Letters to the editor

Hartman’s challenge unclear

There is a key error in Dave Hartman’s Jan. 24 column,… Hartman’s challenge unclear

There is a key error in Dave Hartman’s Jan. 24 column, “Should we continue the challenge?,” wherein he quibbles with the chancellor’s donation to a scholarship fund instead of a book fund: He refers to the “Chancellor Challenge” as “specific” and says “that if Chancellor Nordenberg donated at least 14 percent of his salary – $47,500 – to Pitt Program Council’s Endowed Book Fund, that all of those [other] donors [solicited by Hartman] would have to cough up the cash as well.” Mr. Hartman’s earlier columns contradict this statement.

In the Jan. 10 column launching his challenge, Mr. Hartman wrote: “Chancellor Nordenberg, I respectfully request that you return your salary increase to the students of the University of Pittsburgh … And I will match your donation, percent for percent … My personal preference would be to endow a scholarship, though I’m open to other suggestions.” The nonspecific nature of his challenge again was underscored in Mr. Hartman’s Jan. 17 column when he repeated his suggestion that donations “could be used to endow a scholarship” and then expanded the possibilities to include bringing back “a beloved staff member.”

At some point, Mr. Hartman apparently began soliciting contributions to Pitt Program Council’s Endowed Book Fund, clearly a worthy objective. However, the recently published letter from Pitt Program Council Lecture Director suggests that the terms on which such contributions were sought was not always made clear. What is clear, though, is that Mr. Hartman has redefined his challenge, and he continues to do so with each new column.

Robert Hill

Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs

Chancellor devoted to giving

From my Jan. 24 Newsmakers column, it is very clear that the chancellor’s recent commitment to create a new endowed scholarship fund is just one part of a long and generous history of giving to Pitt. What I also should make clear is that the chancellor had no desire to use his gift to coerce contributions from anyone else, whatever pledges they might have made. Instead, to use Pitt News Editor in Chief Dave Hartman’s own words from his Jan. 10 column, the chancellor hopes that any and all contributions to the University are made in the spirit of “improving education through generosity and dedication to Pitt.” Certainly it is in that spirit that the University’s fund-raising professionals and many volunteers seek support for our great University.

Albert J. Novak Jr.

Interim Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement