Consistent with its efforts to be inclusive and to support a healthy academic-personal life balance, Pitt helps graduate and professional students who are parents to fulfill their family responsibilities while making progress toward their degrees.
Lactation Rooms
A list of lactation rooms (with contact information for each room) has been compiled to assist mothers in finding a convenient location to express breast milk on campus.
Parental Accommodation Guidelines
Since fall 2010, the Graduate and Professional Student Parental Accommodation Academic Regulations have helped students who are new parents through childbirth or adoption to find academic and personal life balance. These guidelines have provided students enrolled in graduate programs with the standing to work with their advisors and faculty to arrange for individualized accommodations that can help them during this life-changing event. During the accommodation period, birth mothers who hold academic appointments continue to receive their stipend, health insurance, and tuition remission. Eligible students should consult with their advisor, principal investigator, and graduate chair.
Find out more about the University's guidelines for helping graduate students who become parents in Graduate Students and Parental Leave: Seeing a Need, Providing Assistance.
University Child Development Center
The University Child Development Center encourages all children to grow to their fullest potential in all areas of development, creating a positive self-concept and a realistic opportunity for success in life. Teachers work with children individually and in small and large groups, enabling the children to identify their strengths while learning how to work together as a community.
The University Child Development Center offers part-time (two or three full days) and full-time (five full days) spaces to the children of University affiliates, including students, staff, and faculty. The tuition schedule is on a sliding scale based on annual household income. The enrollment process occurs throughout the entire calendar year, as spaces become available. It is recommended that parents place children on the waiting list as soon as possible, even in anticipation of a need. The waiting list is extensive; therefore, applying early is encouraged.
Office of Child Development
The University Child Development Center exists at Pitt to meet the needs of many, from providing a special system of education for children of faculty, students, and staff at Pitt to supporting the teaching, research, and public service mission of the University. Learn more about the center's programming on the website, and find additional helpful information under Helpful Links on the For Families page.
Positive Racial Identity Development In Early Education (P.R.I.D.E) Program
The P.R.I.D.E. Program promotes a community-wide approach to helping Black children understand race and embrace their ethnicity and heritage. P.R.I.D.E. builds parental knowledge and skills through the Parent Village and hosts art festivals for nearly 1,000 children and families each summer.