The Globe Issue 11

IN THIS ISSUE:

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4

Pioneer Records debuts new artist, preps for release

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6

Matt Bauman celebrates restored U.S. - Cuba relations

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8

Twin athletes Fousseini and Lassana Konate study I.T. while off court

Issue 11

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Clinton, Sanders open offices in USG tables Pittsburgh before state primary meeting

By Iain Oldman

USG

Ahead of the March 28 deadline to register to vote in Pennsylvania’s closed primary, both Democratic candidates for the presidential nomination bid have opened offices in Pittsburgh.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign opened an office at 216 N. Highland Ave in East Liberty on Thursday, March 24. Many local and state politicians attended the event and Pittsburgh City Paper reported an attendance of around 250. Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto was there at the christening of the new office, as well as U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle and state Rep. Ed Gainey.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ campaign officially opened their first office in Pittsburgh on Wednesday at 1317 E. Carson St. The Sanders campaign has plans to open two more offices - one in the North Shore and another one a mere two blocks away from Clinton’s office in East Liberty.

The office in East Liberty is Clinton’s first in the state other than her campaign’s Pennsylvania headquarters in Philadelphia. Sanders opened an office in Scranton, the hometown of Clinton’s father, on March 22.

East Liberty has been a destination for Democratic offices in Pittsburgh during the last few election cycles. Barack Obama opened his Pittsburgh offices there during the 2008 election and Gov. Tom Wolf chose the neighborhood to house his campaign office in the 2014 gubernatorial race. During the 2008 election, Clinton opened an office downtown on Smithfield Street.

The East Liberty neighborhood, accessible to Point Park students by shuttle, is a prime location for foot traffic and vision according to Juan Pablo Mendoza, an organizer for ‘Burgers for Bernie,’ a Sanders volunteer advocacy group based out of Pittsburgh.

“This area is pretty ideal because, first of all, there’s very high foot traffic and car traffic, so a lot of people are going to be seeing the office and seeing us around,” Mendoza said in

By Margaret Davis

Co-News Editor

For The Globe

photo by Iain Oldman

Volunteers for the Sanders campaign set up in one of the office locations, in East Liberty on Monday. These volunteers also helped recruit people to register to vote. the East Liberty office on Saturday.

“It increases the visibility a lot, specifically in this area.”

Clinton’s campaign chose the neighborhood because of its central location to many key voter blocs in Pittsburgh.

“East Liberty is central to all sorts of demographics. You’re able to talk to people from all walks of life,” Mo Shatara said inside the Clinton office on Monday morning. Shatara is an organizer for Hillary for American and Hillary for Pennsylvania.

“It’s really really close to multiple universities. It gives us a large access to the student body and residential parts of Pittsburgh.”

Pennsylvania’s primary is shaping up to be a pivotal moment for either candidate in search of the nomination.

With 210 delegates up for grabs, the Keystone state is second only to New

OFFICES page 2

Full-time faculty, university begin collective bargaining

By Anthony Mendicino Co-News Editor

Representatives of both full-time faculty and the University met on Thursday, March 17 to begin the collective bargaining process aimed at a contract for full-time professors.

After a decisive vote in June 2004, Point Park’s full-time faculty joined The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, making it the first Newspaper Guild local to represent faculty at a university.

Michael A. Fuoco, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, said, “We presented the university with our proposal and we’re setting up meetings in the near future to really get into negotiations. It was a cordial meeting and we are confident that cordiality will continue and we’ll be able to work cooperatively to achieving a fair proposal for both sides.”

The university shares that same optimism.

Point Park’s United Student Government (USG) was forced to cancel its weekly meeting on Monday, March 28 as the legislative body failed to make quorum. At least six of USG’s ten members must be present in order to bring issues to vote. Due to car troubles and looming due dates, meeting attendance did not reach the necessary six attendees. One member voiced that she would rather be taking a nap. Shortly after the 3 p.m. scheduled time, those in attendance, including the University’s Dean Keith Paylo, were sent home.

Both the president and the vice president of the USG, Blaine King and Gabe Dubin, respectively, confirmed the agenda for Monday’s cancelled meeting, including reallocation of funding for the Feminist Collective, planning for Pioneer Community Day and the results of last weekend’s forum for student concerns. Dubin stated that

USG page 2

Sports photography on display during panel

By Cara McLaughlin For The Globe

Point Park University’s School of Communication brought Canon Explorers of Light photographer Simon Bruty to speak with a sports photography panel on March 23.

The free event was held in the JVH auditorium from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The event was hosted by Point Park’s School of Communication, National Press Photographers Association Point Park Chapter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the American Society of Media Photographers.

Bruty is a world renowned Sports Illustrated photographer, who has won numerous awards for his work and has photographed sports stars such as Michael Phelps and Lance Armstrong, according to his website

and Canon Explorers of Light profile.

“The Explorers of Light is a program organized by Canon to showcase the photographers who they think are pretty good at what they do…and photographers who use Canon photographic gear,” Bruty said during a phone interview.

“I don’t know how many Explorers of Light there are, but they all seem to be experts in all those fields, from sports to wedding photographers,” said Bruty.

A panel discussion took place before Bruty spoke. Featured on this panel was Point Park photojournalism professor Chris Rolinson, Jasmine Goldband from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Steve Mellon from the Post-Gazette and Jared Wicker-

Lou Corsaro, managing director of marketing and public relations at Point Park said in a statement, “The faculty presented an extensive set of initial proposals. The University is working diligently to provide an initial response prior to the next scheduled meeting on May 3.”

“University leadership chooses to respect the collective bargaining process with full-time faculty and will confine negotiations to the bargaining table,” Corsaro said.

“We are very confident we can see eye to eye because we both have what’s best for the students in mind,” Fuoco said. “We were pleased [University administration] were relatively quick to get an adjunct contract done, the first ever, and we’re hoping to carry that same spirit of cooperation to these negotiations.”

Anthony Mendicino can be reached at awmendi@pointpark.edu.

photo by Gracey Evans

Photojournalism professionals talk in a panel at the Canon Explorers of Light and Photojournalism event last Wednesday in the JVH Auditorium. Pictured left to right: Jared Wickerham, photographer for DK Sports; Jasmine Goldband, photojournalist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Steve Mellon, photographer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; and Chris Rolinson, professor at Point Park.

Weather Forecast Today: Mostly Sunny H 69, L 51

PANEL page 3

Thursday: Thunderstorms, H 70, L 50 Friday: Partly Cloudy, H 63, L 38 Saturday: Partly Cloudy/Wind, H 55, L 34

Sunday: Partly Cloudy, H 46, L 29 Monday: Showers, H 56, L 35 Tuesday: Sunny, H 59, L 35w

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016

NEWS

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East Liberty destination for campaigns due to central location, key demographic blocs

photo by Iain Oldman

Hillary Clinton’s campaign opened an office in Pittsburgh at 218 N. Highland Ave. in East Liberty on Thursday, March 24. Local politicians, including Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, attended the event.

from OFFICES page 1 York in delegate numbers in primaries and caucuses until June.

