Pitt eliminates TeleFact funding stream

On April 26, Pitt announced that it will no longer fund TeleFact, the fact-finding student-run telephone service, after a school year in which its practicality was called into question because of the instantaneous access to information made available through modern technology.

The decision was originally brought to the floor at a December 2012 Student Government Board Meeting, where they recommended that TeleFact no longer be considered one of the elite “formula groups.”

Ultimately, Director of Student Life Kenyon Bonner and Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey decided to stop funding the group at the recommendation of SGB, and decided that TeleFact should no longer be considered a formula group.

SGB President Gordon Louderback defined a formula group as an “elite” organization that provides a service to students that no other group does. These groups receive fixed proportions of the Student Activities Fund. As a formula group, TeleFact received 3.4 percent of the Student Activities Fund, a $2.3 million fund collected from the Student Activity Fee paid by each undergraduate student.

SGB President Gordon Louderback said that the Board decided that TeleFact should no longer qualify as a formula group because technological advances led to a decline in the usage of the service. He also said that a majority of its funding went toward paying employees.

“There are only a handful of [formula groups], and we as a board felt that TeleFact was no longer one of those organizations as it was now rivaled by the availability of the Internet on computers and smartphones,” he said.

Bonner reiterated Louderback’s claims, saying the decrease in usage necessitated a change in funding strategy.

He also said that according to data TeleFact collected and presented, annual calls to TeleFact have decreased by approximately 97% since the 2008-2009 academic year, when annual calls totaled approximately 100,000.

Despite the decline in usage, Kayla Mormak, the former coordinator of TeleFact, stated that she feels that losing service is detrimental to the University.

“TeleFact was the only bridge between [sic] a large and disconnected University,” Mormak said in an email.

Mormak hopes to bring TeleFact back next year by making it more of an online search engine source, as well as maintaining its traditional phone call service.

But Bonner said there are no plans to restore TeleFact’s traditional services in the foreseeable future.

“TeleFact has ceased operation and there are no plans to resume operation,” he said over email.