UPJ Greek Alumni
  • Home
  • About
    • Purpose
    • Philanthropy
    • By Laws
    • History Timeline >
      • UPJ 1927 - 1959
      • UPJ 1960 - 1970
      • UPJ 1970 - 1980
      • UPJ 1980 - 1990
      • UPJ 1990 - 2000
      • UPJ 2000 - 2010
      • UPJ 2010 - Present
    • The Owl
  • Fraternities
    • Acacia
    • Delta Chi
    • Delta Sigma Chi
    • Kappa Delta Rho
    • Lambda Sigma Rho
    • Phi Delta Psi
    • Sigma Tau Gamma
  • Sororities
    • Alpha Kappa Pi
    • Alpha Gamma Delta
    • Alpha Sigma Alpha
    • Alpha Xi Delta
    • Chi Epsilon Nu
    • Delta Zeta
    • Kappa Zeta
    • Omega Alpha Tau
    • Phi Sigma Sigma
    • Zeta Sigma Tau
  • Reunions
    • Events
    • All Greek Reunion 2013
    • All Greek Reunion 2010
  • News
  • Contact

Faculty Express Concerns About Pitt-Outlier Partnership

12/16/2020

0 Comments

 
By  Mary Rose O'Donnell, Managing Editor, The Pitt News
DECEMBER 16, 2020

Faculty at Pitt’s Oakland campus will no longer be involved in the University’s partnership with education-technology startup 
Outlier, according to faculty government president Chris Bonneau. Instead, Pitt’s Johnstown campus will continue the partnership and recently signed a five-year agreement with the service where they will oversee the Outlier courses​
The University began working with Outlier.org in August 2019 to provide virtual Calculus I and Introduction to Psychology courses. According to Bonneau, this arrangement began as a way to increase access to college-level education to non-traditional students. But he said Oakland faculty were concerned by the fact that these courses were not designed by Pitt faculty and that they could potentially be competing with Pitt courses.
Picture
Issi Glatts | Pitt News, Senior Staff Photographer
Bonneau said at a Faculty Assembly meeting on Dec. 2 that he spoke with faculty members from various departments whose subjects are offered as Outlier courses and heard their comments and concerns regarding the service.

“From that meeting it was clear that no one was interested in pursuing this relationship further,” he said.

Bonneau said he brought faculty’s concerns to several top Pitt administrators — Provost Ann Cudd, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies Joe McCarthy, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences Dean Kathy Blee and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies John Twyning. Bonneau said he believes that the regional campuses were then contacted about a potential partnership, and Johnstown expressed interest.

According to Outlier’s website, those who successfully complete a course — which include Calculus I, Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Astronomy, Introduction to Statistics, Introduction to Philosophy and Introduction to Microeconomics — will receive three college credits through the University. These credits are, “transferrable to other colleges and universities subject to review and approval by the receiving institution.” Each course costs $400.

Pitt Johnstown announced in early November a scholarship program in partnership with Outlier to provide free courses to essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Frontline Workers Scholarship program will offer a scholarship for a free Outlier class to 1,000 workers, totaling $3.8 million in Pitt credits.

“Pitt Johnstown is deeply committed to expanding access to a high-quality education for all and reducing student debt — a goal we share with Outlier.org,” Jem Spectar, president of Pitt Johnstownsaid. “We are excited to partner with Outlier.org on this initiative to give frontline workers, who are sacrificing so much, the opportunity to advance their college careers.”

Bonneau said Faculty Assembly officials have not heard any feedback about working with Outlier from the Johnstown faculty.

“To date, we have not received any complaints or concerns raised by the Johnstown faculty. Of course, the regional campuses have the ability to structure their curriculum as they see fit,” he said. “For example, taking a class at Johnstown may not have the same content, means of assessment, etc. as a class on the Oakland campus or the Bradford campus. That’s true regardless of the presence of Outlier.”

Bonneau also said the University Senate is open to working with Johnstown faculty in the future if they raise any concerns about the Outlier partnership.

“As anyone involved in this process knows, I am not a supporter of Outlier or this partnership. I consider having it removed from the Oakland campus to be a victory for our shared governance process,” he said. “And if there are concerns from the Johnstown faculty, the Senate will assist them, as we have done with faculty at the Oakland campus.”

At the Faculty Assembly meeting, some faculty members brought up the fact that although these courses could count as credit towards graduation, they may not fulfill major prerequisites.