Sanders will especially need to win, and win large, in Pennsylvania.

Though he swept in landslides at the caucuses in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington, Sanders still trails Clinton by over 200 pledged delegates.

The opinion poll analysis website FiveThirtyEight.com estimates that Sanders will have to win a little over 51 percent of the delegates remaining in order to secure 2,026 delegates, the slimmest majority possible at the Democratic National Convention.

A Franklin & Marshall College poll released on March 24 showed Clinton up by 25 points on Sanders in Pennsylvania, though Sanders had similar-

ly dismal numbers before his surprising primary victory in Michigan. The poll only reflects the responses of registered voters and may not accurately show the opinions of the entire state ahead of the registration deadline.

Sanders’ campaign volunteers hope to tighten the poll numbers by using the offices as a jumping off point to spread information about the candidate.

“When you say Clinton has a lot of support, a lot of that comes because people think of her as the default candidate. They don’t want to vote for Trump and they recognize the name Hillary Clinton, and they go to the polls and vote for the Democratic candidate they recognize,” Mendoza said. “That’s the main goal for our volunteer effort is to get Ber-

USG preps for Lobby Day in Harrisburg from USG page 1 the meeting’s agenda also included changes in the USG’s line of succession and Lobby Day in Harrisburg.

The Feminist Collective is appealing for funding to pay for a guest speaker at Title IX’s Break The Silence event on April 7. The Collective previously applied for $2,000 during the funding period in March, but the issue was tabled by USG, as the Collective did not present their specific needs at that time.

Pioneer Community Day (PCD) is an annual event aimed at getting Point Park students involved in community volunteer work. Running for its sixth year, PCD will be held this Saturday, April 2, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Students will volunteer at various organizations in the area from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., followed by an after party in Village Park. According to Dubin, USG conducted a “dorm storm” advertising campaign, going door-to-door in the residence halls to raise awareness about the event.

Dean Paylo was present for the canceled meeting to discuss USG’s prep meeting for Lobby Day. Lobby Day is an opportunity for Pennsylvania residents to lobby state and federal legislators for additional student aid, grant money and funding for universities. The prep meeting will take place Thursday morning in Room 200 of Lawrence Hall.

Lobby Day itself will occur April 12 in Harrisburg, Pa. USG was set to review the results of the annual open forum, held over the weekend, where Point Park’s student body voiced a number of concerns, including transportation, quality and availability of on-campus Wi-Fi, lackluster food service by Aramark and unspecified Physical Plant issues regarding on-campus facilities.

Students have called for changes in the shuttle program, requesting extension of shuttle hours and expansion of available destinations.

USG will also take into consideration a recent petition to reinstate student bus passes. USG has subsidized bus passes in the past, but found that too few students were using the passes and cut the program.

Point Park’s contract with Aramark is on the chopping block after USG gave the food service company a vote of no confidence, in response to feedback from students, faculty and staff. A committee will establish a new contract through a process called “Requests For Proposal.” Food companies bidding on the contract, include Parkhurst Dining, CulinArt, Metz Culinary Management, Chartwells and the incumbent Aramark.

Dubin expects the process to be finished by the beginning of May. Additionally, USG is debating a change to its line of succession. As it stands, if both the president and vice president were to resign or be otherwise removed from office, the position of president would pass to the president pro-tempore, who would act as a locum tenens. However, some within the USG feel that, as a placeholder position, a president pro-tempore may lack the necessary experience. The third spot in the USG’s line of succession may be changed to treasurer or parliamentarian.

Monday’s canceled meeting is rescheduled for Wednesday at 9 p.m.

The agenda for next Monday’s meeting will include planning for Pioneer Community Day and the upcoming USG elections.

President King confirmed he will be running for re-election, but Vice President Dubin declined to comment on the matter. Both have will have held their current offices for one year at the end of the spring semester.

Elections are set for the week of April 11, with an anticipated voter turnout of 200-300 students.

Margaret Davis can be reached at madavis2@pointpark.edu.

nie’s word out to people.”

The Clinton campaign isn’t taking the state as a guaranteed win, though.

“Pennsylvania is a state we’re very concerned about, a state we want to win. The path to winning the presidency and the general election runs through Pennsylvania for every Democrat,” Shatara said.

Both campaigns were focused on voter registration leading up to the March 28 deadline to register to vote in the state’s primary. Sanders volunteers were on Point Park University’s campus last week with clipboards in hand, getting unregistered voters to sign up in time.

“We are focusing entirely on voter registration drives because the deadline is on Monday [March 28].

Our strategy has been to have a lot of little voter registration drives, which is about four volunteers each,” Mendoza said. “Today, we had over 50 volunteers in this office alone so that was really good and we managed to send volunteers all over the city for voter registration drives.”

University of Pittsburgh law students were out running a registration drive for the Clinton office last week.

“The voter registration was a lot more student driven, and I think it went well,” Shatara said. “We absolutely want everyone who wants to vote to be registered.”

Clinton’s campaign has been offering fellowship volunteer positions to students interested in joining the campaign effort.

“A fellowship is a lot like the volunteer effort but you add to it the knowledge of what’s going on behind the scenes and how things get prepared,” Shatara said. “I highly recommend the fellowship to anyone that is interested in getting into political campaigns.”

After the voter registration deadline, the campaign offices will turn to canvassing efforts around the entire city.

Shatara stated the Clinton cam-

paign will hold phone banking days in their offices every Tuesday and Thursday leading up to the primary.

“We’re going to be launching our canvass efforts from right here, so when we go door to door we’ll be meeting here at the office,” Shatara said.

The Sanders campaign is currently gearing up to open their East Liberty and North Shore offices within the coming weeks, followed by canvassing efforts of their own.

The volunteers in the Sanders campaign hope to have the office in East Liberty, located at 117 N. Highland Ave., up and running for a soft open on Saturday, April 2.

For that office specifically, Mendoza says the volunteer efforts will continue with successful events they’ve held in the past, such as debate watch parties at popular bars and restaurants like Capri on Penn Ave. “It’s good to have parties where we are basically trying to integrate with members of the community,” Mendoza said. “Similarly, we have gone out walking, talking with people on the corners out here and outside of the supermarkets.”

“There’s still a lot of undecided voters in Pittsburgh,” Mendoza said.

“If we get a large enough volunteer force to go out and talk to people on the street, it will have a huge impact.”

None of the Republican candidates left gunning for the GOP’s presidential nomination bid have any offices open in Pennsylvania, as of yet.

