Chancellor Patrick Gallagher
TIME TO RESIGN 

The following letter was sent on August 3, 2020.

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher
University of Pittsburgh

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher

TIME TO RESIGN. This is the third time we have called for your resignation. The prior times were based on your unethical policies that resulted in the destruction of our buildings and land and changes to our way of life, thus killing the hopes and dreams that many residents and others had that Oakland would be protected and preserved as an eclectic, residential community.

Your tragic policy of admitting 30,000 students in our 2-square-mile neighborhood for on-campus classes, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, now goes beyond the destruction of buildings and land, changes to our way of life, and the killing of hopes and dreams. Your policy will result in the death and suffering of our residents and others. All of your policies have one major objective: the economic profit of your university and cronies at the expense of our people’s dignity.

The ever-present COVID-19 pandemic has no boundaries. Admitting 30,000 students from around the country and the world will impact the lives of the university’s students, faculty, and staff, as well as the residents of Oakland, city of Pittsburgh, and beyond. Your COVID-19 policies are like a runaway train on a bridge to nowhere. They only lead to death and suffering.

You could have chosen to have online classes only, but that is not as profitable. Even students who need to be on campus for laboratory work, or for other reasons, could return next year to fulfill their requirements. People who die of the coronavirus because of your decisions cannot.

In a letter to you 11 days ago, we raised 10 questions concerning your unconscionable and reckless quarantine policy which does very little to protect people’s health and welfare. Once again, our community was treated as if we are meaningless, for we had no voice in the discussions of that dangerous policy and how it would impact our lives. Once again, by not responding directly to our serious concerns raised in that letter, you chose silence. That has been the modus operandi of university chancellors. In the last 20 years, we received only a single one-page letter from a chancellor.

Another modus operandi of the university is that when shameful actions of the university are brought to light, spin doctors are employed to communicate to the media all of the benefits the university provides from its research department, as well as what it provides to the community and city. We expect that will happen again. However, the shame of your coronavirus policies cannot be masked, denied, or ignored, for the death and suffering will be too great.

When you became chancellor in 2014, you quickly learned that you did not have to care much for our community because the university gets whatever it wants. You learned that the university can dominate, manipulate, and instill fear in others because it is the economic engine of the city. You learned who the enablers are who hold that kind of consciousness in place: the mayor, city council, planning commission, zoning board of adjustment, county and state government, university faculty, major not-for-profit organizations, media, and legal system.

There is one thing, though, that you cannot control: the future decisions of those enablers to change their consciousness and move from the Path of Tragedy to the Path of Dignity. Your decisions during this pandemic will impact all of their lives. We are most encouraged by and grateful for the many who have chosen the Path of Dignity and supported us, and we have a genuine hope that many more will do so. There is a simple truth that states those who dominate, manipulate, or instill fear need enablers. However, when there are no enablers, that destructive consciousness will change.

All of us on the Path of Dignity will not be silenced. We speak in one unequivocal voice: TIME TO RESIGN.

Carlino Giampolo