Communications with Pitt

The University of Pittsburgh has a 100-year history in the community of Oakland.

An article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on December 20, 2008 stated that “the University of Pittsburgh’s endowment totaled $2.4 billion this summer and is the region’s largest.” To our knowledge, South Oakland’s community residential organizations have never received any monetary assistance from that endowment. This article went on to mention that although the endowment lost 22% during the fall of 2008 because of economic conditions, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg sent a memo to administrators, informing them that “campus successes in recent years, including research gains and record fundraising have better positioned the university.”

On December 18, 2008 an article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review mentioned that the University of Pittsburgh has signed a 10-year lease in excess of $490,000 per year with a developer, in order to expand their offices at a site that was a popular North Oakland restaurant – much to the chagrin of the elderly residents who live in the condos above the restaurant. That is a commitment of nearly $5 million. The agreement was made before the restaurant was officially closed at the end of December. The developer paid a little over $2.2 million for the site earning a return on investment of over 100% for the 10-year period. Yet the university tells our community “we have no money” to support THE SOUL PROGRAM.

With their expansion of South Oakland saturated, the university is spreading into North Oakland and other areas of our city. Also, in the recent past, the university attempted to buy an entire residential street in South Oakland – but long-time residents refused to sell.

As we have stated elsewhere on this site, the university has never made a long-term financial commitment to our community organizations in its 100-year history in South Oakland. Our community should not have to want for decent urban environmental conditions, given the vast resources of Pitt and UPMC. Yet the basic freedom of wanting to live in a clean and healthy environment has become a daunting challenge for our community.

There have been numerous communications sent by our community to various Pitt administrators and faculty. Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg has never responded directly to any letter sent to him. In a February 22, 2009 letter, a request was made again to meet with him to discuss these problems. That request was ignored.

The following letter was sent to Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg on March 1, 2009.

“To Chancellor Mark Nordenberg:

There is a student grassroots movement emerging at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University that is in solidarity with the grassroots movement of the long-time residents of South Oakland.

The focus of these movements is the implementation of THE SOUL PROGRAM. My letter to you on February 22, 2009 outlined clearly how the program would be implemented. The only component missing is a commitment and a deeper caring of our community from you and Mr. Jeffrey Romoff to provide funding for this program.

For the past two years the elderly long-time residents of South Oakland have too often heard the words “we have no money” from you and Mr. Jeffrey Romoff when we have asked for support to end the problems of litter and trash in our community.

We deserve to live in a clean and healthy environment. We believe our request for funding of THE SOUL PROGRAM is justified when the following are considered:

1) In December 2008, the university gave a 10-year, $4.9 million dollar, commitment to a Greensburg developer (which has no ties to our community) to rent office space at a site that was once a restaurant in North Oakland. The developer had paid $2.2 million dollars for the site. That same month UPMC denied our request for $30,000 in seed money for THE SOUL PROGRAM.

2) The University of Pittsburgh, on Form 990 (Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax), for the last three years had an average yearly surplus of $190 million dollars.

3) The university has a $2.4 billion dollar endowment.

4) In a memo to your staff a few months ago, you wrote to them that there was record-breaking fundraising in the past year.

5) An article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last week stated that on February 2 the university sent $5 million dollars to an investment firm that has possibly defrauded the university out of tens of millions of dollars. To the best of my knowledge, in Pitt’s 100-year history in Oakland, that amount has never been invested in the residential community.

6) UPMC has earned well over a billion dollars in profit for the past three years.

7) We sense that an in-depth financial investigation of Pitt and UPMC by the national or local media would reveal even greater surpluses and profits than what any of us now know. And such an investigation also may show more financial waste.

8) No other community in the city of Pittsburgh has been as adversely impacted by the presence of Pitt and UPMC than that of South Oakland. Instead of you and Mr. Romoff asking the long-time residents “What more can we do for you,” the two of you have denied our request for assistance to improve our quality of life.

In light of all of the above, and most of all because elderly long-time residents have suffered long enough, we are making the following affordable and reasonable request:

We are asking for a 10-year, $1.2 million dollar, commitment of $120,000 per year by Pitt and UPMC for THE SOUL PROGRAM. This amount will allow YouthPlaces and Peoples Oakland to hire ten youths at a salary for each of $10,000 per year. The additional amount of $20,000 would go towards beautification projects and other environmental causes in South Oakland which our residents and student supporters would agree to implement. The community of South Oakland deserves no less.

You and Mr. Romoff certainly have freedom of choice to stonewall, ignore or deny our request and if so, the grassroots movements of long-time residents and students will initiate a petition drive, both locally and nationally to gather further support for our just cause.

Too many long-time residents of South Oakland have died without experiencing a new environment under the leadership of you and Jeffrey Romoff. That tragedy must end. Expansion and the earning of billions of dollars must never take precedence over human dignity. ENOUGH is ENOUGH !

Sincerely,
Carlino Giampolo”

The request for funding of THE SOUL PROGRAM has been denied.