The Chancellor Challenge: an update

On Friday, I asked readers to e-mail me about whether the Chancellor Challenge should… On Friday, I asked readers to e-mail me about whether the Chancellor Challenge should continue. I received 29 responses.

Two people who e-mailed said that Mark Nordenberg’s $50,000 donation is sufficient, and the pledge money should be collected. One person said that he’s in full support of Nordenberg’s raise, because he’s long feared losing our leader to a higher-paying institution.

And one e-mail said that I am an embarrassment to my newspaper, my university and myself, and that the Chancellor Challenge was dreamt up to create news when there wasn’t any.

But 25 e-mails said I should keep fighting. They said the staff here “can barely afford to work” in a place they otherwise love, and that this challenge, for the first time most people can remember, “is the student body using its voice.”

When I began collecting pledges from other people in my Jan. 17 column, I specified that “if the chancellor accepts this challenge, the money will be donated to the Pitt Program Council’s Endowed Book Fund.” This has not yet happened.

Thus, the Chancellor Challenge will continue for those 119 people who signed on after that editorial, for the 16,000 students who were handed huge double-digit tuition hikes last year and for the 10,000 faculty and staff, many of whom were handed 1- or 2-percent raises last year.

Click here for updates and links as well as a complete list of pledges. And if you’d like to become involved – individually, anonymously, or on behalf of your organization – e-mail editor@pittnews.com with pledges.