In fact, John Kasich is the only candidate, Republican or Democrat, to have spoken in the state at all during its campaign season.

Kasich spoke at Villanova University in Delaware County during a campaign stop on the same day it was announced a challenge to keep him off of the state’s primary ballots would be dropped.

Iain Oldman can be reached at idoldma@pointpark.edu.

photo by Iain Oldman

The Sanders campaign has plans to open three offices in Pittsburgh alone, including one just two blocks down from Hillary Clinton’s office on Highland Avenue in East Liberty. Only the location at 1317 E. Carson St. is officially open, though the location at 117 N. Highland Ave., pictured above, is planned for a soft opening on Saturday, April 2.

Local Democratic Campaign Offices Bernie Sanders

Hillary Clinton 216 N. Highland Ave.

841 California Ave.

Pittsburgh 1317 E. Carson St. Graphic by Emily Yount

117 N. Highland Ave.

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NEWS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016

Photography panel featured local and national photojournalism pros

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TUESDAY, MARCH 22 9:33 p.m.

Third Ave Drug Violation: Arrest- No campus Affiliation

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Pioneer Hall Drug Violation: Referred to Student Conduct

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Data compiled by Alex Grubbs Design by Emily Yount

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photo by Gracey Evans

Theo Schwartz, mechanical engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh, gets his portfolio critiqued by Steve Mellon, Pittsburgh Post Gazette photographer, during the portfolio review before the Canon Explorers of Light event last Wednesday evening.

from PANEL page 1 ham from DK Sports.

There was a portfolio review at the beginning of the event available for anyone in the field who was interested.

Registration before the event was required for anybody who wanted his or her portfolio reviewed. A wide array of people showed up for the portfolio review including high school students, photography professionals and an even an engineering student from the University of Pittsburgh.

Only one Point Park student participated in the portfolio review.

The event was open to the public, and all students of Point Park who were interested in sports photography.

“If there’s other folks out there that are in maybe sports, arts and entertainment management area would have an interest in this because this is a different perspective,” Rolinson said.

Gracey Evans, a freshman photojournalism major and National Press Photographers Association member, said that the event piqued her interest sports photography.

“It interested me because I am a sports photographer and he [Bruty] is a sports photographer, too,” she said.

“I think this was good also for other students because maybe it’ll get them interested and to get them to start shooting more photojournalistic stuff and sports because I know that there

is not enough sports photographers out there.”

“I want them to be inspired to know what it takes to take a photograph,” Bruty said.

Bruty hoped the students took away something meaningful his speech and the panel discussion.

“The most important thing is, to them, to not just learn about how to expose a photograph or turn a camera on, but to see what went into it, what made it work.”

Cara McLaughlin can be reached at clmclau@pointpark.edu.

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Pioneer Records to debut album for latest Pioneer Star

By Casey Hoolahan Staff Writer

27-year-old war veteran and sports, arts and entertainment management (SAEM) major John Rushlander will release his three-track EP as Pioneer Records’ second Pioneer Star at a launch party Apr. 7.

Rushlander came to Point Park after serving four years in Iraq in the Army Infantry. Rushlander was new to the studio setting, having only previously done nonprofessional recordings and mostly performing live.

“It was totally new to me. I had never been in a legitimate recording studio, just recording in my buddy’s basement, garages and stuff like that,” Rushlander said.

A panel of students and professors sorted through the artists in an attempt to find the best fit for the second Pioneer Star.

“The number one thing on our list for what we’re looking for is raw talent, number two would be an open mind and number three would be that you can cater to an audience that we hope to present you to,” said Tyler McLaughlin, a senior SAEM major and one of the students who is involved with Pioneer Records.

The winner of the annual contest receives 300 copies of their original EP album, a music video and an album release party. Students execute the planning for the events, write-ups for the artist contracts and management of the social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter pages and personal websites.

“It’s more than just being in a record label, part of it is the education process,” Point Park professor Ed Traversari said.

McLaughlin agreed, and cited the legal, marketing side of the process as the most valuable for the students involved.

“The joy of Pioneer Records is that us as students get to see what a startup takes and all the steps for how to start without feeling the burden of paying the bills,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin and Traversari both agreed that “raw talent” was what sold them on Rushlander.

“When we heard him, we all came to say this seems like the right guy,” Traversari said.

Pioneer Records was an idea fostered by students in the SAEM program.

Traversari worked 37 years in the Pittsburgh concert industry before teaching and was inspired by the students of his “The Recording Industry” class, and the idea of Pioneer Records was born.

“I asked the students, ‘What else would you like out of this?’ and we started talking about what it is like to work for a record label, and I said ‘We could start a record label company here,’” Traversari said.

After receiving approval from the SAEM department head Steve Tanzilli, Traversari went on the hunt for a place to start up the record company. He found the perfect partnership with Jesse Naus, an adjunct professor at Point Park and owner and engineer of Red Caiman Media, which then became the studio students used to produce their work.

“My thinking was, he already has a wonderful studio, all the equipment, and he’s very knowledgeable because he’s also an engineer,” Traversari said.

However, in the future Traversari hopes the University will be able to acquire their own equipment and facilities.

“Someday we’d like to record here on campus, because we’d like to have our own studio here,” Traversari said.

The following summer, Pioneer Records began the search for their first artist.

“We decided we wanted to keep this to Point Park students, so in the summer, we submit an email to everybody saying if you are an artist, or if you know anybody that plays, please let them know that they can submit their tapes to us,” Traversari said.

Last year the label received almost 30 submissions. The first artist Pioneer Records signed was junior SAEM major Hannah Jenkins. Jenkins released her EP “Something Out of Nothing” in April of last year, and has since been playing at local events, such as the Strip District Music Fest, and local lounges, such as The Pittsburgh Diesel Club, even performing a spot on KDKA. “It felt seamless for us because Hannah had been doing so well and we had been booking her shows even throughout the summer leading up to our [next] Pioneer Star,” McLaughlin said.

This past summer was another successful campaign with 30 other student artists submitting their work.

“We had a lot of good people to listen to, country singers, blues singers, rappers, everything,” Traversari said.

With individual artists, such as Jenkins and Rushlander, Pioneer Records brings in other musicians such as guitar players, drummers and keyboard players, as well as backup singers.

Being in the concert business for over three decades, Traversari had the

photo by Connor Hochbein

John Rushlander will release his debut album “Grand Daddy Childs” at the Break the Silence Against Sexual Violennce concert Apr. 7. chance to work closely with famous musicians such as Greg Joseph, from the rock band The Clarks, whom he reconnected with when working on Rushlander’s EP, leading Joseph to become Rushlander’s bass player.

