Year Of... at Pitt

Originally launched in 2014, the “Year of …” program, annually selected a thematic area of focus for the academic year meant to unite the campus community around specific, timely topics.

Each year, a call for proposals was issued; a panel of faculty, staff and students were reviewed and recommended submissions; and the provost’s office provided matching funds to support the selected events and projects related to the initiative.

Many programs developed and launched during past years of the initiative have carried on and expanded.

Past years have included: 

Year of Discourse and Dialogue - Academic Years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025
Year of Discourse and Dialogue icon shows a mix of sillhouettes and printed matter enveloped by a quote bubble.

Higher Education as a whole has been at a forefront of engagement around respecting divergent viewpoints—and the right for various viewpoints to find opportunities for expression. As a public university, we must and do uphold the principles of protected speech and expression. That is a tradition and an expectation as old as the University itself—and it lies at the heart of free and open inquiry and academic discourse.

Let us continue to travel along this critically important path together as a community of learners. Through this theme the University seeks to probe ways to harness the power of differing views and perceptions to enrich our campus community.

Visit the Year of Discourse and Dialogue website.

Read about the years' events

Year of Emotional Well-Being - Academic Year 2022-2023

This theme offered an opportunity to engage collectively with a focus on restoring and enhancing our emotional well-being. The pandemic certainly underscored the importance of fully supporting the emotional welfare of students, faculty and staff as everyone navigated the new terrain. This was a time of burgeoning research and collective reflection on our emotional needs and the qualities that make for a good life. A stated hope was that the Year Of topic would also yield learnings that could better people's lives well beyond the boundaries of the University. 

Year of Data and Society - Academic Year 2021-2022
The Year of Data and Society icon provides a visual representation of nodes pointing to one another above stylized human forms.

A focus on data and society was ideal for a university setting because this is where we gather together to research, analyze and try to better understand, and improve the world around us. Data science now permeates education, government, medicine, engineering, entertainment, science, the arts, humanities, and business, touching nearly every facet of life. All parts of our university collect and use data and each offers unique perspectives on how data can contribute to student and faculty success, human well-being, and the greater social good. In a year that the University trained its focus on data and society, we hoped to ask profound questions and seek innovative and compassionate answers.

Year of Engagement - Academic Year 2020–2021
The Year of Engagement icon shows stylized human figures rotating around a central core.

Engagement with each other—whether civic, community, or campus—allows us to create new possibilities for humanity, for fellowship, and for innovation and discovery. Engagement is fundamental to community building, to deepening the connections between us, and to critical self-discovery. A Year of Engagement was ideal for a university setting because here we learn and teach about communities, while coming together to create new ones.

Year of Creativity - Academic Year 2019–2020
The Year of Creativity icon shows swirls of color arcing around a central core with the words Pitt Creates hugging it from the top left.

Creativity unites all of the University of Pittsburgh’s intellectual and artistic endeavors, from neuroscience to sculpture, from legal scholarship to computer science, from music to pharmacogenomics. No single virtue better describes what humans do best than creativity. The Year of Creativity aims to encourage the creative spark in all of us.

Year of Pitt Global - Academic Year 2018–2019

The Year of Pitt Global sought to help mobilize and highlight the efforts of our schools, centers, institutes, and programs to integrate local and international perspectives that advance new knowledge and ground-breaking innovation while fostering cultural awareness, worldwide partnerships and life-changing research.

Year of Healthy U - Academic Year 2017–2018

In Spring 2017, Provost Patricia E. Beeson announced that the academic year 2017-2018 would be the Year of Healthy U. During that time, University of Pittsburgh students, faculty and staff studied, recognized and benefited from practices that promote good health, showing how a cross-disciplinary understanding of wellness can lead to better and more productive lives. The Year of Healthy U engaged our various audiences, advanced our understanding of health in all of its forms and renewed our commitment to fostering a vigorous and lively community.

Year of Diversity - Academic Year 2016–2017
Year of the Humanities - Academic Year 2015–2016 
Year of Sustainability - Academic Year 2014–2015