9-1-21

The Pitt News

T h e i n d e p e n d e n t s t ude nt ne w spap e r of t he U niversity of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | september 1, 2021 ­| Volume 112 | Issue 14

football preview

Cover by Kaycee Orwig | Senior Staff Photographer

Sports

What to expect at Heinz Field; Team embraces ‘We Not Me’ pittnews.com

Pitt football poised for a solid season in 2021 Carson Zaremski Staff Writer

Head football coach Pat Narduzzi is entering his seventh season, and the team he’s bringing to the field boasts both experience and young talent. Fifth-year quarterback Kenny Pickett is back to lead the offense along with many familiar faces. On the defensive side, a lot of young talent is set to be tested after several members of the defense, including both defensive ends, left the program to pursue a career in the NFL. Here’s what Panther fans can expect from Narduzzi and his squad heading into the 2021 season.

Offense Pickett is entering his fifth season and ranks third all-time at Pitt in total offense.

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He showed steady progress each season and trends point toward him having his best season yet with experience on his side.

One of the deepest groups Pitt has at its disposal is its wide receiving core. The team returns sophomore Jordan Addison, seventh-year senior Tre Tipton, fifth-year senior Taysir Mack, senior Shocky JacquesLouis and sophomore Jaylon Barden. On top of that, the Panthers will have access to a talented tight end in fifth-year senior Lucas Krull, who sat out most of last season due to injury.

The running back situation is peculiar because there is no clear starter just yet, but sophomore running back Israel Abanikanda stands out as a potential lead back for the Panthers this season, according to Narduzzi. The speedster will share the back-

field with fifth-year running back AJ Davis Jr. and junior running back Vincent Davis, who had a stellar 247-yard performance in Pitt’s final game of the season.

One of the biggest question marks left on the offense is the Panthers’ offensive line. After losing their leader in center Jimmy Morrissey to the Las Vegas Raiders, the group will look for some new faces to take the reins.

Defense Much like the receivers group, the linebackers return a lot of depth and reliable talent. They’re headlined by junior SirVocea Dennis, redshirt senior Cam Bright and fifth-year senior Phil Campbell, who have all seen playing time and thrived. The depth comes from players such as fifth-year senior Chase Pine, redshirt junior Wendell Davis and sophomore Dayon Hayes.

Redshirt senior cornerback Damarri Mathis returns after a year away due to injury and is one of the most talented players on the Panthers’ roster. Mathis is accompanied by redshirt junior Marquis Williams and backed up by young talent in junior AJ Woods and redshirt sophomore MJ Devonshire. Even with Jason Pinnock’s departure, Mathis brings new blood and looks to improve upon last year’s group.

Some viewers aren’t sure what to expect from the defensive line. With only one returning starter in fifth-year senior defensive tackle Keyshon Camp, the defensive line will have little experience under their belts coming into this season.

But what this group may lack in experience, they certainly will make up for in talent. Redshirt sophomore defensive tackle Calijah Kancey will look to build off of his impressive first year. The defensive lineman showed flashes of excellence and The Athletic recognized him as a Freshman AllAmerican.

Junior defensive ends Habakkuk Baldonado and Deslin Alexandre both sat behind Patrick Jones II and Rashad Weaver — who

September 1, 2021

were both NFL Draft selections this year.

After Paris Ford opted out of the season, a void was left at strong safety. Redshirt sophomore Brandon Hill quickly filled this vacancy. He had an instant and much-needed impact on the defensive end of the ball and looks to build off of his success this year.

Damar Hamlin leaving for the draft leaves yet another void at safety. Rashad Battle, a young and talented sophomore, is fighting with redshirt junior Erick Hallett II to fill the role with a starter yet to be named ahead of week one.

Special Teams Pitt returns one of the best punters in the country in redshirt senior Kirk Christodoulou and one of this year’s captains, fifth-year long snapper Cal Adomitis.

The young, agile and very talented Jaylon Barden will return punts and kickoffs for the Panthers this season.

The kicking position is up for grabs after four-year starter Alex Kessman left for the NFL. As of now, redshirt first-year Ben Sauls and redshirt sophomore Sam Scarton are competing for the starting job.

Schedule The Panthers’ schedule includes many winnable games, including three games against non-Power Five teams. But they will have to take on all three ranked ACC programs in the No. 3 Clemson Tigers, the No. 10 North Carolina Tar-Heels and the No. 14 Miami Hurricanes.