“They asked me if I was cool with Greg Joseph playing on the EP and I was like, ‘Hell yeah man, that’s awesome,’” Rushlander said.

Along with the live music, free food will also be available to students, catered by Hundred Wood. There will be a Stage AE ticket giveaway, merchandise stands for the acts, including Rushlander’s EP and Pioneer Record t-shirts. Point Park’s Title IX Coordinators will have a booth set up at the event too, offering students a relaxed environment to become educated on the serious subject of sexual abuse.

“We’re excited to partner with them because it’s a really important cause,” Angela Thomas, a senior SAEM major and intern at Pioneer Records, said.

This year’s release party, titled “Break The Silence Against Sexual Violence,” will be featuring not only

Rushlander, but will include performances from Hannah Jenkins, Point Park alum David Wilson and up-and-coming Pittsburgh blues band “Commonheart.”

“They’re a very cool band on the rise here in Pittsburgh,” Rushlander said.

Another activity at the event will allow students to plant their own personal flower they can take home with them after the event.

“The goal of Pioneer Records as a whole is to plant this seed and watch it grow. We’ll give them the water and we’ll give them the nutrients, but at some point they become self-sufficient,” McLaughlin said.

The event is open to all Point Park students, April 7 from 6-8:30 p.m. in Village Park, with the Lawrence Hall Ballroom reserved for the performances in the event of rain.

“It’s two and a half hours of action-packed music, just a fun time,” Traversari said.

Casey Hoolahan can be reached at cahoola@pointpark.edu.

Clubs collaborate to host ‘Quidditch Tournament’

By Karly Rivera

Co-Features Editor

From broomsticks to golden snitches, on Apr. 12, the Student Center Gymnasium will transform into a scene from the “Harry Potter” book and movie series with a Quidditch Tournament sporting event.

The Campus Activities Board (CAB), the Sports, Arts and Entertainment Management (SAEM) club and the Intramural sports program have teamed up to host a Quidditch tournament from 9-11 p.m. The sport is well known from “Harry Potter” and the event will have similar ideas and rules to the books.

“There is actually a person who is the golden snitch,” CAB public relations coordinator and sophomore advertising and public relations major Nicole Miller said in a phone interview Mar. 18. “[The team] that catches the golden snitch is the team that wins.”

Upon entering the gym, the SAEM club will have an iPad with a quiz to sort students into one of the four houses, just like the sorting hat does in the “Harry Potter” books. Students will be identified as Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff.

“It is definitely going to be very ‘Harry Potter’ themed,” Miller said. “It is also going to just be a great time for

students to play a game and hang out CAB and advertising and public relawith their friends.” tions major at Point Park, said a lot The clubs have planned to include of what is planned is still a surprise themed foods from the book and mov- for students. ie series, such as chocolate frogs and “I’m excited to see how they are butterbeer. CAB’s special events coor- going to set it up and how it is going dinator and sophomore global cultur- to play out,” Wohlgemuth said in an al studies major Justina Cincotti said interview Thursday in the Lawrence that the knitting club is working to Hall 2nd floor lounge. “In the movmake creations that ies it is obviously will be raffled at the big, but I wonder end of the event. how [CAB] will be “The knitting able to portray that club is going to be part in a gymnasiknitting us four um.” scarves,” CincotThe game is set ti said in a phone to play at different interview Mar. Nicole Miller times throughout the 18. “There will be Public Relations Coordinator evening and Miller a scarf for each Campus Activities Board said that all supplies house.” will be provided for Cincotti said the participants. that part of the idea Miller explained came from the idea that she is most exthat other, larger universities have cited to see how students portray the Quidditch clubs, and that a lot stu- sport of Quidditch. dents love “Harry Potter.” The spe“I feel like probably no one has cial events committee is also trying to played,” Miller said. “It is going to be bring more physically active events to funny to watch a different array of campus for students. people playing, having fun.”

“We’re trying to do a lot more Cincotti said students do not need physical activity sort of events this se- to worry about planning their own mester for the special events commit- teams before coming to the event. tee,” Cincotti said.

“You can come anytime with your Felicia Wohlgemuth, a member of friends or by yourself and you can join

“There is actually a person who is the golden snitch.”

a team and play the game,” Cincotti said. “It will be a fun, competitive but laid back atmosphere.”

For more information about this event or other events hosted by the different clubs, students can visit the organizations’ Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Karly Rivera can be reached at kmriver@pointpark.edu.

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Pop culture collides with the obscure at Tekko Annual convention gaining more followers every year

By Eddie Trizzino Co-Features Editor

A crowd of Japanese culture enthusiasts and anime lovers ran across the street away from Pittsburgh’s convention center dressed in full costumes as anime characters, surprising passing pedestrians and drivers last year. They hit the streets because too many cosplayers boarded and subsequently broke an elevator, which got them kicked out of Pittsburgh’s annual anime convention, Tekko.

“Sometimes it gets out of hand like that, but just relax and go with it,” Altin Molnar-Strejcek, junior creative-writing major said in an interview in Lawrence Hall last Thursday, recalling the elevator incident in which he was involved.

Tekko, previously known as Tekkoshocon, is Pittsburgh’s annual convention where thousands of people go to cosplay as anime, video game, comic book, television and film characters for a three day event, including a preview night on Thursday. This event, in its sixteenth year, happens April 7-10.

“It’s really great because this is the only place where people can dress up like this and not be judged, it’s a welcoming environment,” said Jack Varney, director of marketing and communications for Tekko.

This is the second year the con has utilized a volunteer-based marketing board, and Varney said that pre-registration for the event is up 30 percent since last year. “Pre-registration is over 3,000 names this year, and we’re expecting even more,” Varney said.

Varney said that the founding of the marketing department was meant to create a trademark event for Pittsburgh that will draw in large numbers of people, which will then fuel businesses. He said that the board has been advertising in several states, such as New York and Ohio to get national attention to the event, which he thinks is overshadowed by other cons in Pittsburgh. He also said that Tekko has partnered with several restaurants around the

photo courtesy of Tekko marketing and communications department

A group of cosplayers gathers outside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center last year. Thousands of people bring different characters to life from anime to video games by creating costumes. city, and the event has already sold out about three local hotels.

“We’ve outgrown Anthrocon and we’re just getting bigger,” Varney said.

Last year, a group of students from the Point Park University’s Anime Club attended together, including Molnar-Strejek and Nick Vercilla, the Vice President and President respectively.

“It’s a chance to act out and get in character, which is really fun but can get intense,” Leanna Brooks, junior forensics and biology double-major, said about the con last year in an interview in Lawrence Hall last Wednesday.

“The amount of creativity shown there is amazing; there are a lot of ‘OMG’ moments when you see the kind of costumes people come up with for this,” Molnar-Strejek said.

photo by Gracey Evans

Jeremy Eiben dressed as Megara from Hercules. Eiben has a Facebook page dedicated to his cosplay costumes and characters called Dreamcatch the Fantasy.

