Report of the Pittsburgh Task Force on Public Algorithms; University of Pittsburgh, March 2022

 

University of Pittsburgh; Report of the Pittsburgh Task Force on Public Algorithms

At Pitt, war or not, Russian and Ukrainian cultures share a bond; PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, February 26, 2022

BILL SCHACKNER,  PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE; At Pitt, war or not, Russian and Ukrainian cultures share a bond

Immigrants who helped build the 'Steel city' are part of famed Nationality Rooms

[Kip Currier: An uplifting, poignant article, amidst the wrenching scenes emanating from an under-siege Ukraine.

The Nationality Rooms (more aptly, Classrooms) are one of the United States' truly singular treasures -- at the nexus of cultures and education -- and are my favorite place to take visitors, having had the privilege of serving as a Quo Vadis student organization volunteer tour guide for these architectural marvels during my undergraduate years at Pitt.]

"The Russian room, dedicated in 1938, and the Ukrainian room, dating to 1990, are historical treasures. But just as important, they are functioning classrooms at the University of Pittsburgh — part of the Cathedral of Learning's 31 famed Nationality Rooms.

Built on ethnic pride and donations, the rooms honor immigrants whose labor in the steel mills helped make Pittsburgh what it is today. In that, the two Eastern European communities share a deep bond.

Only now, Russia has invaded Ukraine and the countries are at war. Pitt undergraduates who routinely sit in these rooms taking classes that have nothing to do with geopolitics find themselves surrounded by trappings of cultures now locked in bloody conflict.

Time will tell if Pitt can turn all that into a teachable moment.

The rooms, like the people whose contributions built them, have always been about advancing understanding globally across cultures, said Kati Csoman, director of Pitt’s Nationality Rooms.

"They are intended to be spaces of, really, timelessness and cultural values," she said. "These are volunteers who have worked hard to raise funds for scholarships."

The Nationality Rooms are located on the first and third floors of the Cathedral, one of the world’s tallest classroom buildings, 42 stories high, its summit visible for miles beyond the sprawling Oakland campus. The massive Indiana limestone structure was opened in 1936 after a decade of construction.

Then-Chancellor John Bowman wanted to harness the enthusiasm of immigrant mill workers by establishing classrooms that would honor their traditions and inspire their children to seek a college education. That idea became the Nationality Rooms."

How Pitt is Preparing for the Spread of the Coronavirus; Pitt Wire, February 27, 2020

Pitt Wire; How Pitt is Preparing for the Spread of the Coronavirus

"The University of Pittsburgh continues to monitor the spread of the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, and is taking steps to respond to community needs. As of Feb. 27, no cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Pennsylvania. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated that the individual immediate health risk to those in the United States is currently low, communities should prepare for the coronavirus to spread. 

Keeping our community informed

Since the emergence of the virus in December 2019, campus health and public safety leaders have coordinated closely with the Allegheny County Health Department and Pennsylvania Department of Health and are following guidance from the CDC and World Health Organization.
Pitt encourages members of the University community to visit the Public Safety and Emergency Management website, which remains a centralized and reliable source for information on this issue. “Knowing where to find reliable information is important for community members,” said Molly Stitt-Fischer, the University’s biosafety officer. “As the health and scientific communities learn more as the situation continues to change very quickly, access to the most current guidance is critical.”

Anti-harassment policy raises First Amendment questions; University of Pittsburgh University Times, November 18, 2019

Marty Levine, University of Pittsburgh University Times; Anti-harassment policy raises First Amendment questions

"Members of the University Senate’s Faculty Affairs committee say they have met with University officials and voiced concerns that a proposed new anti-harassment measure may potentially stifle classroom discussion and require the entire Pitt community to report suspicious speech to University authorities.

After the meeting, the policy was pulled from a vote before Faculty Assembly."

All of Us program wants to change the face of medicine; University of Pittsburgh: University Times, January 8, 2019

Susan Jones, University of Pittsburgh: University Times; All of Us program wants to change the face of medicine

"Dr. Steven Reis wants all of you to become part of All of Us.

Pitt received a $46 million award in 2016 from National Institutes of Health to build the partnerships and infrastructure needed to carry out the All of Us initiative, which seeks to gather health information from 1 million people nationwide to create a database to study different diseases and other maladies, and in the process change the face of medicine.

In Pennsylvania, Pitt is responsible for recruiting 120,000 participants and by early this week had reached 11,610. Nationally, there are more than a dozen other organizations now gathering participants and more than 80,000 people have enrolled nationwide. There are between 40 and 50 people working on the project at Pitt...

The institute “supports translational research, meaning how to get research from the bench to the bedside, to the patient, to practice, to the community, to health policy,” Reis said...

The information will be stored in a secure central database created by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Verily Life Sciences (a Google company) and the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass. Volunteers will have access to their study results, along with summarized data from across the program."