The season kicks off against UMass this Saturday and a trip to Knoxville for a nationally televised game against an SEC opponent in Tennessee will soon follow Prediction: Eight wins With several games the Panthers should win on the schedule and an experienced offense and a talented defense, expect them to notch eight wins. How the team puts it together on the field is still yet to be seen, but all things considered, it should be a solid year for Pitt football.

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‘How’s everybody doing?’: Tre Tipton works to end mental health stigma for athletes

Dalton Coppola

Assistant Sports Editor Redshirt senior wide receiver Tre Tipton, gleaming with sweat, sauntered toward reporters assembled on the outskirts of Pitt’s practice field. The seventh-year wide receiver started his Q&A differently than most other players — he was the one asking a question when he got to the microphone.

“First question,” Tipton said, “How’s everybody doing?”

He looked around at the assembled media, waiting for answers. Tipton meant it. His question wasn’t an obligatory social norm — he seemed to genuinely want to know how everyone was doing.

It was a hot and humid afternoon — the type of weather that few would want to wear football pads in. The rest of the team had already shed their pads and made their way to the locker room for ice baths and a fresh set of clothes. Tipton made his trip to the group of media alongside fellow receiver first year Jalen Bradley.

Bradley struggled on this particular day of practice, with at least three drops, and was visibly frustrated during the allotted practice time for media viewing. Tipton, in his seventh and final year with the Panthers, stayed in the heat to talk and work with Bradley while lending some advice to the struggling first year after practice. “[I’m] just trying to keep him from beating himself,” Tipton said. “We can’t have weak links and I’m trying to make sure we don’t have any by giving him as much knowledge as I personally have and give it back to him.”

The Apollo, Pennsylvania native gathered plenty of wisdom over the years, not just on the football field, but in the real world from a young age. Tipton began experiencing suicidal thoughts at just seven years old and lost several family members in his childhood, including his stepfather.

But football was something that kept Tipton going — it gave him something to look forward to and it kept him sane, he said in a segment on UPMC Pitt Livewire. He’s had his fair share of pitfalls on the gridiron, from several knee injuries to fallouts with head coaches. According to Tipton, there’s no love lost for the game of football, and he’s trying to savor every moment. Because once a football player plays their last snap, it’s over.

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“One sport that’s like death is football,” Tipton said. “What I mean by that is the day you pick up that football, you have a death certificate when you stop playing that game … football is the one sport, once you put it down, it’s over. So, as long as I’m able and these legs keep running I’m trying to play … I just love the game, the game has been my best friend.”

Back when Tipton was a first-year, he struggled himself — but his battles weren't on the football field. Tipton played well until he sprained his PCL and LCL in his knee and was relegated to the sidelines.

ter — promising himself he would never be in that position again.

Through prayer and building strong relationships, Tipton learned ways to fight off the feelings of depression and anxiety that he battled for much of his childhood. Head coach Pat Narduzzi gushed with pride at the obstacles the seventhyear receiver overcame.

“Tre is an incredible success,” Narduzzi said.

“The measuring stick isn’t big enough to measure what that guy has overcome… it’s amazing what he’s gone through, the things he’s survived when a lot of kids would have just hung their cleats up

Tre Tipton’s battles extend well beyond the football field — the seventh-year Panthers wide receiver has wrestled with anxiety and depression for nearly his whole life. black. TPN File Photo When his knee injury kept him off of the field and away from his “best friend,” he started experiencing feelings of depression and worthlessness.

“I was so deep in my own depression, there was no coming out,” Tipton said in the same segment on UPMC Live Wire. “I ended up doing some things to myself and the people around me that I would never ever wish upon anybody.”

Eventually, Tipton reached a breaking point.

Tipton stood on the Fort Duquesne Bridge and looked out over the water, prepared to take his own life. As he looked out over the water and toward Heinz Field, something in the back of Tipton’s mind told him not to jump, that it wasn’t his time. He took his shirt off, threw it in the wa-

and said ‘I’m done.’”

Tipton adopted a new mindset — rather than bottling up his emotions, he would be open about his mental health. He uses a metaphor to explain why talking about mental health is paramount to his continued prosperity — the glass cup theory.

“I always used to use the same theory, it’s called the glass cup theory,” Tipton said. “If you take a glass cup and you fill it up with water over and over and over again, what begins to happen?