The group also competed in the ten years old and I thought I’d do it masquerade department of the con, now before I put it off and get old,” in which they performed a dance Brooks said. skit while dressed as a boy band.

Eiben said he has been into an“We actually won first place last ime and it’s culture since he was year in the novice division,” Brooks nine years-old. said about particiMolnar-Strejek pating in the masalso said he has had a querade last year. lasting interest, even The team will though there are some return this year misconceptions about with a skit based the event and the culon the visual novel ture of anime-lovers.

“Uta no Prince-sa“It might look ma,” which the strange, but it can be group has been such a creative outlet working on since to show what you can early February, do and what you can according to both Leanna Brooks create,” Molnar-StreM o l n a r - S t r e j e k Biology and Forensics jek said. and Brooks.

“I think the panDouble-major A l t h o u g h Point Park University els don’t get enough many people at attention, and group the con dress up as attendance is imcharacters, Varney portant because the said that plenty of groups represent a people go casually to watch anime lot of the culture. films, buy merchandise, participate Students can get tickets at the in games and activities and attend door or pre-register for general guest speakers and panels. admission on the event website.

“There’s no costume needed; Premium and ‘Rockstar’ tickets people just show up to have fun and are sold out. General admission see the action,” Molnar-Strejek said. registration is $50 and allows for “If you go check it out, keep an full-weekend access to the event. open mind, and it’ll be a lot of fun,” Brooks said.

“Being known and recognized Eddie Trizzino from past years is a good feelcan be reached at ing,” Jeremy Eiben, freshman coseatrizz@pointpark.edu. tume-design major, said in an interview Monday.

Eiben has been attending Tekko for six years, and has been an active member of the action every year, dressing as a different character every day for the past few years.

He said he enjoys the process of creating costumes and gaining inspiration from other people’s costumes.

He also has his own cosplay facebook page where he posts pictures of him in costume.

The three students said they have been interested in anime and Japanese culture for a long time. Brooks said that she wanted to attend Tekko before putting it off any longer.

“I’ve been into anime since I was

“It’s a chance to act out and get in character which is really fun but can get intense.”

6

OPINIONS

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016

Religious freedom not at stake in Zubik’s Supreme Court case

’S

POINT

By Laura Byko

Co-Opinions Editor

Pa. has a budget, but damage has been done to students The Pennsylvania state government finally passed a budget this past week, and students receiving financial aid collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

It’s a sigh that is months overdue.

As Phillip Poupore reported for us in January, 950 Point Park students depend on state grants for assistance with living expenses and tuition. While the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) was able to dip into its endowment to provide some assistance, the fact of the matter is that students depend on these funds.

As anyone who has dealt with the costs of higher education can tell you, figuring out how to financially support attending a university is a balancing act. Not knowing if financial aid is actually there is a major problem.

If students don’t provide some method of payment, they can’t attend school. Period. Likewise, if the budget isn’t passed, funds can’t be granted to state-funded agencies, such as PHEAA, and those agencies cannot help students.

There is enough for students to grapple with in the financial aid game, from rising tuition to private lenders’ variable rates. Not being able to receive promised money is unacceptable and wrong.

We applaud the state legislature for finally passing a budget, and doing what was supposed to have been done in July of last year. Congrats on doing your job. We applaud in the same way students applaud for that student who gave an eight minute

THE GLOBE NEWSPAPER POINT PARK UNIVERSITY

speech when the prompt was a two minute speech – begrudgingly.

Yes, the legislators’ primary concern is not with a small Pittsburgh liberal arts school, but failing to realize that by and large these students affected are their constituents is dangerous. These are peoples’ lives in the balance.

A few representatives from Point Park’s United Student Government will lobby April 12 in Harrisburg for funding for education. It’s part of an annual event organized through area universities where students have the audience of state lawmakers to talk about the funding of education.

We urge Harrisburg representatives to listen, and listen closely: while we students are at your mercy for funding of financial-aid granting organizations, you are at our mercy as our elected officials.

We call upon our Harrisburg representatives, including Gov. Wolf, Reps. Doyle and Wheatley, Senator Fontana and House Speaker Turzai, to begin the framework for the 2017 budget now. If it took nine months to ratify this year’s budget, maybe students dependent on PHEAA grants can have their funds by the end of winter break.

Yes, at that point it’ll be six months overdue, but at least then these students might know that they won’t have to interrupt their education while lawmakers use student funds as political leverage.

The Globe can be reached at globe@pointpark.edu.

It goes against the Catholic church’s doctrine to take birth control.

Okay.

I was raised Catholic, and I have a lot of issues with that stance, but that’s not what this particular opinion article is about.

This particular opinion article is essentially about whether or not it is a burden for the Catholic church to fill out a one-page form. I am inclined to believe the answer is no, because a one-page form is literally the shortest a form can be.

But who is championing the Catholic Church’s right to not fill out a onepage form but Pittsburgh’s own Bishop David Zubik, the man who confirmed me and who also probably thinks I am going to hell for using birth control.

Zubik has journeyed to Washington to testify before the Supreme Court in Zubik v. Burwell, a case that continues the discussion that the much-publicized Hobby Lobby case began, in which the court ruled that a corporation can have a religion and that the corporation’s religion can be violated.

I also disagree with that. But the workaround that was created in that ruling also applies to actual religious organizations, like the Catholic Church. The Hobby Lobby case established that under the Affordable Care Act, organizations that believe birth control is a sin do not have to cover birth control for their employees in their insurance policies.

Instead, they must “notify the federal government of their desire to invoke this exemption (ordinarily by filling out a short form) and disclose the company that administers their health plan. The government then works directly with that company to provide birth control coverage plans to the employer’s workers,” according to a November 9, 2015 ThinkProgress article.

So the Catholic Church doesn’t pay for healthcare that violates its reli-

gious doctrine, however unrealistic and outdated, and women still receive vital healthcare that ensures they have control of their futures. It seems like a solution that benefits everyone.

But it’s not enough for Zubik. He believes that even filling out the form is an undue burden on the Church, a restriction on its religious rights. According to a March 21 editorial in the New York Times, the Church’s argument states that filling out the form makes the Church complicit in providing birth control.

That’s absurd. Just fully, infuriatingly, outrageously absurd.

This isn’t about religious freedom.

If it were, the Church would be satisfied with the accommodation that allows it to opt out of the process of providing birth control.

This is about controlling women and forcing them to abide by the Church’s teachings. Who is being oppressed here: the organization that was able to force federal policy to change because of its opposition to basic women’s healthcare, or women who rely on birth control to maintain their hormone levels and a modicum of control over their futures?

