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@PPUGlobe February 5, 2020
Meet Sarah Oberle, a sophomore film student and LGBTQ activist Ayla Reed-Porter ranks the top five cutest Pokémon of generation one University hires new women’s soccer coach ahead of fall 2020 season ppuglobe.com
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Issue 5
Dean of School of BLACK DIAMOND II REPRESENTS Communication to PIONEERS AT CITY MASCOT SKATE start in June 2020 Dara Collins Editor-in-Chief
Point Park University hired a dean for the School of Communication that will begin this summer. Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs John Pearson sent an email addressed to faculty and staff on Jan. 24 announcing the hiring of Raymond “Bernie” Ankney, Ph.D., as the Dean of the School of Communication. “I think he will not only create new academic and professional opportunities for students, but I think he will bring in a lot more students to the School of Communication, and I think he will bring the kind of attention that the school deserves,” Pearson said. Ankney will come to Point Park from Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., where he served as Chair of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department for 13 years. In June 2018, Ankney announced that the 2018-2019 school year would be his last as Chair, and he began searching for dean positions that fall. “When the Point Park position opened, I was just ecstatic,” Ankney said. “I grew up in western Pennsylvania, and I’ve always viewed Point Park as a sleeping giant. This is a university that has so much potential.” Pearson is optimistic about Ankney’s future at the university due to his “track re-
cord of success.” In the email from the Office of the Provost, Pearson explains that during Ankney’s time as Chair at Samford, he advanced the university in various ways. Among Ankney’s feats at Samford, Ankney raised the national profile of the journalism major, doubled enrollment in the department’s academic programs, increased annual fundraising and established interdisciplinary programs. “His record of success is important because it shows that he can not only see what’s possible, but he can work with the faculty and think, ‘how can we get from where we are to where we want to be,’” Pearson said. Associate Professor of Broadcast Production Robin Cecala chaired the search committee for the School of Communication dean and also asserted Ankney’s ability to “click” with the faculty. “He had the experience we were looking for,” Cecala said. “He really had the enthusiasm. He was really excited about Point Park. He really had a lot of good ideas. You really felt like he was going to come in here and do his best to push the School of Communication forward, unite everybody and provide a good future for us.” Ankney wants to focus on recruitment, raising mon-
DEAN page 2
SGA may remove service requirement for election SGA By Sarah Gibson SGA Beat Writer
President Jake Berlin introduced the possibility of doing away with the requirement that a student must serve on SGA for a semester before running for president on Monday’s Student Government Association meeting. President Berlin suggested that removing the qualification would make SGA much more accessible for students. “One of our jobs as a student organization, especially a governing body, is to increase student input and enthusiasm, increase voter turnout and increase attendance and representation in the senate and we can continue to further these initiatives by increasing the opportunities that students have when it comes to elections,” Berlin
said. Senator Dennis McDermott immediately spoke up in opposition, noting that a single semester of experience was the “bare minimum,” and that it wasn’t hard to get elected to student government as a senator, since a single vote is enough to get one elected. Senator Jade Steele spoke up in support of McDermott, and Bryce Hayzlett spoke in support of the requirement being removed. In Hayzlett’s opinion, a student’s possible prior experience in a high school student government could easily replace the one semester requirement that currently applies to presidential candidates. After some more back and forth, Dean Gieseke spoke up with a number of points in support of this possible change. “Ask yourself the first question: what is the purpose
SGA page 3
Jared Murphy | The Globe John Pederson (middle), 8, of Munhall poses with RoMo (left) and Black Diamond II (right), Robert Morris University’s and Point Park University’s mascots, at the Pittsburgh Mascot Skate at Schenley Park Ice Skating Rink on Saturday, Feb. 1.
Students question safety in South Side By Virginia Garner For The Globe
Multiple reports taking place in various locations stated that the sounds of babies crying or young children pleading for help have been playing outside of peoples’ homes, including in Pittsburgh’s Souths Side neighborhood. It is speculated that the recordings are being used to lure people out of their homes into dangerous or life-threatening situations. Recently, reports coming from South Side residents stated that they heard recordings of the sounds being played outside their own residences. Upon opening the front door, no infants or children were seen. When investigated, police were unable to find evidence of children ever being present or in distress in the vicinity. Accounts of recordings used to lure naive victims into an area where they could be kidnapped or harmed are not new. One report from Baton Rouge, La. from 2003 came from a woman who claimed Derrick Todd Lee, known as the Baton Rouge serial killer, used the recordings as an attempt to kidnap and murder her. A connection to the se-
rial killer was never officially established, but the woman who reported the incident was left unharmed. In 2010, another woman from Farmville, N.C., described a similar scene; recordings of a baby crying were played outside her home to lure her into a potential kidnapping or murder. After calling local police, the woman said she saw a mysterious man walking away from her property. The police, once again, could not find any evidence of foul play or criminal activity in the vicinity. Beginning in 2019, and occurring most recent-
ly within the first month of 2020, numerous reports of similar sounds playing outside residences began rising in Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood, a hub of popular restaurants, stores, local businesses and homes. In addition to the nightlife, the South Side is an affordable option and an optimal location for young college students attending city universities to live. Mya Comstock, a freshman at Point Park University, frequents South Side to go shopping, see movies and eat at
SOUTH SIDE page 2
Alysse Baer | The Globe
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