It overflows, right? ... And the scary part is with that glass cup is if you begin to overflow and it tips over and breaks, then what? … In order for me to keep my cup half empty but also half full I had to share my experiences, I had to share what

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I was going through.”

And that’s just what he did.

Tipton started his own organization called L.O.V.E. — an acronym for “Living Out Victoriously Everyday” — to give college athletes a space to talk about their own battles with mental health. Athletes speaking up about mental health is a relatively recent concept, and one that even draws criticism from fans who claim athletes should stick to sports. Tipton aims to do away with this harmful and outdated stigma and give athletes the freedom to speak out through his organization We don’t get a chance to speak up about our situations and if we do we get looked at differently,” Tipton said. “To give athletes that opportunity to speak up and say, ‘I’m not okay,’ I want to be the person that does that. If I could be, I’d be the Michael Jordan of mental health.”

Other prominent athletes are also working to end the stigma surrounding mental health. Tennis player Naomi Osaka opted out of the French Open this past May after concerns about the negative impact that playing in the spotlight and talking to the media were having on her mental health. United States Olympic gymnast Simone Biles also opted out of the final event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — saying she had to focus on her mental health.

“We also have to focus on ourselves, because at the end of the day, we’re human too,” Biles said.

“So, we have to protect our mind and our body, rather than just go out there and do what the world wants us to do.”

Two athletes at the top of their field opted out of major events to focus on their mental health — whether people liked it or not — catching the attention of the entire world and signifying a change in the way people view athletes.

Tragedy struck once again for Tipton this summer. His mother, Kim Tipton, who he said loved nothing more than seeing her son play football, passed away. Tre’s “glass cup theory,” prayer and strong relationships kept his head above water in a time of need and ensured his glass didn’t tip over and break. As Tipton gets ready to strap it up for one last year with the Panthers, he said this year is for his mom.

“Everyday I go out here it’s me playing for my

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3

News Pitt works to make room

Welsfest reactions; OPDC meeting pittnews.com

for largest ever first-year class

Clare Sheedy Staff Writer

Gayle Rogers, professor and chair of Pitt’s English department, saw his department grow in response to Pitt’s largest-ever first-year class of 5,195 students. Rogers said the department added more class sections to accommodate the new students.

“You can imagine the effect for us,” Rogers said. “We are a department that thrives on that for early career students, so we’ve opened up new sections for a whole lot of courses. If I had to ballpark it’d probably be 15%-ish more classes across the board at the intro/first-year level.”

With more than 880 students over the goal of 4,315 enrollees, Pitt struggled to accommodate the large class, with departments resorting to hiring new staff and adding new class sections, as well as the University leasing a hotel for housing.

The English department — which is the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ largest undergraduate department — has a handful of classes that first-years typically flock to. Along with seminar in composition, Dietrich students are also required to take two writing intensive courses and one literature course to fulfill their general education requirements — which both have classes that fall within the English department.

There are also a slew of introductory courses that Rogers said are popular with first-years,

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including Introduction to Poetry Writing, Introduction to Film and Introduction to Shakespeare.

Rogers said the English department’s new hires were brought on mainly to accommodate the first-year class. As enrollment grew over the past few months, the English department opened new sections in their low-level classes and hired new staff to teach them.

“We had to do a lot of hiring over the summer because we just didn’t have enough people to teach the new sections,” Rogers said. “So we hired some new visiting lecturers and we hired some new part-time faculty to come on board and teach more classes.”

While the English department added sections to accommodate increased enrollment, they did not increase the enrollment cap on their classes.

“Most of our classes are writing-based intensives — which are hard capped.” Rogers said.

“A professor can not plausibly grade 20% more written essays in the same amount of time. It’s just not humanly possible. It’s going to degrade the quality of instruction and feedback, etc. So we kept the caps the same, we just opened up more sections.”

According to Rogers, the department focused on increasing training and support to the new hires.

“I would say our major investment has just been increasing training and increasing our visibility for orientation,” Rogers said. “That’s

where we just basically have to double down our investment and make sure that people we’re asking to come on board and take on new teaching assignments on pretty short notice feel supported and ready to go on day one.”

According to Jonathan Rubin, professor and mathematics department chair, his department saw a similar surge in enrollment and opted to add sections — similar to the English department — though they did push a few classes “above their usual caps.”

“We have some extra sections and more of our classes are at capacity than usual,” Rubin said. “All sections are jam-packed and we have even pushed a few above their usual caps, which we normally do not do.”