A 2012 Gallup poll found that 82 percent of Catholics find birth control morally acceptable, and the Guttmacher Institute found that 98 percent of Catholic women have used contraception when they were sexually active.

But numbers like these don’t matter to a Church that, despite a historically progressive Pope who thinks the Church is losing followers because of its outdated social policy, continues to police women’s behavior even as it has no problem covering Viagara in its healthcare.

So good luck to Bishop Zubik and his persecution complex. I just hope he understands that garbage like this is exactly what drove me and many of my friends away from the Catholic Church.

Laura Byko can be reached at lobyko@pointpark.edu.

Visit to Cuba shows progress for both nations

By Matt Bauman For The Globe

This past week, President Obama became the first sitting U.S. President to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. President Obama met with Cuban President Raul Castro during this visit. The meeting symbolized a great thawing of high-strung tension between the two countries that existed for the last half-century.

An Oct. 11, 2012 BBC report outlined America’s history with Cuba.

Cuba operated ostensibly independently from about 1902, but the American government oversaw all Cuban elections, created trade deals that favored America and claimed the right to intervene in Cuban internal affairs at any moment. There was much unrest in Cuba, leading to a series of revolutions.

In 1933, the first successful overthrow took place when the Cuban military organized a coup led by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista and exiled the then current leader Gerardo Machado into the Bahamas. This overthrow threatened American presence in Cuba, and so America agreed to a new deal between the two countries.

A big takeaway from this deal involved the revoking of the clause that allowed America to intervene in Cuban affairs at anytime. The tariff on trading also now favored the Cubans instead of

America. While this was good for Cuban nationalism at the time, for some people, namely Fidel Castro, thought there were still more steps to be taken.

Castro came onto the scene in 1953, when he led a failed revolution.

Three years later, Castro tried once again to overthrow the existing Batista Cuban government. In 1958, the United States sensed the turning tide of the situation and pulled out the American military. One year later, Castro’s revolution proved successful in a march on Havana, where he declared himself prime minister of Cuba.

Castro severed ties between America and Cuba by nationalizing the production in Cuba. Castro also allied with the USSR, then America’s rival. His reforms were not helpful to the United States, so an attempted takeover was planned by invading the Bay of Pigs which ultimately failed, hurting Cuban-American relations further.

Between the years 1961 and 1963, the CIA attempted numerous times to assassinate Fidel Castro, all proving unsuccessful. It was also during this time that the Cuban Missile Crisis took place, when American intelligence discovered that the USSR was shipping nuclear weapons to Cuba. This led to a long standoff where President John F. Kennedy surrounded the island, forming a blockade to prevent Cuba from getting the weapons. The blockade was successful and the ships carrying the

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nuclear weapons turned around, preventing possible nuclear war.

Since the missile crisis, embargos were placed on Cuba, which crippled its economy over decades. This hurt the Cuban government as well as the Cuban people. Because of this slow growth Cuba, appears to be 50 years behind the outside world in terms of technology, culture and economy.

That brings us to present day.

President Obama’s meeting with Raul Castro, Fidel Castro’s younger brother, showcased that the two countries have let bygones be bygones. The Cold War is over and there is no more reason to punish the country of Cuba for their role in it. What was most outstanding about this visit was how the two leaders acted.

According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s March 22 report of the meeting, Obama condemned Castro’s capturing and holding of political prisoners, and while this agitated Castro, he understood the criticism and agreed to release them as long as they could be named. President Obama also faced some criticism from Castro when he lectured America on not being able to provide universal healthcare, universal education, and equal pay to its citizens.

In response to this, President Obama said, “I actually welcome President Castro’s commenting on some of the areas where he feels that we’re falling short, because I think we should not be Josh Croup, Editor-in-Chief Alexander Popichak, Editor-Elect Anthony Mendicino, Co-News Editor Iain Oldman, Co-News Editor Karly Rivera, Co-Features Editor Eddie Trizzino, Co-Features Editor Johanna Wharran, Co-Opinions Editor Laura Byko, Co-Opinions Editor Michael Richter, Co-Sports Editor Matt Petras, Co-Sports Editor Dominique Hildebrand, News Photo Editor Chloe Jakiela, Features Photo Editor Liz Berie, Sports Photo Editor Julianne Griffith, Layout Editor Alex Grubbs, Co-Copy Desk Chief Emily Bennett, Co-Copy Desk Chief Kayla Novak, Copy Editor Hannah O’Toole, Copy Editor Carrie Reale, Copy Editor Beth Turnbull, Copy Editor Quinn Baumeister, Copy Editor

immune or afraid of criticism or discussion as well.”

It is about time that we begin to ease relations with Cuba. Sure, the Cuban Missile Crisis almost ended the world as we know it, but that was a long time ago and took place in a very different world than the globalized one we live in today. Now that we are smarter and more aware of the world, it only makes sense to forgive.

I am pleased we were able to get the political prisoners released and open trade and tourism up with Cuba as well. I believe we should take it one step further and close Guantanamo Bay, which is located in Cuba as well, and co-operate the military base with the Cuban Military. By doing so, we will end a dark chapter in our country’s history. This will also give Cuba a great opportunity to learn from the American military and bring the two countries even closer together.

By opening up ties to Cuba we have boosted both their economy and our own and have given the people of Cuba a new beginning full of prospect.

This will go down in the history of one of the greatest moments in President Obama’s legacy.

Matt Bauman can be reached at mgbauma@pointpark.edu.

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SPORTS CROUP’S CORNER

By Josh Croup Sports Columnist

Baseball in quotes I’m a sucker for a good quote now and then.

I also love baseball.

Lucky for me, there are hundreds of great baseball quotes out there.

Heck, there are books with just Yogi Berra quotes.

The Point Park baseball team is riding an eight game winning streak in conference play entering the week.

The Pioneers host West Virginia Tech to take on the Golden Bears in a four-game conference series Friday and Saturday. Also, the Pittsburgh Pirates will begin their 2016 campaign Sunday.

Ah, baseball is back. Isn’t it wonderful?

The following is a famous Rogers Hornsby quote that floats around the Internet during the offseason.

“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”

Lucky for Hornsby, spring is here.

Baseball is an odd sport, as Boston Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams once noted. If I consistently scored around 30 percent on exams, well, I wouldn’t be in college still.

But hitting a baseball is one of the hardest feats in sports.

“Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer,” Williams said.

Only five Pioneers are currently hitting above .300 and only four players on last year’s roster who played more than 75 percent of Point Park’s games hit above Williams’ “good performer” marker.

Striking out is a given, no matter how talented the player is with a bat. Reggie Jackson struck out more times than any other player in Major League Baseball but still earned the nickname “Mr. October” and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993.

