A University of Pittsburgh symposium on "sustainable high-end outsourcing" has raised the ire of state Sen. Sean Logan.

The Monroeville Democrat yesterday afternoon asked for a joint hearing of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee and the Senate Democratic Appropriations Committee to get answers from the university.

"I'm upset that Pitt, who just received millions of dollars in state funding for the next fiscal year, would even consider participating in a venture that would move high-end job opportunities overseas," said Mr. Logan. "That's a slap in the face to every worker and taxpayer in the state."

He said the state recently adopted an economic stimulus package designed to keep and grow jobs in the state.

"Outsourcing our jobs overseas is contrary to the goals we're trying to accomplish," he said.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele could not comment on the remarks immediately. "We haven't had an opportunity to look at his complaints," he said.

The symposium took place on April 20.

A news release issued by Pitt's Katz Graduate School of Business before the symposium said, "High-end transnational outsourcing is at the frontier of leading edge innovation that is vital to business and economic success."

It said a "select group of American and Indian academic, government, business and media leaders" would convene to "share and discuss their visions of viable models of symbiotic outsourcing."

The symposium was part of a Global Academic Partnership grant from the University of Pittsburgh's Office of the Provost and University Center for International Studies. It also was sponsored by the International Business Center of the Katz school and Pitt's engineering school.

In the news release issued by Mr. Logan, John Twigg, vice chairman of the Pittsburgh section of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, said, "Sending high-end work overseas will accelerate damage to the U.S. innovation system without a doubt. It will create more future competitors, dilute the talent pool here as better opportunities become available elsewhere and erode our ability to attract the best and the brightest foreign students here."