IN THIS ISSUE: PAGE
@PPUGlobe November 8, 2017
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Alumni revisit forgotten Greek life organizations from 1960s and 70s Carrie Reale weighs in on why downtown residents are hungry for a grocery store Men’s and women’s soccer teams end seasons with tough playoff losses ppuglobe.com
Celebrating 50 years of covering the world of Point Park University news
Issue 11
Volleyball coach USG Vice President resigns, replacement to be announced fired ahead of RSC tournament USG
By Hannah Walden
By Josh Croup
USG Beat Writer
Co-Sports Editor
Mike Bruno was fired Friday as the head volleyball coach, the Athletic Department announced. Officials declined to comment on specifics of the decision and players approached by the Globe declined to comment on the details of what led up to the firing. Bruno has coached at Point Park since 2005 and is the all-time winningest coach in program history. He was named River States Conference Coach of the Year in 2016. Bridget Bielich, who served as the assistant coach under Bruno for the last three years, is the interim head coach and will lead the team at the conference tour-
Sam Robinson | Point Park Athletics Former head coach Mike Bruno.
nament this weekend. Bielich did not return a request for comment. The Athletic Department released the following statement: “Point Park University volleyball head coach Mike Bruno has been relieved of
Vice President Davion Heron resigned from his position on Friday, Nov. 3, effective immediately. According to a press release from the United Student Government (USG), Heron cited personal reasons, and has declined to comment on the issue. He served as a senator, recording secretary and
vice president during his four years at USG. “Though we will miss Vice President Heron, we understand and support his decision to step down and are grateful for his many accomplishments over the past four years,” President Bobby Bertha said in the press release. President Bertha has until Friday to replace Heron. President Bertha will present his nominee to the senators, who will then vet and vote for or against the nominee
during the following USG meeting on Nov. 13. President Pro-Tempore Daniel Murphy held this week’s meeting and will continue to do so until a new vice president is elected. While President Bertha has not received any nominations, he said that he knows of “a few people who have an interest in the VP position.” The meeting started with discussing last week’s budgeting allocations, as senator Samiar Nefzi moved to recall
USG page 2
CROSS COUNTRY RUNS AWAY WITH IT ALL
BRUNO page 2
“Trump whisperer” Christopher Ruddy to speak at Playhouse By Nicole Pampena Co-News Editor
Right-wing media pioneer Christopher Ruddy will speak tonight at the Pittsburgh Playhouse about his company Newsmax Media Inc. as well as his experiences as a friend of President Trump. The event is the second installment of the TalkBack Series sponsored by the Center for Media Innovation (CMI), a speaker series that showcases “newsworthy and noteworthy” media entities, according to Director of the CMI Andy
Conte. Ruddy, who is not charging an appearance fee, agreed to appear upon the CMI’s request. Conte cited two reasons behind seeking out Ruddy for the series. “He’s somebody who’s starting to figure it out [in the media business,]” Conte said. “His business is making money. Newsmax is growing; it’s a profitable news organization. The other part is he’s close to the president. He has the ear of the president and talks with him frequently.”
Nicole Pampena | The Globe
Students met on Nov. 2 to make signs for the silent protest and write on post-its why they are against Ruddy speaking.
Kelly Parsley | Submitted The Women’s Cross Country team won the River States Conference title this past weekend. The team is set to compete at the national championship meet in Vancouver, Wash. Nov. 18. See the full story on page 7.
Ruddy founded Newsmax in 1998, a “multimedia publishing company that publishes online and offline content in the fields of news, politics, health and finance,” according to the company’s website. Since it’s conception, Newsmax has received repeated mention in mainstream media including profiles in the New York Times and Bloomberg Business and reaches a monthly audience of 50 million. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Ruddy spent his earlier days in his journalistic career at the New York Post and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. At the Tribune-Review, he covered the Clinton administration under then-editor-in-chief Richard Mellon Scaife. According to Conte, Pittsburgh is “uniquely situated” to host a speaker such as Ruddy, describing the city’s geopolitical location as a “a blue dot surrounded by red.” “Our goal is to bring important, interesting people to campus and expose our students,” Conte said. “Because you’re in Pittsburgh or because you grew up here, doesn’t mean that’s where your imagination should end. You should be able to access people from all over.” The event has stirred interest in the Point Park com-
RUDDY page 2
Wood Street Subway to close this December By Sarah Gibson Copy Editor
For certain Point Park students, it will soon be time to start looking for a new place to dine close to campus. The Subway at the corner of Wood Street and Fourth Avenue is closing its doors for good in the near future. Sunnat Gulmetov is the general manager of both the Wood Street Subway and the Market Square Subway, the next closest franchise store
to campus. He said that the closing was inevitable. “They sold the building,” Gulmetov said. “The building is going to be a hotel.” Gulmetov explained that the building is going to be turned into a Garden Inn and will no longer be able to house the Subway location. The contract for the Wood Street Subway was set to last until 2024, but was terminated early once the building was sold.
SUBWAY page 3
Pioneer Pantry event inspired by “Chopped” By Kelsey Wolfe Copy Editor
School of Communication students enrolled in Camille Downing’s Special Events Planning course are raising awareness about the new Pioneer Pantry this semester. Each semester, students who take the class are required to work as an “agency” and plan an event for a nonprofit organization. With the opening of the Pioneer Pantry, Downing saw this as an op-
portunity that would not only work for her class, but also help a campus organization. “We’ve had a couple different nonprofits and this time we decided on the Pantry because it was just opening,” Downing said. “We decided that this would be more of a launch party, getting to know about the Pantry and what it’s all about.” Heather Starr Fiedler, director of the Department of Community Engagement,
PANTRY page 3
Weather Forecast Today: Partly Cloudy H 51, L 34
Thursday: Partly Cloudy, H 49, L 30 Friday: Partly Cloudy, H 36, L 24 Saturday: Partly Cloudy, H 45, L 33
Sunday: Cloudy, H 48, L 38 Monday: Mostly Cloudy, H 48, L 37 Tuesday: Partly Cloudy, H 51, L 39
Point Park
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