Lawsuit Against the
University of Pittsburgh?
By Carlino Giampolo
September 6, 2021
Attorney Paul Supowitz
Executive Administrator, Office of the Chancellor
Vice Chancellor Community and Governmental Relations
University of Pittsburgh
Mr. Supowitz,
The letter sent to you on August 9, 2021, is below this one.
Our community has the right to articulate our thoughts and feelings to members of the Board of Trustees on all issues where their choices and decisions impact us directly.
That freedom of speech is (in) alienable to us, and university administrators must not interfere with those communications.
End the stonewalling. Our community is once again requesting at least university email addresses for members of the university's Board of Trustees. Must we ask our Registered Community Organization, the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation (OPDC), to file a lawsuit to have that request fulfilled?
The University of Pittsburgh is a guest in our community. This community in Oakland was well-established long before the university arrived from the North Side.
Again, end the stonewalling. We asked for an honest confirmation of the number of full and part-time students at the Oakland campus. A university with integrity and transparency would have answered that simple request within 24 hours. Must we ask our Registered Community Organization to file a lawsuit to have that request fulfilled, too?
Three issues have come to light since the letter below.
1) No faculty member showed support for the request made in that letter. In fact, no faculty member has ever sent any message of support for the dozen objectives given to administrators on behalf of our community since our grassroots movement began 14 years ago. That silence is PITTHETIC because intelligent men and women could voice their agreement or disagreement with these reasonable objectives.
2) A recent opinion piece in The Pitt News referenced the filthy trash and litter conditions in Oakland. When our grassroots movement began, and continuing until today, we asked for financial support from the university to end those problems. The university saved money by refusing the request while Oakland residents continue to live in such disgraceful, PITTHETIC conditions.
3) On August 28, 2021, 1,000 to 2,000 students attended a block party on Welsford Street in a further disgrace to the University of Pittsburgh's history in Oakland. That party was a potential superspreader of the Delta variant of Covid-19 that can eventually bring sickness and death to Oakland residents, and beyond. The Pitt Promise is virtually worthless for far too many students.
Could students be learning this PITTHETIC disrespect for our community from the actions and inactions of university administrators, as well as from the silence of the faculty?
The attitude of the university may very well be summed up in the comment made by an angry student who confronted an elderly, long-time resident when she called the police on his late-night drinking party: "This community doesn't belong to you anymore. This is a student community."
End the stonewalling and fulfill our recent requests.
Carlino Giampolo
www.OaklandDignity.com
Note: No one at the University of Pittsburgh has responded to the above letter.
University of Pittsburgh's
Full- and Part-Time Student
at the Oakland Campus
By Carlino Giampolo
August 9, 2021
Paul Supowitz
Executive Administrator, Office of the Chancellor
University of Pittsburgh
Mr. Supowitz,
The local media continuously reports that there are "nearly 29,000 students" at the University of Pittsburgh's Oakland campus.
In 2013, the university expanded to build Nordenberg Hall which houses 559 first-year students only. In 2017, the university reported there were 28,642 full- and part-time students at the Oakland campus. This means that since 2017, the number of students has increased by an average of only 120 per year, which equates to 0.4% if media reporting is accurate.
However, since 2017, the university has had to sign an agreement to house hundreds of students at the Bridge on Forbes, as well as having to house students in Oakland hotels.
At a meeting for the university's Institutional Master Plan, Ronald E. Leibow, staff at Facilities Management, mentioned that the university wants to increase enrollment by 10% to continue its growth. Is that 10% per year? If not, then for how many years?
Please verify for all of us that there are actually less than 29,000 students at the Oakland campus by giving an accurate accounting of the number of full- and part-time students presently there.
Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.
Carlino Giampolo
No one at the University of Pittsburgh has responded to the above letter.
Note: At a September 24, 2021 University of Pittsburgh Board of Trustees meeting, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said there was a 2.3% increase in graduate student enrollment, and a 4.2% increase in undergraduate student enrollment since fall 2020. He did not reveal the total number of full and part-time students enrolled at the Oakland campus.