9-21-2016

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The Pitt News

The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com |September 21, 2016 | Volume 107 | Issue 30

CITY POLICE ALTER RESPONSE POLICY Rachel Glasser For The Pitt News

Members of the Pitt Chess Club focus intently during matches held in the William Pitt Union Tuesday evening. Jordan Mondell ASSISTANT VISUAL EDITOR

UNION PLANS STILL NOT FINALIZED Alyssa Bessasparis For The Pitt News

Though it’s been nearly a year since Pitt faculty and graduate students first whispered plans to form labor unions, both groups have yet to take the first formal step of sending out voting cards to see if forming a union is feasible. But that’s because both campaigns are still continuing to spread the word about their efforts and garner faculty interest in the unions, a crucial step before sending the cards. Even though the delay seems lengthy, organizers say they have high hopes for this school

year. “We are hoping for and expecting it to be a big year,” Benjamin Case, a fourth-year graduate student in the sociology department, said. Last October, Pitt faculty and graduate student employees informally announced their plans to form two separate unions to address concerns of job security and low wages. After formally announcing their efforts in January this year, the campaigns began spreading awareness and garnering support among faculty and staff. Since the formal announcement nearly 10 months ago, both the faculty and graduate student unions partnered with the Academic Work-

ers Association of the United Steelworkers union, which provides the campaigns with legal support, guidance and basic supplies such as fliers and buttons. In recent years, USW has also aided Point Park University, Robert Morris University, Duquesne University and Chatham University employees in their unionization efforts. Point Park University’s adjunct faculty employees also voted to unionize in June 2014 and negotiated a contract with the university in November 2015. At Robert Morris University, the adjunct faculty passed a vote to unionize in See Union on page 3

In cases of simple assault, harassment and terroristic threats, a Pittsburgh police officer will now be required to respond to the scene of the incident. Before, they didn’t always have to. Under the rules governing the city police’s crime response system, a 911 operator could relegate 14 crimes, including simple assault and harassment, to an auxiliary system called the Telephone Reporting Unit. As long as no one was in danger, the TRU would file a police report on the caller’s behalf, which an officer would follow up on, though none would be sent to the scene. At a public hearing on Tuesday, city council members, public safety Director Wendell Hissrich and police Chief Cameron McLay, among others, met with a handful of community members to discuss narrowing the scope of this police response policy. If a Pitt student, for example, called 911 to report verbal threats from their significant other, the old policy would have rerouted the call to the TRU, and an officer would only have been sent to the scene if the TRU operator determined the student was in physical danger. With the new policy changes, an officer would be sent to the student’s location regardless of the operator’s determination of danger. Under the considered changes, simple assault, harassment and terroristic threats — previously among the 14 specified crimes — are being removed from automatic routing to the TRU. The new policy is drafted but not finalized, according to Sonya Toler, a Pittsburgh public safety spokesperson. The new policy will be finalized in the coming weeks. See Police on page 4


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