Data Self-Autonomy and Student Data Analytics; Kip Currier, November 5, 2018

Kip Currier: Data Self-Autonomy and Student Data Analytics

When I first saw this PittWire article's headline (Pitt Sets Course for Student Success With Inaugural Advanced Analytics Summit) about Pitt's first-ever Advanced Analytics Summit, my initial thought was, "will the article address the potential downsides of student data analytics?"

Certainly, there are some benefits potentially offered by analysis of data generated about students. Chief among them, greater self-awareness by students themselves; assuming that students are given the opportunity to access data collected about themselves. (Let's remember, also--as surprising as it may seem to digital cognoscenti--that not everyone may want to know and see the kinds of educational data that is generated and collected about themselves in the digital age, just as biomedical providers, ethicists, and users have been debating the thorny issues implicated by the right to know and not know one's own medical information (see here and here, as some examples of varying perspectives about whether to know-or-not-know your own genetic information.) Some among those who do see their educational data analytics may still want to elect to opt out of future collection and use of their personal data.

(Aside: Consider that most U.S. consumers currently have no statutorily-mandated and enforceable rights to opt out of data collection on themselves, or to view and make informed decisions about the petabytes of information collected about them. Indeed, at a privacy conference in Brussels recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook excoriated tech companies for the ways that "personal information is being "weaponized against us with military efficiency.""

Contrast this with the European Union's game-changing 2018 General Data Protection Regulation. 

Perennial consumer protection leader California, with its legislature's passage of the most stringent consumer data privacy protection law in the nation and signing into law on September 23, 2018 by California Governor Jerry Brown, was recently sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for that law's adoption.

All the more reason that a recent Forbes article author exhorts "Why "Right To Delete" Should Be On Your IT Agenda Now".)

Having qualified persons to guide students in interpreting and deciding if and how to operationalize data about themselves is crucial. (Student Data Analytics Advisor, anyone?) In what ways can students, and those entrusted to advise them, use data about themselves to make the best possible decisions, during their time as students, as well as afterwards in their personal and professional lives. As Pitt Provost Ann Cudd is quoted in the article:

“Two of our main objectives are raising graduation rates and closing achievement gaps. Things to focus on are excellence in education, building a network and identifying and pursuing life goals and leading a life of impact.”

Kudos that Provost Cudd, as reported in the article, explicitly acknowledged "that as advanced analytics moves forward at the University, two topics of focus include identifying whether the use of data is universally good and what potential dangers exist, and how to keep the human components to avoid generalizing." The overarching, driving focus of student data analytics must always be on what is best for the individual, the student, the human being.

It was good to see that data privacy and cybersecurity issues were identified at the summit as significant concerns. These are HUGE issues with no magic bullets or easy answers. In an age in which even the Pentagon and White House are not innoculated from documented cyberintrusions, does anyone really feel 100% sure that student data won't be breached and misused?

Disappointingly, the article sheds little light on the various stakeholder interests who are eager to harvest and harness student data. As quoted at the end of the article, Stephen Wisniewski, Pitt's Vice Provost for Data and Information, states that "“The primary reason is to better serve our students". Ask yourself, is "better serving students" Google's primary reason for student data analytics? Or a third party vendor? Or the many other parties who stand to benefit from student data analytics? Not just in higher education settings, but in K-12 settings as well. It's self-evident that the motivations for student "advanced analytics" are more complex and nuanced than primarily "better serving students".


As always, when looking at ethical issues and engaging with ethical decision-making, it's critically important to identify the stakeholder interests. To that end, when looking at the issue of student data analytics, we must identify who all of the actual and potential stakeholders are and then think about what their respective interests are, in order to more critically assess the issues and holistically apprise, understand, and make highly informed decisions about the potential risks and benefits. And, as I often remind myself, what people don't say is often just as important, if not sometimes more important and revealing, than what they do say.
Any mention of "informed consent", with regard to data collection and use, is noticeably absent from this article's reporting, though it hopefully was front and center at the summit.

Student data analytics offer some tantalizing possibilities for students to better know thyself. And for the educational institutions that serve them to better know--with the goal of better advising--their students, within legally bound and yet-to-be-bound limits, human individual-centered policies, and ethically-grounded guardrails that are built and reinforced with core values.

It's paramount, too, amidst our all-too-frequent pell-mell rush to embrace new technologies with sometimes utopian thinking and breathless actions, that we remember to take some stabilizing breaths and think deeply and broadly about the ramifications of data collection and use and the choices we can make about what should and should not be done with data--data about ourselves. Individual choice should be an essential part of student data analytics. Anything less places the interests of the data above the interests of the individual.

