Exclusive: Pitt looks to add 3,200 students to Oakland campus, Chancellor Joan Gabel says

The University of Pittsburgh aims to increase enrollment on the main Oakland campus by about 3,200 students or 11% in five years and likely will add faculty and undergraduate housing.

The ambitious goal , contained in the school's updated strategic plan , could bring Oakland enrollment to nearly 33,000 — highest in decades.

It comes amid a slumping student market generally, but also at a time when Pitt's main campus is seeing record numbers of applications, Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel said Thursday.

"We think we have a really strong product for our students," she said. "We have very strong placement, we have capacity, and we want to educate as many students as we can."

But in a wide-ranging interview with TribLIVE as she approaches a year in the job, Gabel also spoke of the importance of Pitt's four branches, even if enrollment has fallen at those locations by 32% in a decade.

Pitt-Greensburg, Bradford, Johnstown as well as Titusville, which is now a workforce training site, are important academically to their regions and as economic anchors.

"We have several thousand students on those campuses who are earning degrees that serve in industries that are creating economic development opportunities," Gabel said. "They create a tax base in those communities. We're still in an investment and re-frame mode. So I am optimistic."

Gabel was hired in April 2023 from the University of Minnesota , where she was president of the system and its Twin Cities campus. On July 17, s he began her duties as the 19th and first woman chancellor at Pitt, with 34,000-students on five campuses and 14,000 employees.

During the interview, Gabel discussed topics such as Pitt's next capital campaign, the state budget and performance funding proposals, and the recent pro-Palestinian protest encampment and why she declined to meet with protesters to discuss their demands.

The recent campus protest

The 30-hour encampment in early June spawned vandalism and scuffles with campus police outside the iconic 42-story Cathedral of Learning and came amid a spring of campus unrest nationally over the Israel-Hamas war.

Pitt Divest from Apartheid, which organized the protest, accused Pitt police of excessive force and accused Gabel of wanting to call in state police to sweep the protest site on the Cathedral's Fifth Avenue side.

Their demands included a call for Pitt to shed investments that aid the Israeli campaign in Gaza.

Gabel did not directly address the state police allegation but said she was in communication with that agency and a number of other agencies as the conflict escalated.

"I would argue that this is the hardest thing we've gone through this year," Gabel said.

Asked why she did not meet with the protesters, Gabel said investment decisions regarding Pitt's $5.5 billion endowment are a board of trustees-level decision above her. As such, Gabel said Jeffer Choudhry, the university's chief investment officer, was the logical person, and he was willing to talk to the protesters.

"The offer was made to meet," she said. "They declined.'"

Divest Pittsburgh could not immediately be reached for comment late Thursday on Gabel's account.

Gabel said the fall may bring renewed protests.

"I think the underlying dispute continues. So I think we expect there to be continued advocacy, which, of course, is the right of our community to express their advocacy and voice on the issue."

She reiterated her belief that Pitt successfully balanced free speech and safety concerns.

She also said, "It's one thing to say that we all believe in free speech, and another to have someone say something that you so fundamentally disagree with or that you're personally offended by.''

Capital campaign planned

Pitt has not had a universitywide capital campaign in more than a decade since "The "Building Our Future Together" campaign raised $2.135 billion for various endeavors across at Pitt during the administration of Mark Nordenberg.

Pitt is conducting a campaign readiness assessment, Gabel said, and could make an announcement as early as next spring about a campaign.

Early on, the new chancellor sought to update the university's "Plan for Pitt," a five-year strategic document focusing on areas from student success and funded research to furthering Pitt's national stature and community engagement.

In April, it yielded what leaders say are measurable initiatives that would make college more affordable.

Among them are lowering each year average debt carried by Pitt graduates of more than $38,000 and expanding a program in which the university matches federal Pell grants for its neediest students up to the maximum $7,395.

One ambitious goal is boosting enrollment on the main Oakland campus by 3,170 students to 32,658 by 2028, leveraging record demand for the Oakland campus, even in a slumping student market.

Based on a review of the plan, undergraduate enrollment of 20,220 would grow in stages by 9%, or 1,780 students, to 22,000 by 2028. Graduate enrollment would expand by 15%, or 1,390 students, to 10,658.

To help achieve that growth, Pitt intends to recruit more Pell-eligible students each year by expanding Pitt Success Pell Match program.

Pell-eligible students currently account for 18% of main campus enrollment.

Many of the additional graduate-level students contemplated for the main campus by 2028 would likely be enrolled online or as hybrid students in Oakland, so additional demands on infrastructure would be limited, Gabel said.

But housing beyond the 8,332 beds on campus would be needed for undergraduate growth, and planners are currently reviewing that.

For decades, out-of-state undergraduate and graduate students have occupied an increasing share of main campus seats. Those students accounted for 23% of the Oakland total in 2004; 36% in 2014 and 44% by last fall.

Pitt's branches, though, enroll mostly Pennsylvanians. As the number of traditional-age college students has fallen, the branches have continued to see student numbers shrink – down by 32% from 6,317 students in 2014, to 4,283 as of last fall.

No state budget yet

The June 30 deadline for passing astate budget looms. Among the issues are proposals to tie funding of universities to academic, workforce and other performance measures. Gable said she is comfortable with that.

"There are lots of states that do this, and so, and I've worked in a couple of them over the years and seen it be pretty productive," she said. "So the devil's in the details, as things often go."