Pitt centralizes branch campus administration

Staring down even deeper potential cuts to state funding in the coming year, Pitt will combine… Staring down even deeper potential cuts to state funding in the coming year, Pitt will combine administrative duties this week at two of its branch campuses — Pitt Bradford and Pitt Titusville.

According to a press release issued by the University on Monday, effective this week, Pitt Bradford President Livingston Alexander will also assume administrative control of the Titusville campus. Major administrative functions for the two campuses will be centralized at Bradford. The University press release said the administrative synthesis is one part of a larger strategy of cost-cutting measures Pitt is taking in the face of dwindling state support.

David Fritz, the vice president of Academic Affairs at Titusville, will become interim campus dean for the Titusville campus, responsible for day-to-day operations and reporting directly to Alexander.

Pitt Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Patricia Beeson said the administrative shift would realign only back-office operations at Titusville and leave academic operations unaffected.

“I don’t anticipate that this will have an effect on the day-to-day lives of students at Titusville,” Beeson said.

Alexander said that the shift of administrative policies has three main goals: to reduce the operating cost of Pitt Titusville, to assess the viability of the Titusville campus and to continue offering educational opportunities in the Titusville area.

Monday’s press release said that the impetus for the administrative changes at Titusville was the recent cuts to Pitt’s state funding.

In her announcement of the change in policy, Beeson said, “As the result of unprecedented cuts from our Commonwealth appropriation this year and a proposal for further cuts in the coming year, we have been forced to examine areas of previous commitment, including our historic commitment to bring education to various regions and populations of western Pennsylvania.”

Pitt suffered a 19 percent reduction in its general appropriation and a 50 percent cut to its academic medical center appropriations this academic year. The state budget proposed by Gov. Tom Corbett for the next fiscal year would cut general appropriations by 30 percent and academic medical center appropriations by another 10 percent. Adjusted for inflation, such reductions would bring Pitt to its lowest level of state support since it became a public university in the 1960s.

Alexander said he could not comment on other cost-cutting measures the University would be implementing at Titusville and Bradford as they will result from “ongoing discussions with the staff and faculty at both campuses.”

Nor could Alexander specify how many administrative jobs would be cut as part of this new policy. However, he said that among other cost-cutting measures, the University will implement a voluntary early retirement program that would lead to a reduction in staff at Titusville and other Pitt locations.

Beeson later elaborated that if sufficient staff does not choose to take part in early retirement, layoffs might be required to reduce staff.

Titusville became a branch campus along with Bradford and Greensburg in 1963. It is a two-year institution and currently serves about 500 full-time students and provides access to more than 100 majors and pre-professional tracks. In April of this year, Titusville awarded degrees to 80 students — the largest graduating class in the branch campus’ 49-year history.

As of now, there are no firm plans for further changes at the Titusville campus besides the administrative realignment and implementation of a voluntary early retirement program.

“There is no intent to close the Pitt Titusville campus; nor is it our intent to combine the campuses,” Alexander said in an email.