New Institute Aims for Global Leadership in Computer Modeling and Simulation; PittWire, May 30, 2018

PittWire; New Institute Aims for Global Leadership in Computer Modeling and Simulation

"At Pitt, the plan is to pair AI and machine learning researchers with individuals from academia, industry, nonprofits and the government to develop algorithms designed to address their specific problems and to use modeling experiments to provide concrete solutions.

“One day, presidents and cabinet officers, C-suites and lab directors will say, ‘Don’t tell me what your gut says, tell me what the evidence says; show me your models, show me the possible futures and the best interventions,’” said [Paul] Cohen."

Pitt makes disciplinary moves after department implicated in sex-harassment investigation; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 22, 2018

Peter Smith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Pitt makes disciplinary moves after department implicated in sex-harassment investigation

"The University of Pittsburgh has disciplined an unspecified number of people associated with its Department of Communication after an investigation found violations of university policy and federal law against gender discrimination. 

The investigation, triggered by past and recent allegations of sexual harassment and sexual relationships between staff and students, “found a consistent pattern in which women were not as valued and respected as their male colleagues,” said a statement by Kathleen M. Blee, the dean of Pitt’s School of Arts and Sciences.

“This resulted in an environment in which the inappropriate acts of the few were tolerated by the silence of others,” she acknowledged.

“The investigations revealed failures of systems and failures of character,” her statement added."

Feds: Pitt professor agrees to pay government more than $130K to resolve claims of research grant misdeeds; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 21, 2018

Sean D. Hamill and Jonathan D. Silver, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Feds: Pitt professor agrees to pay government more than $130K to resolve claims of research grant misdeeds

"A star researcher at the University of Pittsburgh has agreed to pay the U.S. government more than $130,000 to resolve allegations that he submitted false documents to the National Science Foundation to get more than $2.3 million in federal research grants, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pittsburgh announced Wednesday.

As part of the settlement, psychology professor Christian D. Schunn, 48, will not be allowed to apply for or be involved with any federal grants through Oct. 15, 2019, according to a press release. He will have to withdraw from any applications pending for federal funding, the government said."

The Sara Fine Institute presents, "Digital Privacy Workshop for Librarians"; iSchool at Pitt, 3/31/16

The Sara Fine Institute presents, "Digital Privacy Workshop for Librarians" :

"Amelia Acker and Leanne Bowler will be co-hosting a Digital Privacy Workshop for Librarians on Thursday, March 31, 2016; 1:00 – 4:00 PM. Students are welcome.

  The workshop will be presented by Alison Macrina of Library Freedom Project and Bruce J. Boni, attorney and president of the ACLU-PA Greater Pittsburgh Chapter. They will present a hands-on, "know your privacy rights" workshop for librarians, demonstrating strategies to help keep library patrons safe from surveillance. Topics include: the government's major surveillance programs and authorizations, federal and local privacy law, and information on how to respond when served with a government information request. The workshop includes a demonstration of practical privacy-enhancing technology tools that can be installed on public PCs or taught to patrons in computer classes.

Details about the workshop and how to register can be found here: https://tockify.com/ischool/detail/168/1459443600000

Pitt Law Professor Michael Madison will give a talk on intersections among academic freedom, copyright and publishing, and new media and communication platforms on Tuesday, 1/12/16 4 PM, University of Pittsburgh

Talk on 1/12/16 4 PM at University of Pittsburgh:

Pitt Law Professor Michael Madison will give a talk on intersections among academic freedom, copyright and publishing, and new media and communication platforms: You may have heard that the topic of the 2016 Senate plenary will be academic freedom in the 21st century. As a lead-up event, the University Senate invites you to an open discussion with Pitt Law Professor Michael Madison on intersections among academic freedom, copyright and publishing, and new media and communication platforms. Please see the attached announcement for additional details. We hope you will attend. Day/Time: Tuesday, January 12 at 4:00pm, 2500 Posvar Hall.

A new announcement is available. Click the link below to view it:

http://www.universityannouncements.pitt.edu/std1222.pdf

Pitt, CMU and UPMC hope to remake health care via new big data alliance; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/16/15

Bill Toland, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Pitt, CMU and UPMC hope to remake health care via new big data alliance:

"Pittsburgh is making a big bet on big data.

UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University on Monday announced the formation of the Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance to “revolutionize health care and wellness” by using data to detect potential outbreaks as well as create health care innovations that will spawn spinoff companies...

The universities and UPMC acknowledged that security of personal health information is a paramount concern. For research purposes, clinical data is usually scrubbed of personal identifiers, but when devices are gathering and sending data from smartphones and other wearable technologies, the potential for a breach is heightened."

Free love's antidote: On the Pitt campus, it should have been free speech; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/12/11

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Free love's antidote: On the Pitt campus, it should have been free speech:

"University of Pittsburgh student Joseph Petrich wanted to advocate for chastity now, only to be told by university officialdom that he and his group had to leave."