The 2016 University of Pittsburgh budget provides insight as to whether the school places as much emphases on educating their students as they do on academic research.
Breaking down the budget
According to the University of Pittsburgh’s financial report for the fiscal year of 2016, Pitt’s total functional expenses max out at just above $2 billion. Instructional and Research expenses, the two largest pieces of the pie, take up 28 and 38 percent, respectively.
In 1974, Pitt was elected into the Association of American Universities, and has since been recognized as one of the country’s top research universities. Even before that, we had been at the fore front of innovation, creating the first synthetic insulin in 1964 and discovering the polio vaccine in 1955.
Our research would be nowhere without the funding that it receives. Yet, if almost a third of the budget is being allocated to research, how much is actually being allocated to academics and expenses that directly benefit students?
Funding increase
According to an article published through WTAE, Pitt received $159 million from the State’s budget, which was about a three percent increase from last year. What else increased from last year, though? Tuition. The increase, though supposedly the smallest increase in 41 years, rose in-state tuition by about 2.3 percent and out-of-state tuition by about 2.75 percent at the Oakland campus.
This, then, begs the question: where is this increase in tuition going? If the University’s budget is increasing and student’s tuition isn’t decreasing, what exactly is our money being put to use for?
Academic Support and Student Services
Following the Research and Instruction line items, the next two largest expenses include Academic Support and Student Services. Academic support accounted for about nine percent of total expenses ($193, 807, 000) and Student services about seven percent ($150,751,000). Combined, the two total to a little under a third of the university’s budget.
According to the University’s, “Accounting Function Code definitions,” a Student Service expense goes towards, “student’s emotional and physical well-being and to his or her intellectual, cultural, and social development outside the context of the formal instruction program.” An example of this expense might include the $13 million Trees Field Complex that was just approved by the University this summer. The complex, as an air-supported domed field, will be built for soccer and lacrosse fields. It will allow all students to participate in a variety of activities regardless of weather conditions.
Though, at first, this may seem like just another renovation for athletes, it appears that in a statement released on Pitt’s Student Affairs website, the University decided to construct this new facility, “after assessing recreational needs of students.”
Improving our education
The question still remains, though: How is our education being improved? The other expense title, Academic Support, is defined by the University as, “funds expended primarily to provide support services for the University’s primary missions – instruction, research, and public service.”
Items such as “museums and galleries,” “academic computing support,” “academic administration” and “academic personnel development” are included under this expense title which, once again, doesn’t seem to clearly or directly impact a student’s education. Where are the multi-million dollar projects that improve things here on campus like advising, majors, minors, certificates and classes, not just recreational facilities?
All in all, the University seems to be allocating a large amount of money to research in comparison to expenses that directly benefit students. Even with those other expenses allocated, the dedication to strictly educational endeavors seems to be somewhat lacking.
Takeaway
Though the allocations to Student Services will produce something that students can actually use, why isn’t improving students’ education the top priority? We do, at the end of the day, pay hefty tuition to receive an education. It’d be interesting to see what else that money could be used for in terms of projects un-related to sports or recreational facilities. Only time, and other financial statements, will tell.
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