The Pitt News
T h e i n d e p e n d e n t s t ude nt ne w spap e r of t he U niversity of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com |December 3 , 2 0 1 9 | Volume 111 | Issue 91
NEW MEAL PLAN COMING TO PITT IN JANUARY
SPLATTER, BLOT & BLOW
Rebecca Johnson Staff Writer
Erik Schuckers (right), the Center for Creativity workshop manager, leads Monday’s Splatter, Blot & Blow: Painting without Brushes event. Caela Go staff photographer
PITT ADMITS ADMINISTRATORS, RETIREES DON’T BELONG IN FACULTY UNION Neena Hagen
Senior Staff Writer Faculty union organizers have argued since June that Pitt deliberately inflated its list of 4,018 union-eligible faculty with hundreds of retirees and administrators in order to derail unionization efforts. Now, Pitt’s attorneys concede that their proposed bargaining unit contained at least 200 individuals too many. Since the last round of hearings in July, Pitt has admitted that several categories of individuals on the March 23 eligibility list — administrators, retired faculty and faculty who left Pitt years ago — don’t belong on it. That crosses off half the people in question,
and leaves union eligibility up in the air for about 200 more. Pitt’s legal team and union organizers gathered at Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board headquarters Monday for the start of a new round of hearings to debate whether or not those remaining names should be included in a faculty union bargaining unit.
hearings. Most individuals in the letter either left Pitt years ago or never held faculty positions, according to their resumés, LinkedIn profiles and Pitt pages. Marina Antic, now an assistant professor at Indiana University, hasn’t taught at Pitt since 2009. Pitt admits that faculty who left the UniverJoseph Charlton and Patrick Bateman sity years ago don’t belong in a faculty union earned advanced degrees from Pitt in 2005 and The University sent a letter to organizers on 2008, respectively, but there’s no indication that Oct. 31 with a list of 89 “faculty” originally in- either ever held a faculty appointment. cluded on the eligibility list that Pitt’s legal team Matthew Connell and Aaron Cecala both would now “agree to exclude.” Pitt’s attorneys left Pitt in 2014. presented the letter at Monday’s faculty union See Union on page 2
A pizza from Pie Express or a gyro from Halal Pitt could be on your meal plan next semester – if you’re willing to outsource. Elevate Meal Plan, a privately owned company started by University of Virginia graduates Seth Kramer and Josh Cohen, has partnered with 12 local restaurants to provide a twist on the concept of a meal plan — students will be able to purchase a meal plan through the company where they get between 45 and 105 meals per semester at a fixed rate. The greater flexibility and variety of meals is what made Lauren Matulevich, a sophomore pre-physical therapy major, interested in getting an Elevate meal plan when she moves into an apartment for her junior year. “I want to live in Bouquet, so I don’t know if I even want a Pitt meal plan, so Elevate is something I would look into,” Matulevich said. “I probably would have gone for it as a freshman, but I would definitely go for it now just because I know what I like.” Elevate is currently on nine other college campuses after being established at UVA in 2016. Kramer and Cohen came up with the idea for Elevate after founding a catering company, FlashCater, for fraternities and sororities at UVA. Elevate Meal Plan is separate from Pitt Dining’s meal plan and can only be purchased on the company’s website. Kramer said Pitt is a perfect addition to their company because of the close proximity to so many restaurants. “We think students are excited because Pittsburgh is a great market for Elevate,” Kramer said. “There’s so many great restauSee Meal Plan on page 2