\n\tBy SUSAN JONES<\/p>\n
\n\tThe University\u2019s fifth online town hall in the past year held no big surprises but covered a lot of ground \u2014 from AI tools to commencement to budget issues.<\/p>\n
\n\tChancellor Joan Gabel led off the March 19 event, which was moderated by Senate President Kris Kanthak, with some good news.<\/p>\n
\n\tApplications to Pitt for fall 2026 have once again hit a record of more than 72,000.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThere are a lot of reasons for that, but we all know that the real heart and soul of why a student wants to be here is because of how our staff support them and our faculty teach them, and our peer students support them and support each other,\u201d Gabel said.<\/p>\n
\n\tAlmost of half of Pitt students graduate debt free, she said. One of the mechanisms to make that happen are the new Finish Line grants, which assist students who just need a little financial help in their final year to make it to graduation. The first cohort of students to request these grants was able to graduate last spring.<\/p>\n
\n\tGabel said as Pitt heads into a capital campaign later this year, \u201cI think we\u2019ll start to have even more stories that are ultimately testimonials of what the University has meant to people of means and why we are their priority when they think about how they want to be philanthropic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe chancellor told Senate Council on March 26 that around 1,400 people tuned in through the whole hour-plus webinar. \u201cAs a result of some very productive advocacy from our student government leadership, we will be posting an executive summary of the town hall imminently,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\tAI update<\/p>\n
\n\tMark Henderson, chief information officer, addressed questions about Pitt\u2019s partnership with Anthropic and Amazon Web Services.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cOur partnership with AWS and Anthropic allows us to provide secure, scalable AI tools while managing costs responsibly,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cAWS and Anthropic are committed to assist us in efforts to expand the Cloud Innovation Center, support AI literacy, workforce preparedness and community engagement through the University\u2019s engagement centers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe made clear that the University is not forcing AI on anyone. \u201cWe hope you do choose to use these tools, because the potential benefits are substantial, especially as AI increasingly becomes part of our day to day lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAnthropic and its Claude for Education tool was chosen, Henderson said, because their approach in developing Claude aligns with Pitt\u2019s goal for secure and ethical use of AI. Anthropic also excel at \u201cproviding AI for large organizations, rather than just focusing on the consumers; third, they are committed to transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe agreement with Anthropic requires the company to \u201cadhere to an increased level of privacy and security protection and immediately inform the University of any potential incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRecently, Anthropic has been in a dispute with the federal government, because its CEO, Dario Amodei, said he would not allow Claude to be used for autonomous weapons or to surveil American citizens. President Trump then ordered all federal agencies to stop using Claude, and the Pentagon\u00a0designated<\/a>\u00a0Anthropic as a \u201csupply chain risk to national security.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLast week, a federal judge issued an injunction prohibiting the government from applying the \u201csupply chain risk\u201d label. The judge said the designation \u201cis likely both contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHenderson said that so far there has been \u201cno impact to federal funding associated with our use of Claude. We will continue to closely monitor this as it develops.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPitt Digital is providing Claude training materials through the Pitt Worx platform. Find more details here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOur partnership with Anthropic is an opportunity for the University to serve as a national model for secure, scalable and ethical AI deployment in academia, so it\u2019s benefiting Anthropic as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \tProvost\u2019s update<\/p>\n \n\tProvost Joe McCarthy noted that Pitt is \u201csprinting to the finish line for the spring semester.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI want to start actually by acknowledging the difficult global and national issues impacting many, both inside and outside our University,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cI\u2019ll remind everybody that supporting our fellow community members is really critical at this time, and that Pitt has outstanding resources for both students through the University Counseling Center, as well as for faculty and staff through Life Solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe provost singled out several recent events, including one last week showcasing experiential learning and the Mentoring and Advising Summit earlier in the month, which drew thousands of people from around the world.<\/p>\n \n\tHe said that the response rate for a recent survey of student satisfaction with advising\u00a0 nearly doubled, and \u201cnearly 90% of our students say that they are very satisfied with their advisor.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAfter these positive notes, McCarthy admitted there were still many challenges.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMany in the University community have been actively engaged in advocacy around the proposed federal student loan changes that could have a decidedly negative impact on many programs that are critical to workforce needs,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the things that we\u2019re doing is urging the Department of Education to reconsider their definition of professional degree and how that impacts federal loan limits.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn the meantime, he said, Pitt is rethinking some of its financial aid strategies for those seeking graduate and professional degrees, as well as streamlining engagement with private loan entities for some students.<\/p>\n \n\tSpeaking about Pitt and AI, McCarthy said the University Library System, the Teaching Center, and the Learning Science and Emerging Technologies group are working to create an AI Commons \u201cto serve as a bit of a maker space for experimenting with AI for faculty, staff and students.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMcCarthy also gave the update on research, because Senior Vice Chancellor for Research Rob Rutenbar couldn\u2019t attend the meeting.<\/p>\n \n\tHe noted that Pitt is top 20 in the Higher Education Research and Development survey and a top 30 patent-producing university in the U.S. \u2014 \u201cahead of, by the way, our colleagues up the street at Carnegie Mellon, as well as ahead of an institution in the center of the state.\u201d Globally, Pitt has been recognized in the top 50 universities and top 20 most innovative worldwide.