Striking out in life is a given. We’re all going to fail sometimes. I tend to defer to Babe Ruth when it comes to quotes about persistence and failure.

“Don’t let the fear of striking out hold you back,” Ruth said. “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”

The greats never gave up, Hank Aaron included.

“My motto was always to keep swinging,” Aaron said. “Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.”

It’s not a game for the faint of heart.

The daily mental and physical grind for baseball players is taxing. Point Park plays at least 50 games in a season while big leaguers play 162.

Former Major League Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti described the baseball season perfectly in “A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti.”

“It breaks your heart,”Giamatti wrote. “It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.

You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”

Baseball will break your heart, people will break your heart and the people playing baseball will break your heart.

Why on earth would someone like this game? I’ve heard all the arguments for not liking baseball. It’s too slow, there isn’t enough action, the season is too long, blah blah blah.

I get it. It’s not for everyone.

“Baseball, it is said, is only a game,” George Will once said. “True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona.

Not all holes, or games, are created equal.”

It’s a beautiful game and longtime Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell described it perfectly.

“Baseball is a ballet without music.

Drama without words,” Harwell said.

I love the daily grind of baseball, the numbers behind every player and the beauty that is a good battle between a good pitcher and hitter.

If you love good baseball quotes or just good quotes in general, check out Yogi Berra’s sometime. They go beyond just baseball and really will make you think.

“If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be,” Berra said.

I leave you with my favorite Berra-ism as we approach the heart of the Point Park baseball season and the start of the Major League Baseball season.

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” he said.

Josh Croup can be reached at jdcroup@pointpark.edu.

photo courtesy of Karina Graziani, Athletic Communications Senior pitcher Hannah Harley winds up at Point Park’s home field, Fairhaven Park, in a March 24 game against Carlow University last year.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016

7

Softball player Harley has passion for photography

By Julian Kovacs For The Globe

The living room of her apartment was under construction – with artwork. Hannah Harley, a softball player with a major in photography, is in the process of creating a thought-provoking project for the annual Senior Thesis show, a project that will provoke questions about pornography and race.

She grew up in Indiana, Pa. in a rural setting with chickens in her bedroom, living with no internet or television.

“That conservative growing-up has fueled a lot of what’s coming out,” said Harley, explaining what helped create her artwork.

When she was younger, she described her self as a “little menace” with her parents and siblings.

“My sister said I was growing up to be a villain,” said Harley. “I would ask a lot of questions, find a lot of loopholes, and exploit a lot of people, but I’ve gotten a lot better over the years.”

It wasn’t just being a menace that filled her childhood; softball was another part. Her first softball game was at the age of four, when she first played on an all boys team.

She disliked the game for the first three years due to the difficulties she had to overcome.

“I was the only girl in an all boys team and I cried a lot the first time.

My dad made me go and I would always cry every practice because all these boys would bully me. My brother tried to teach me how to throw and I ended up getting all these bruises,” Harley said. “But after four years it has gotten a lot better.”

Harley began admiring the sport later in her life, even though she still feels like the underdog. Her best position in softball is on the mound.

“I’m not exceptionally fast but I have a good break on my ball and I can be sneaky so [the coaches] said ‘She can be our number two pitcher,’ but I end up getting results,” Harley said.

Harley has dabbled in other positions, but she’s been pitching for the past eight or nine years. One of the first games she remembers was when she first pitched in her freshman year against the best team of the league.

“I was nervous at first but when we won I was shocked,” Harley said.

“The team we were up against never lost a conference game and this was their first time losing this season.”

Even though she sees herself just getting “results,” her coach Michelle Coultas saw her as a valued player.

“Hannah is a seasoned pitcher who works very well with the catcher,” said Coultas. “She’s a reliable player and is a big part of the team.”

She was named First Team All Conference in pitching last year. Within her team, she displays great senior leadership among her teammates.

Softball isn’t the only thing that isn’t keeping her busy this semester.

With the Senior Thesis coming up, she has been hard at work perfecting her project. Themes in life such as relationships, use of pornography, racism, sexism and inequality has helped shaped her project.

Her love for photography started five years ago in Paris, France during an international softball tournament.

“Paris was such a picturesque city and so photogenic,” Harley said. “It’s perfect and fabulous.”

When she started as a freshman in photography, however, she was bewildered with the technical terms, and didn’t know any off the basics when it comes to shooting with a camera.

Her first camera class began in spring of 2013 with Intro to Photography with Chris Rolinson. She considered her first critique in this class overwhelming.

“I remember when we were doing critiques and I was just shaking.

I only shot in JPEGs and didn’t know about raw files,” Harley said. “The pictures weren’t good and they were bad but someone was nice enough to pretend they were good.”

She learned more and more over the semester and after her sophomore

year, she took her first film class and that was where she learned, truly, how a camera operated on manual. It took her getting out of digital to really understand photography.

Not only did she learn so much about photography, her style of photography has taken a departure over the years.

“After my sophomore year, I thought about doing senior portraits but after awhile I hated it,” Harley said. “It felt too commercialized.”

Her style has evolved into creating photographs and art that not only provoke feelings, but also make you question yourself, people around you and society in general.

Harley’s first project that related to her thesis was her photo project “Table Manners.” She explored themes of intimacy, relationships and the gray areas that blur the lines.

“A whole bunch of experiences that I’ve had made me realized that we need to address issues when it comes to communication in relationships,” Harley said.

“Portraits of Ex-Lovers” was another project she created to explore interpersonal relationships. She discussed experiences with friends regarding relationships and how it has affected them, and wanted to document herself taking photographs of her exes to see how it made her feel.

“Some felt ok with it because it was amazing there was a level of trust between us, Harley said. “It led for some interesting dialogue.

“It was nice to catch up because, honestly, we’re friends.”

The projects were an a part of her attempt to shine light on the issues regarding interpersonal relationships in the U.S. “Portrait of Ex-Lovers” was an awkward ordeal to document; it became one of Harley’s signature works at Point Park.

The development of her Senior Thesis project began with another photo project about Tinder. She was trying to understand the heterosexual male, relationships and what elements they contained. One night, she figured out what to study – porn.

“I don’t understand porn and I decided to do research,” Harley said.

She scaled back and decided to buy porn magazines to try to understand, for herself, why men watch porn and what it has to do with heterosexual relationships.

Some photos felt sterile to her, while others felt demeaning and disgusting.

She had the idea that seemed crazy but made a statement - cut them into small lines and create a collage depicting sex and bodies. What she stumbled upon while creating these collages and realized that a majority of women the porn magazines were white.

“I was getting these variety packs after variety pack and realized every single image was a white woman, it confused me,” Harley said.

She found out women of color were significantly less chosen in porn and also dating websites such as OK Cupid.