While all mathematics classes were assigned an instructor, Rubin said the department struggled to fill recitations with graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants. He said the department completed the process “only at the last minute,” including after classes began.

“This process was only finalized Sunday night — this was after the first day of classes, but luckily there were no recitations on Friday,” Rubin said.

Though some Dietrich departments made notable changes to accommodate the first-year class, the Swanson School of Engineering didn’t have to.

According to Bopaya Bidanda, professor and industrial engineering department chair, his department witnessed a moderate increase in enrollment this year and did not have to make any substantial changes for this year’s first-year class. Unlike Dietrich, Bidanda said Swanson “already operat[ed] to capacity,” as it accepts a limited number of students each year.

“Engineering is a little bit of a different situation,” Bidanda said. “We were already operating to capacity. There’s no absolute hard and fast rule, but we usually have a limit in terms of quality as to how many students we can accept.”

Matthew Sterne, Pitt’s vice chancellor of business services, said housing the firstyear class proved to be a challenge. He said that his department pursued “housing expansion

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options to best serve students” in the spring when it became clear that Pitt anticipated high first-year enrollment.

In order to house first-year students, Pitt partnered with the Residence Inn University Medical Center. According to Sterne, the Residence Inn lease gave Pitt an additional 171 rooms and 346 beds — allowing the University to house 5,260 first-year students.

While he was “unable to detail specific costs” and declined to comment on the exact cost of Pitt’s lease, Sterne said it costs less than Pitt’s $22 million spent on three Oakland hotels to de-densify student housing last year.

As for how Pitt plans to house students next year, Sterne said “additional campus housing is part of the Campus Master Plan in planning for future long-term growth.” Pitt’s Institutional Master Plan, which the City recently approved, includes several housing projects, such as de-densifying Litchfield Towers, redeveloping Bouquet Gardens and adding 600 new suite-style beds in a Hillside development.

Sterne said he is “honored” to support Pitt’s incoming class.

“It was exciting to welcome Pitt’s first-year class on campus!” Sterne said. “We see this year’s enrollment as a testament to the University’s academic strength and appeal, and are honored to provide housing accommodations to support Pitt students.”

Rogers said while accommodating the firstyear class was “pretty crazy,” he is excited to see so many new Pitt students.

“We love to see more incoming, more firstyear, more early career, more transfer students.

That means more students in our classes and more exposure to our professors, who we think are awesome, more of our ideas, more of our material, more of our pedagogy,” Rogers said.

“So, for us, this is a net win. Does it require some logistical hurdles? Of course. But we’ll handle that any day of the week. So, it’s good news, and it’s certainly been a pretty crazy August, but … I signed up for the job.”

4

City condemns G-Door building Martha Layne

Assistant News Editor The city of Pittsburgh’s Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections condemned the building which houses the popular Garage Door Saloon on Monday.

The bar, located at 223 Atwood St., has been operational since 2006. The City notice on the bar’s door stated that the building is not fit for human occupancy and the structure either needed to be demolished or repaired.

The City assigned an investigation into the building on July 15 according to public data, and performed the investigation on July 21. An engineer’s report from Taylor Structural Engineers, Inc., found unsafe conditions, including ceiling collapse and roof deterioration. The City inspected the building again on Aug. 18, where unsafe conditions were found again due to a partial ceiling collapse. The official notice of condemna-

tion was posted on the bar’s doors Monday.

Kate Gold, a graduate student in Pitt’s speech language pathology program, graduated from Pitt in 2020 and has memories at the bar, including spending her 21st birthday there and enjoying G Door’s signature pickle shots. According to Gold, the bar was always packed with a line around the corner. She said she was surprised to hear that the building was condemned as she never felt unsafe while in the building.

“I never felt like [the roof ] would collapse. It was just kind of gross because it’s a smoking bar. But I never felt unsafe like that,” Gold said.

The City on Monday condemned the Atwood Street building which houses the Garage Door Saloon bar. picture are bold and black. TPN File Photo

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Culture P i t t To n i g h t re a d y t o re t u r n Trinidad & Tobago Independence Celebration pittnews.com

i n p e rs o n f o r n e x t s e a s o n

Jessica McKenzie Staff Writer

Nothing compares to a late night comedy show’s introduction — a live audience applauding to a jazzy melody and spotlights on the stage as the host emerges from behind a curtain. The experience is especially thrilling when it’s filmed from the basement of the Cathedral of Learning, and the production is put on entirely

by Pitt students.