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI love the stat that we have 20 academic programs in the top 20 in U.S. News (and World Report), and it\u2019s really reflective of how all of you at Pitt translate your research into real world impact,\u201d McCarthy said.<\/p>\n \n\tOn a less positive note, McCarthy said there continue to be challenges with federal research funding. He said over the past year the provost\u2019s office, along with Rutenbar\u2019s office and Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for health sciences, have allocated some temporary replacement funding for faculty whose research was critically affected.<\/p>\n \n\tPitt Research also is continuing to help researchers diversify their portfolio, and engage more effectively with foundations and philanthropic sources, \u201cso that they\u2019re more resilient as federal changes continue.\u201d<\/p>\n \tFinancial update<\/p>\n \n\tDwayne Pinkney, executive senior vice chancellor for administration and finance, said the University is continuing to keep a close eye on expenses, \u201cespecially as there are opportunities for us to reduce and to seek some budget efficiencies.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThese include possibly streamlining operations, sharing services where appropriate, emphasizing sustainability and improving productivity through system enhancements and process improvements. \u201cWe are committed to carefully assessing our expenses to ensure that our costs are kept as low as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPinkney said he\u2019s heard people comment several times that Pitt must be generating more revenue from the larger class sizes the past few years. And while the increase does bring in more tuition dollars, he said the effort to maintain a high-quality education and experience for students comes with real costs.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe continue to balance those costs and those needs as we review our finances and develop our budget,\u201d he said. \u201cThe University, like all institutions, is affected by higher expenses, and inflation continues to reduce the University\u2019s purchasing power as costs for items such as food and utilities and housing all are increasing.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPitt had its largest first-year class in fall 2025, with 5,870 students, and Pinkney said 5,200 \u2014 the second larges class \u2014 are expected this fall. The University is on track to meet the Plan for Pitt goal of 22,000 undergraduates by 2028.<\/p>\n \n\tTo accommodate these increases, Pitt is exploring several options, including a five-year lease for the recently renovated Wellington apartments in North Oakland that will add 81 apartment-style units with 148 beds.<\/p>\n \n\tPitt is also in the process of a design build competition for a new residence hall in the parking lot adjacent to the Music Building. Three teams are now developing designs to be considered. Those plans will be evaluated and taken to the Board of Trustees for review in early May. If all goes well, the plan is to break ground on the new building this summer, which would open in fall 2028.<\/p>\n \tWellbeing update<\/p>\n \n\tKanthak, in introducing Clyde Pickett, vice chancellor for institutional engagement and wellbeing, said one of the questions she\u2019s been asked most in the past year is: \u201cHow\u2019s Clyde and is Clyde doing OK? Is his staff getting the support they need for their important outreach efforts and the other work that they do?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPickett said he appreciates the \u201cconcern for us. \u2026 I think I speak from the heart for all of our colleagues here when I say that our engagement, our opportunity to be together and our well being, remains the highest priority.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe said committees across the University \u201chave been charged with thinking about climate, with culture and, of course, accessibility and community. … We\u2019ve heard specifically for the need for us to focus attention on the current environment and the ways for us to center these priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPickett\u2019s office has developed a strategic charter that provides generalized information on \u201chow you can exercise the work of those committees, and that information will be shared \u2026 in the next few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe highlighted some of the events his office sponsored for Black History Month in February and Women\u2019s History Month in March, and reaffirmed support for the LGBTAIQ+ community.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI want to reaffirm publicly the University\u2019s commitment to sustaining and supporting our LGBT community,\u201d Pickett said. \u201cI want to emphasize that this isn\u2019t a singular moment. That work remains something that we have to continue. I know that it\u2019s important to hear loud and clear from our community the need to feel affirmed, feel supported, and that we emphasize what they bring to our community.\u201d<\/p>\n \tGovernment update<\/p>\n \n\tDavid Brown, vice chancellor for government relations, gave a wrap-up of federal funding in the fiscal year 2026 budget, which passed in February.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cGiven the headwinds that we were experiencing at the time, I think we landed in a pretty positive place,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was a lot of activity and advocacy around the importance of the work we do, not just on the educational side, but the research side, and certainly the members of the Pennsylvania delegation embraced our messaging and supported the work that we do, so that\u2019s a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBut now the process has started over again for FY27, which starts in October. Brown said President Trump\u2019s budget request should be coming soon, but might be delayed because of the war in Iran. Just because the research funding numbers were solid for FY26 doesn\u2019t guarantee they will stay that way.<\/p>\n \n\tIn addition, even though \u201cwe were able to include what\u2019s called blocking language to prevent the specific agencies from lowering the indirect cost caps to 15% again, that only holds until the end of the current fiscal year.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn total, Pitt had 94 total research awards cancelled. \u201cNot great, certainly, if it\u2019s one of your awards \u2014 certainly sympathetic to that \u2014 but all things considered, not too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHis office also will continue to advocate for changes around graduate student loan limits, which for all but 11 programs labeled professional, would be $20,500 annually and $100,000 total.<\/p>\n \n\tThey\u2019ve been working with Amanda Godley, vice provost for graduate studies, to push back on this proposed loan cap, including contacting the entire Pennsylvania Congressional delegation about Pitt\u2019s concerns and submitting a letter during the comment period. The final rule should be posted soon.<\/p>\n \n\tSusan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu<\/a> or 724-244-4042.<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHave a story idea or news to share?\u00a0Share<\/a>\u00a0it with the University Times.<\/p>\n