She built her project on how porn is reflected on our society regarding sexual education, racism and relationships. It inspired her to create a mosaic collage of the women in pornography to send the message that society has a preference of what a beautiful, ideal woman should be for a male. Her project helps highlight the problems with porn in relationships and why we need an open dialogue to discuss these issues.

Harley was accepted by the Parsons School of Design in New York, to attend graduate school.

Her professor, April Friges, knows that she’s gone far in her work and hope’s she can go farther.

“Most importantly, Hannah is pulling from contemporary culture – issues that we often overlook or just consider mainstream or even worse, normal.

“She is deeply invested in helping her peers both in and out of school. I often find myself looking to Hannah during critiques because I know she’s not afraid to counter my opinions and speak freely,” Friges said.

Julian Kovacs can be reached at jahorta@pointpark.edu.

8

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2016

SPORTS

Inseparable twins travel from Mali to Pittsburgh

By Matt Petras Co-Sports Editor

Fousseini and Lassana Konate are known by many around Point Park’s campus for their play on the basketball court, but the two also have a strong passion for learning in their Information Technology classes.

“Our family values education,” Lassana Konate said. “Our parents sent us to the United States so we could learn what we want to do because in Mali, college education is really not that good… you don’t have a lot of options.”

The tale of these twin brothers began in Mali, an African country that didn’t offer them the opportunities for the college education they wanted. Their basketball skills secured them a couple full-rides to schools in the United States, allowing them to get what they ultimately wanted more than anything.

These twins are actually not identical-looking—many are surprised to find that they are twins, they said.

“Fousseini is light-skinned, and I’m dark-skinned,” Lassana said.

“Our father is dark-skinned and our mother is really light.”

The 23 year-olds’ father was a big influence on their personal philosophies regarding work ethic, education and athleticism. To date, the Konate family is home to 13 children, of which Fousseini and Lassana are the only twins. All of the children play basketball, even though their father was more of a soccer fan. He was just happy they picked one.

“Kid, you have to do a sport,” his father would tell his children, Lassana said.

Their father would often come up with “challenges” to keep his children on their toes, both academically and athletically. The two recalled being challenged to juggle a soccer ball 300 times, and to shoot for the top of their class rankings for a bicycle.

Some of their childhoods were self-motivated as well, though.

Lassana recalls inventing a machine that would automatically feed chickens on their family’s farm. A plate would sit, connected to some metal. A set of magnets would determine whether or not there was food on the plate; if food was there, it would block the signal between the magnets and the electric current connected to the metal would shut off. If food wasn’t there, the magnets would interact with each other, turning the electric current back on. The current would prompt some food to drop.

Suffice to say, Lassana always knew he wanted to work in the field he is currently studying.

“I like building stuff,” Lassana

said. “If I got a job in this field, it wouldn’t really feel like working.”

Fousseini was more occupied with playing basketball when he was young. It is the sport they both decided to dedicate themselves to over any other, although they dabbled in soccer, karate, tennis and more.

“I’m only 6’5”, I’m not that tall,” Lassana said like a true basketball player. Fousseini is an inch shorter.

The two began to take basketball seriously whenever they began playing for Mali’s national team.

This experience in the sport was the twins’ ticket to education outside of Mali. They went to prep school for one year at Lee Academy in Maine, learning to speak English. This was something that was difficult for the two of them, having grown up speaking Bambara, a native Malian language, and learning French in school.

Once the two were able to speak English and had obtained basketball experience in the states through the Amateur Athletic Union, a national basketball organization, they went to the Lemoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Tenn. There, they enjoyed playing basketball and attending their classes. Fousseini remembers a particular professor he loved, who would call him if he missed class and say, “Hey! Where you at?” he said, laughing.

“She was mad at me for leaving,” Fousseini said. “She was sad.”

The two decided to leave that school because of one problem in particular.

“Memphis is not really a safe place,” Lassana said.

“You could hear gunshots every day,” Fousseini said.

These concerns culminated one night, when one of their teammates who lived in their dorm was shot outside. This person survived, but the incident deeply unsettled the twins.

Enter Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pa. “I like living in the city. I love the city,” Lassana said. “That’s why I chose to go here.”

The two had some adjusting to do when it came time to attend Point Park’s classes. At Lemoyne-Owen, studying Information Technology wasn’t as taxing for them as it is now at Point Park.

“School is more challenging.

There is so much homework.” Fousseini said, laughing.

The two have to do a lot more essay writing, which is difficult for them considering their third language is English, they said. Less of a transition for the two was the basketball. Sure, with new coaches comes new ways to play, they said, but basketball is basketball.

One of their coaches is Gabe Bu-

page 8 photos courtesy of Liz Berie, Point Park Athletics Junior forward Lassana Konate attempts to score from the paint during a Feb. 6 game against Rio Grande. Konate ended the season with 164 points.

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GOODWIN NAMED NAIA HONORABLE MENTION

Senior guard Kelvin Goodwin was named National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Division II Men’s Basketball Honorable Mention this week for the 2015-16 season. Goodwin led Point Park to a 17-11 record with his 23.4 points per game. He was second in scoring in the conference and seventh in the nation. bon, Point Park men’s basketball assistant coach.

“Fousseini really, halfway through the year, figured out that if he is aggressive all the time, really good things will happen,” Bubon said via phone interview. “He was a little lost at the beginning of the year, being a new player, didn’t quite know what role he played and lacked in rebounding. All of a sudden, he just had an attitude that said, ‘I’m gonna go get every rebound, because it’s gonna help us win games.’”

Bubon was also impressed

by Lassana.

“He was good for us,” Bubon said. “He did everything we expected him to do and asked him to do.”

Because of a “transition” period, in which the team formation embraced different strategies, Lassana got less time to play toward the end of the season, Bubon said.

“He is going to be really good for us next year. He continually gets better and we’re going to have a really different team next year, so I think he will have a big impact next year,” Bubon said.

It wasn’t just their athleticism

that Bubon found praiseworthy.

“I have been doing this for 12 years now, and they are the two nicest kids I’ve ever had, and I coach golf and basketball,” Bubon said. “I always praise them for just being really good people and treating people the right way, and being very humble.”

For all of their lives, the brothers have stuck together. They are both studying the same subject matter and play their hearts out in the same sport. Lassana would love to do either professionally while Fousseini just plays basketball for fun, but the bond these two share thanks to their passions is undeniable.

They even room together.

“Actually, I’m thinking about changing the rooming,” Lassana said.

“Me, too,” Fousseini said. They laughed.

“23 years together is a long time,” Lassana said.

Perhaps it is time for a break.

Matt Petras can be reached at mapetra@pointpark.edu.

Sophomore forward Fousseini Konate celebrates after scoring during a game against Rio Grande at CCAC South on Feb. 6. Konate ended the season with 249 points.