Pitt Tonight host Victoria Chuah, a senior computer science major, said it takes a village to make it all happen. Pitt Tonight has marketing, writing and production departments that generate monthly episodes for the show.

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the show,” Chuah, who is returning as host for a second year, said. “I get to meet with so many great, talented people who I wouldn’t normally work with or have classes with except through this organization.”

Pitt Tonight will return to the Cathedral’s Richard E. Rauh Studio Theatre for its seventh season on Oct. 2. The show is expected to film in front of a live studio audience — a change from last year’s production which consisted of sketches on YouTube or guest interviews over Zoom.

In an effort to enforce some social distancing measures, the studio will hold 50% of its normal capacity this year.

Chuah said she’s looking forward to Pitt Tonight’s upcoming season because the team is returning to indoor in-person activity for the first time since the University’s initial shutdown.

“I think everyone at Pitt Tonight is just so excited to be in a theatre space and to actually hear people laughing at our jokes,” Chuah said. “Last year, when we would record the monologues or desk pieces, it was so weird because there would only be three production people and some writers there to laugh.”

Chuah joined Pitt Tonight in February 2020, meaning she’s spent the majority of her tenure as host online. According to Kaitlyn Dawson, a production executive, Pitt Tonight will continue producing online content throughout the show’s seventh season.

“We are keeping that online presence we had last year because some people in our club still aren’t comfortable with meeting in person,” Dawson, a junior film and communication major, said. “For every single guest that we have, we’re coming to them, wherever their comfort zone is, and we’re going to be doing more exclusive interviews.”

Dawson joined Pitt Tonight’s production team during her first semester. She is

now an intern at ACC Network and said Pitt Tonight helped her make connections with people who share similar career goals.

“Pitt Tonight gave me a group of people that I can always rely on and go to if I need help with a creative project — they’re always willing to help me out if I need advice,” Dawson said. “It’s definitely a very welcoming community to meet people with the same goals as you.”

But you don’t need to be dead set on a career in entertainment to join Pitt Tonight, Dawson added. She said the team is also actively seeking people who are new to the many aspects of television production.

“We want everyone to find their niche in their given department,” Dawson said.

“There’s a lot of training for people to know what to expect out of the production crew, so we have people that are either novices or masters of television production.”

Although the special guests for this season of Pitt Tonight have yet to be revealed, the show has a history of featuring famous Pitt alumni — such as “The Bachelorette” contestant Ed Waisbrot— school-wide clubs and even Chancellor Patrick Gallagher.

Carson Pieper, a sophomore marketing major, is the marketing executive director and talent manager. He selects various guests to interview and play games during the show. Pieper said he’s grateful he joined Pitt Tonight last year, since he often struggled to meet people outside of his pod during his first year at Pitt.

“Pitt Tonight was the first thing I got involved in here,” Pieper said. “It was great to get to know people who weren’t in my immediate pod or dorm room.”

According to Pieper, the first episode of season seven was originally scheduled to be filmed last week. Due to inclement weather, the Pitt Tonight production team

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postponed the episode’s release to October. Presuming that it will be safe to do so under the University’s COVID-19 guidelines, the crew will enter the theater by the time the episode is scheduled to come out in October.

Executive producer Benjamin Asciutto, a junior film and business major, said one of the best parts of Pitt Tonight is that it gives students real-world experience in television production in a college environment. “[Pitt Tonight] is a combination of real-world experience where we take the same development process as ‘The Tonight Show,’ or Cohen or Colbert, but we bring it down to the student level,” Asciutto said.

Asciutto said he looks up to Jesse Irwin — who served as Pitt Tonight’s first host from 2015 to 2017 — because of the classy, live show atmosphere he created, starting in the very first episode.

“In my position, I’ve been trying to emulate the mood of the first episode within the new season,” Asciutto said. “Now that we had a lot of sketches over YouTube last year, I’d like to get back to that late night vibe and experience — we’re all so ready to have a live audience.”

According to Chuah, Pitt Tonight is recruiting new members to work in all departments. Applications are now open for writing, marketing and production positions on the show’s website and are due on Sept. 17.

Asciutto said he wants prospective members of Pitt Tonight to be just as passionate about the show as the rest of Pitt Tonight’s team.

