Pitt should prepare for independence from Harrisburg
The state legislature should do what it has done for nearly six decades and approve generous funding for the University of Pittsburgh. But the university should start to prepare for the day this subsidy ends.
Pitt, Penn State, Temple and Lincoln are informally called “state-related universities.” They aren’t run by the state bureaucracy, like the State System of Higher Education, but receive a sizeable amount of funding from the state to subsidize lower instate tuition rates. Further, members of state government sit on their boards.
While the amount of funding has always been subject to horse trading, the idea of funding itself has been rubber-stamped for a long time. Now, the connection between the schools and the state has become controversial.
Pitt has come in for special scrutiny. Some Republican legislators remain chafed that former Pitt chancellor Mark Nordenberg, who chaired the bipartisan Legislative Reapportionment Commission, approved a map they feel favors the Democrats. It’s embarrassing that anyone would threaten Pitt’s funding — and many Pennsylvanians’ education — over partisan sour grapes.
More substantively, many Republican legislators argue that Pitt’s research on tissue from aborted and miscarried fetuses is immoral — and maybe even illegal. The university hired an outside investigator, who found that its policies complied with the law.
But legal or not, the legislature chooses the grounds on which it approves or disapproves funding. State funding — in this case, $151 million — comes with strings attached, and the legislature decides what those strings are and how hard they want to pull them.
Pitt’s best leverage against the legislature is the lower tuition it charges to Pennsylvania students based on its state subsidy. This benefit flows to students more than the university. It expands the education available to many deserving students, especially in the western part of our state. Refusing the subsidy won’t hurt Pitt very much. It will hurt students more.
But conservative politicians, led by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, are increasingly eager to use their power against institutions perceived to be on the left — and universities will always be at the top of the list of usual suspects. Pitt’s leverage won’t overcome that forever.
The Republicans will eventually be replaced by the Democrats. But as long as Pitt accepts 9-figure subsidies from Harrisburg, the relationship will always favor the legislature. Some day it may prove unworkable.
Pitt should prepare a contingency plan that preserves some in-state privileges while remaining fiscally responsible. If the university is tired of defending its policies and programs to (often grandstanding) legislators, it should get ready for a day when it can liberate itself from them.