Alumni
Telling Your Pitt Story Will Make a Difference!
Calling all Pitt alumni: Pitt graduates are among their alma mater's most effective advocates. Telling your Pitt story will make a difference! Last year, after months of advocacy by the Pitt community, a proposed $100 million cut to the University's general appropriation was trimmed to less than half of that amount.
Still, this year's proposed total reduction of 29 percent (close to $42 million) would increase Pitt's cumulative two-year cuts in state support to more than $117 million.
Please contact elected officials and tell them to stop the cuts! Write letters to elected officials and local newspapers, call your legislators, and make visits to legislative district offices. Find information for elected officials, talking points, and sample letters here.
Jeff Gleim
Associate Vice Chancellor for Alumni Relations
Executive Director, Pitt Alumni Association
Pitt Advocates
Be a part of Pitt Advocates, a grassroots advocacy network, and help make a difference for the University of Pittsburgh! In order to maintain its high level of academic excellence, the University depends on support from elected officials. Visit the Pitt Advocates Web site and join the growing group of people who are actively promoting the University of Pittsburgh!
Pitt Alumni Association Board of Directors Expresses Support for the University
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, the Pitt Alumni Association’s mission is to engage and enrich alumni and students and to support and advance the University of Pittsburgh; and
WHEREAS, the Pitt Alumni Association’s values are accountability, diversity, excellence, relationships, and traditions and its vision is to be the gateway for a global network of alumni and students who champion the University of Pittsburgh and each other; and
WHEREAS, the Pitt Alumni Association recognizes that the recently proposed Commonwealth budget would reduce support to the University of Pittsburgh, if adjusted for inflation, to the lowest level since Pitt became a state-related university; and
WHEREAS, more than $67 million in cuts already have been imposed. When added to recent proposals for further reductions, the total cumulative two-year cuts in state support would rise to more than $100 million. These cuts would reduce Pitt’s appropriation, in absolute dollars, to levels that Pitt has not seen since 1987, a quarter-century ago and when the state’s overall budget was only a third of what it is today; now therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the members of the Pitt Alumni Association Board of Directors do hereby express their sincere support for the University of Pittsburgh as a public institution of higher education; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the members of the Pitt Alumni Association Board of Directors call for the involvement of alumni to advocate on behalf of the University of Pittsburgh to the leadership of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to reinstate funding levels consistent with legislation that was enacted on August 23, 1966, making the University of Pittsburgh a state-related university of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education, legislation that enabled the University to significantly reduce tuition for Pennsylvania residents, increase enrollment, and expand programs. This legislation made it possible for the University of Pittsburgh to meet the growing demand from Pennsylvanians for reasonably priced, but high-quality, university experiences; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the members of the Pitt Alumni Association Board of Directors approve this resolution at its Board meeting on February 25, 2012, and see this state funding as essential to the future of the University of Pittsburgh and ask for alumni to advocate “No More Cuts: Keep Pitt Public”; and be it further
RESOLVED, that this resolution be made a permanent part of the Pitt Alumni Association’s records.
Jack D. Smith
President
Jeff Gleim
Executive Director
Pitt Alumni Association
This resolution was unanimously adopted by the Pitt Alumni Association Board of Directors at its meeting held on February 25, 2012.