Sybil Streeter, the director of undergraduate advising for the psychology department, said she is concerned with the Outlier Introduction to Psychology course’s ability to fulfill prerequisites within Pitt’s psychology major.

According to Streeter, Cudd said Pitt students are not allowed to take the Outlier Introduction to Psychology course. But Streeter said she is worried about future students who may enroll in the University expecting the class to fulfill the Introduction to Psychology requirement when pursuing a psychology major, when in reality it will not fulfill the prerequisite.

“There’s sort of inconsistent information out there that says Pitt students can’t take these classes,” she said. “But I don’t know of any mechanism that would allow us to identify prospective students who take the class in their summer after their senior year of high school thinking that they’re going to get a leg up.”

Streeter also said that she is worried about negative feedback from students who could potentially enroll in Pitt and look to fulfill the psychology major requirement with the Outlier class but are unable to do so, especially after they spent the money to take the Outlier course in the first place.
“If this takes off, I can imagine there being pushback from students who have paid their $400 and have a course that says ‘Introduction to Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh,’ but we make them retake that class before they can move onto any additional coursework in the department,” Streeter said. “It just puts us in a difficult position.”

Besides the prerequisite concerns, Jeff Aziz, a senior lecturer and undergraduate adviser in the English department, said in his experience, not all courses from Pitt-Johnstown are transferable to the Oakland campus. This could potentially include credits from the Johnstown-sponsored Outlier program.

“There are some restrictions on transferring courses from regional campuses to Pitt main campus. They’re kind of ad-hoc. Johnstown happens to be one of the campuses from which we do not accept a mathematics class, either for credits towards graduation or for the satisfaction of any major or gen-ed requirements,” he said. “It’s a weird sort of ad-hoc landscape when it comes to courses that are given at regionals and don’t have the same status here.”

Bonneau also briefly brought up COVID-19 costs at the Faculty Assembly meeting. He said the total costs so far were to be expected, but things could change quickly as the pandemic continues. According to Bonneau, Pennsylvania is projecting significant revenue losses due to the pandemic, but it is not clear how this could affect University funding.

Pitt’s board of trustees approved a budget over the summer with flat tuition, as well as no layoffs, flat salaries for all employees and a roughly 6% budget cut.

“Obviously it is way too early to know what all this means for tuition, increases in the salary pool, etc,” Bonneau said. “As always, we will continue to oppose cuts to the academic mission of the University. This includes furloughs, layoffs, etc.”
0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    UPJ Greek News Today

    Find the latest breaking news about UPJ. You can search by your organization name of by a date below.

    You can also take look back into time so you can remember what happened while you where at UPJ

    Click the Social Media links below for even more current info...

    Categories

    All
    Acacia
    Alpha Gamma Delta
    Alpha Kappa Psi
    Alpha Sigma Alpha
    Alpha Xi Delta
    Delta Chi
    Delta Sigma Chi
    Delta Zeta
    Farewell & Parting
    Fundraising
    Go Greek
    Homecoming
    Housing
    Intramurals
    Kappa Delta Rho
    Kappa Zeta
    Lambda Sigma Rho
    Omega Alpha Tau
    Phi Delta Psi
    Philanthropy
    Phi Sigma Sigma
    Reunion
    Rush
    SGA
    Sigma Tau Gamma
    Student Senate
    UPJ
    Zeta Sigma Tau
    Zeta Tau Alpha

    Archives

    January 2022
    December 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    April 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    September 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    January 2011
    November 2010
    September 2010
    July 2010
    March 2010
    December 2009
    September 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    January 2009
    September 2008
    July 2008
    June 2008
    March 2008
    January 2008
    November 2007
    September 2007
    June 2007
    May 2007
    April 2007
    March 2007
    February 2007
    January 2007
    November 2006
    September 2006
    June 2006
    May 2006
    March 2006
    December 2005
    November 2005
    October 2005
    September 2005
    September 2004
    August 2003
    May 2003
    March 2003
    January 2003
    November 2002
    October 2002
    August 2002
    July 2002
    June 2002
    May 2002
    March 2002
    October 2001
    August 2001
    June 2001
    April 2001
    March 2001
    December 2000
    May 2000
    April 2000
    March 2000
    February 2000
    October 1999
    July 1999
    May 1999
    April 1999
    March 1999
    February 1999
    June 1998
    February 1995
    July 1988
    January 1968

    RSS Feed

Creative Commons License
UPJ Greek Alumni is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
©2023 UPJ Greek Alumni Council
site design by Rapid Production Marketing