It Is a Student Community

The following letter was sent November 21, 2021

By Carlino Giampolo 

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher
University of Pittsburgh

Re: It is a Student Community

(For the past two decades, you and your predecessor have never provided a direct email address. I trust your secretary will forward this to you.)

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher,

"It is a student community." That sentiment about Oakland was expressed numerous times in recent articles in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Mayor William Peduto, Walnut Capital President Todd Reibord, Oakland Business Improvement District leaders, and others. They unwittingly expressed that truth in a Pitthetic rush to justify the disgraced Oakland Crossings development project.

"It is a student community." When you became chancellor in 2014, I met with you personally and suggested, "Let's create a new beginning for the people of Oakland." You had a choice between beginning the healing process to end the devastation of Oakland's residential and business districts, or continuing the Pitthetic destructive actions of your predecessors. You chose the latter.

"It is a student community." You have always masked, denied, and ignored the inglorious truth. You take no responsibility for the decimation of our residential and business districts, and attempt to pass the shame of your actions on to your enablers. Other leaders at the university emulate your actions. However, your own personal shame, and the Pitthetic shameful legacy that you could have ended for the University of Pittsburgh in its host community, will be with you constantly.

"It is a student community." My grandparents' generation welcomed the university in 1909 because they honestly believed the university would be good for the community. They never imagined the destruction and the Pitthetic Legal Rape of the Land of Oakland that would follow the university's move into our community.

"It is a student community." During my grandparents' generation, and part of mine, Oakland had the most spirited and vibrant residential community in the city, supported by a business district that fulfilled the needs of the residential community. That lifestyle was destroyed by avaricious and glory-seeking university administrators who possessed the destructive consciousness of domination, manipulation, and instilling of fear. You are an integral part of that ongoing Pitthetic university consciousness.

"It is a student community." During the 14 years of our grassroots movement, William Peduto as councilman and mayor, and members of the Pittsburgh City Council, had the power to enact laws to protect Oakland and to stop the uncontrolled, destructive expansion of the university in our residential and business districts. Instead, they chose to be puppets and enablers of the university's policies. The Pitthetic shame of the university has been passed on to each one of them.

"It is a student community." It is well known among Pittsburgh residents that the university has always been a master at manipulating the media. Administrators are silent when negative issues reveal the shame of the university, but they are readily available when something positive arises about the university. Incredibly, throughout the history of the university in Oakland, the media never attempted to investigate the uncontrolled and destructive expansion of the university into our residential and business districts. The university has deftly passed on their Pitthetic shame to the men and women of the media.

"It is a student community." Every university faculty member knows the truth of the decimation of Oakland's residential and business districts due to the university's presence. However, a culture of fear within the university muffles them totally silent about that truth. The Cathedral of Learning has become the Cathedral of Shame for what the university has done to Oakland's residential and business districts. Faculty members are an integral part of the Pitthetic shame of the university.

"It is a student community." The Board of Trustees' members impact the lives of Oakland residents everyday with their decisions. In a further act of the lack of transparency at the university, you refused to provide university email addresses of board members for the community to express their thoughts and feelings to them. Some board members may be clueless as to their impact on our community, while others may choose deliberate ignorance. Regardless, they cannot escape responsibility for their decisions. The Board of Trustees' members are an integral part of the Pitthetic shame of the university.

"It is a student community." The Hazelwood Green foundation owners willingly chose to become involved in the sordid and sleazy world of city politics. They attempted to destroy neighborhoods just to further the expansion of the university in our residential and business districts. Neither the grandiose developments at Hazelwood Green nor the donation of hundreds of millions of dollars for the university's expansion can undo the tarnishing of the names Heinz, Mellon, and Benedum. The Pitthetic shame of the university's presence in Oakland has been passed on to each of the leaders of those foundations.

"It is a student community." Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald fully supports your position to further destroy our residential and business districts simply because of the belief that the university is the economic engine of the city. He values economic profit and glory for the university over the dignity of Oakland residents. His mother-in-law's family lived in Panther Hollow, yet he adamantly wanted to destroy the neighborhood by supporting the building of a roadway through it from Hazelwood Green to your university. The Pitthetic shame of the university has been passed on to him for the lack of caring for the dignity of Oakland residents, especially the elderly, longtime residents.

"It is a student community." Oakland Planning and Development Corporation members are fully aware of the betrayals, dishonesty, and moral corruption of the Oakland Crossings project. Yet they refuse to take legal and bold actions against university administrators, and others, who support that project. Over the years, they have far too often aligned with the administrators in the university expansion plans, against the wishes of many in the Oakland community. The Pitthetic shame of the university has been passed on to each one of them who has allowed the further decimation of our residential and business districts.

"It is a student community." Oakland has the dubious distinction of having the worst environmental litter and trash problems in the city, caused mainly by students who do not care. When a program to end those problems was proposed to you, you refused to support it, even though the cost would have been equivalent to only $4 per student. Many Oakland residents, especially the elderly, longtime residents, died waiting for your support that never came. Would you have made the same decision if your parents or loved ones lived in the community? That's a Pitthetic shame you bear for ignoring the dignity of Oakland residents, especially the elderly, longtime residents.

In the November 17, 2021, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article about the BioForge project at Hazelwood Green, you mentioned that Pittsburgh can become the city that heals the world. You had the opportunity to heal Oakland, but you deliberately and tragically failed. Regardless of your accomplishments, that's a Pitthetic shame you will carry forever.

It is well beyond the time for you to resign. It is well beyond the time for the Pitthetic University of Pittsburgh to begin to leave Oakland.

Pitthetic
Noun - a university, organization, government entity, or individual that negatively impacts a community by action or inaction.
Adjective - pathetic as a direct result of a university, organization, government entity, or individual's negative influence.