started bargaining sessions on its second contract on Jan. 26.
Accolades
Gabel concluded her report by sharing “shout-outs” to recognize Pitt community members.
Pitt has two finalists for the 2026 Truman Scholarship: Audrey Wang, a junior in the Dietrich School and Frederick Honors College who majors in political science and psychology with a minor in economics; and Grace Osborne, a junior in the School of Public Health and Frederick Honors College, majoring in public health with a minor in chemistry and a certificate in bioethics.
Ten staff received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award: Erin Schuetz, Jorden King, Zach Davis, Emily Bell, Shallegra Moye, Heather Lego, Ruth Mullen, Heide Ash, Carrie Benson, and Suzanne Lynch. Gabel called the recipients “wonderful contributors to our community.”
For 2025, Pitt’s National Academy of Inventors U.S. patent ranking rose to 17th, up three spots from last year. Globally, Pitt ranked 26th, up from 28th. Pitt had a total of 107 patents in 2025. “This is one of our strategic plan measures, and overall just a great thing for the University to be doing,” she said.
Rory Cooper, associate vice chancellor for research for STEM-health sciences collaboration and Pitt’s Human Engineering Research Lab, was featured in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ 250th anniversary of the United States exhibit.
Pitt football legend Larry Fitzgerald was selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the 2026 induction class, one of 11 former Panthers who are in the hall of fame. “There are only three other universities that have the same designation: Michigan, Notre Dame and Southern Cal,” Gabel said.
Pitt’s lacrosse team is nationally ranked for the first time in program history, at No. 25. “Congratulations to our Pitt women playing lacrosse,” she said.
Senate Council president report
Senate Council President Kris Kanthak, noting that it’s “hard to come up with a lighthearted start for a report these days,” shared that Feb. 26 is both National Carpe Diem day and National Pistachio Day.
“So, I encourage you all to make time today to seize the pistachio,” she quipped.
She went on to share that the annual Senate Plenary is scheduled for noon to 3 p.m. April 20, in the William Pitt Union’s Lower Lounge on the topic of civic fluency
“This year’s topic of civic fluency is an issue of vital importance, both at Pitt and beyond our campus,” she said. “I encourage you to consider the important role of civic fluency and how you can be sure you’re getting the information you need to … meet your obligations as a civically minded citizen.”
In other news, Kathak is working with a representative from the Office of the Provost and the Senate Educational Policies committee to create an ad hoc committee focused on including shared governance in approving and assessing curricular decisions related to changes in the undergraduate general education requirements. Educational Policies Co-Chair Jon Stoner, professor in the Dietrich School’s Department of History, will chair the ad hoc committee.
“He’s a great advocate and tireless champion, both for student educational experiences and for shared governance. He’s the ideal person to lead this group,” Kanthak said. “I’ve asked the committee to present its set of recommendations early in the fall semester.”
Continuing her report, Kanthak said she’s grateful to Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for Health Sciences, for his “continued commitment to shared governance,” noting Shekhar met with members of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences faculty Feb. 25 for a “very valuable exchange of thoughts and ideas.”
“I could not be more pleased with how open and willing Dean Shekhar has been over the last several weeks in communicating with the faculty in the Senate on that topic,” she added.
On another topic, Kanthak mentioned that Panthers Volleyball will hold its annual intersquad scrimmage on March 25 at Fitzgerald Field House. “For now, you should also know that Pitt’s own Olivia Babcock is nominated for the prestigious Amateur Athletic Union Sullivan Award.
Kanthak joked that she is competing against several “lesser amateur athletes,” including Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza, “who, I guess, plays football,” and 2026 Winter Olympic champion Alyssa Liu, “who, I guess, skates.”
Voting is public and open now. Visit the AAU Sullivan Award website to cast your ballot by March 5.
Student government report
In her report to Senate Council, SGB President Marley Pinsky provided an update on financial responsibility, which she called a key SGB initiative. SGB oversees distribution of the student activity fee, which all full-time undergraduate students not solely enrolled in the College of General Studies pay into every semester.
A “huge effort” is underway to ensure the fee is distributed as “effectively and equitably as possible,” she said, noting that SGB Vice President Olivia Budike has done a “fantastic job tracking our internal spending and assessing our financial needs.”
SGB has audited groups who receive an annual fixed percentage of the student activity fee to ensure they use their funding responsibly and assess if the activity fee structure fits their financial needs, Pinsky explained.
“We’re looking at potentially restructuring the distribution of this fee and also proposing a fee increase,” she said, and working this semester to find “as much information as possible to inform our future plans.”
In other news, the SGB election is the first week of March, and will include referendum questions. “This is a way (SGB) collects the opinions of the student body in a quantifiable manner, and referendum results often inform our advocacy,” she said.
These include whether a section of the student code of conduct holding students responsible for violating unspecified guidelines should be abolished; whether the Board of Trustees should appoint a student trustee recommended by the student body with full voting power; and whether students would support a $25 student activity fee increase to allow student life and club programming to continue to operate, “as per our proposal previously mentioned.”
Additional referendum questions outline proposed amendments to the SGB constitution, which would require approval by the student body.
“As per our constitution, we need over 3% of the student body to participate in the election for the votes in favor of our constitutional amendments to be valid,” Pinsky explained. “If you are a faculty member, if you’re otherwise in contact with undergraduate students, please, please, please, tell them to vote.”
The election will be open from 8 am. to 8 p.m. March 3, with results announced at the public SGB meeting that night.
Shannon Wells is a University Times reporter. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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