Pitt HR conforming to new race categories

Pitt’s Office of Affirmative Action, Diversity and Inclusion recently sent out a survey… Pitt’s Office of Affirmative Action, Diversity and Inclusion recently sent out a survey asking University employees to self-identify their race by Oct. 31 to comply with new federal requirements.

The notices came in light of changes in race categories recently implemented by the U.S. Department of Labor.

There were previously five categories of race and ethnicity, but now there are seven. The Department of Labor separated the category “Asian or Pacific Islanders” into two categories and added the category “two or more races.”

The complete list of racial categories is: “American Indian or Alaskan native,” “Asian,” “black or African-American,” “Hispanic or Latino,” “native Hawaiian or other Pacific islander,” “white,” and “two or more races.”

“These changes will update the University and make it consistent with the categories listed in the 2000 census,” Pitt affirmative action director Carol Mohamed said.

“It’s interesting that they’re categorizing now,” Jennifer Blemur, chairwoman of the basics committee of Pitt’s Black Action Society, said. “By categorizing more specifically it’s enabling us to delineate lines of culture. It’s also giving a voice to other cultures.”

An employee’s race is recorded by Pitt’s office of Human Resources through the Affirmative Action Office when he is first hired by the University. If an employee doesn’t respond to the survey by Oct. 31, his race will stay the same as when hired.

The survey is completely voluntary.

Pitt won’t receive more funding for doing this, it is merely complying with requirements to keep the federal funding it already has, Mohamed said.

Any university that receives federal funding must give their employees the chance to update his race if it falls into one of the new categories. Newly hired employees will automatically be categorized according to the new system.

The new race and ethnicity categories for university employees will take effect on Nov. 1.