“Everyone in this organization thinks of Pitt Tonight as larger than just a student club or organization,” Asciutto said.

“If you feel like you’ve had that passion to make Pitt Tonight the best show it could be, then you’ll have a great time and a lot of fun.”

6

Opinions

Relationship between state system, state-related universities and the Pa. legislature is toxic

India Krug

Senior Staff Columnist Are you there God? It’s me, India. I’m fed up with the Pennsylvania state legislature again.

Many of us experienced an altered version of college these past 18 months. We’ve observed some of our schools’ shortcomings in the face of a crisis. We’ve seen just how easily standards and practices we accepted as gospel could be eliminated, such as the widespread removal of SAT/ ACT requirements. We’ve taken a leap of faith and moved away from home during a pandemic, trusting that our university will do all it can to keep us safe.

But a problem arose as conversations turned to the intersection of public health and funding — the state legislature’s toxic relationship with the state system and state-related universities. Both the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Senate have a Republican majority. Subsequently, the decisions coming out of Harrisburg have not been in favor of mask or vaccine mandates.

State Senate Republicans proposed legislation in May that would cut funding to statefunded universities who required proof of COVID-19 vaccinations to attend in-person classes or events. It originated as a call to ban “vaccine passports” to enter college campuses, but soon snowballed into a bill that restricted the state government’s authority during public health crises.

An amendment added later would have pre-

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vented Pennsylvania’s secretary of health from ordering closures, social distancing, face masks, quarantines or even hygiene practices. Gov. Tom Wolf said at the time that it was “probably a little far” to prohibit the health secretary from telling people to wash their hands.

The bill passed in both the House and Senate along party lines, but Wolf vetoed it. So, once again, Wolf’s veto power is single handedly holding this state together. But there is still a possibility of similar legislation emerging or retaliatory efforts, such as funding cuts, against public institutions who choose to mandate vaccines.

Since then, state-related universities such as Temple, Penn State and Pitt have grappled with what to do. Money from the state makes up about 7% of Pitt’s budget, 14% of Temple’s budget and 4.2% of Penn State’s budget.

Despite both Pitt’s Faculty Assembly and Senate Council voting in favor of a vaccine mandate this spring, Pitt announced this summer it would not be mandating proof of a vaccine. Instead, incentives were raffled off to those who voluntarily disclosed their vaccine status, such as tickets to sporting events or cash prizes.

Other Pittsburgh universities, such as Duquesne and Carnegie Mellon, which are both private, are requiring COVID-19 vaccines. Currently, over three-quarters of Pitt undergraduate students uploaded proof of vaccination, but it is still important to take every precaution as Allegheny County cases are on an upward trend.

This is not the first clash over funding Pitt has had with the state legislature, either. Members of the House Health Committee raised concerns over Pitt’s research, including work done with stem cells.

Another state-related school made a different decision. Temple announced it would be mandating vaccines on Aug. 13. A letter addressed to the school community stated that students will be required to receive their first dose by Sept. 10 and their second by Oct. 1. It came on the heels of directions from the Philadelphia Board of Health that all college students and healthcare workers in the city had to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15.

Penn State’s administration decided not to mandate vaccines for the fall semester and instead opted for incentivizing vaccine disclosure.

Students, faculty and community members have protested this by holding multiple rallies. In a letter published Aug. 12, President Eric Barron admitted that the decision was partially based on state funding.

He wrote about how responses to the pandemic have been met with controversy, and that they “reflect state-level political realities.” He also discussed that the university’s funding requires a two-thirds vote of the Pennsylvania legislature, meaning it “relies on strong bipartisan support.”

Jake Corman, president pro tempore of the State Senate, responded to the letter by saying he believed Penn State would likely face “pushback in Harrisburg” if it mandated vaccines.

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The situation is even more dire for the 14 schools within Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education, which are fully state owned.

Instead of just potential cuts to state funding, these schools’ leaders said they need direct legislative approval to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations, the precedent being a 2002 law that required college students to get a meningitis shot.

Michael Driscoll, Indiana University of Pennsylvania president and PASSHE Presidents Commision chair said that, for state schools, requiring vaccines is not a question of funding but authority.

That being said — we’re in deep. The lines between funding and authority, public and state institutions are blurred. GOP leaders are still gesticulating about individual freedom and privacy even as thousands of COVID-19 cases are reported each day in the state, and we have a solution available to us.

So I ask Republicans in the state legislature — can you grow up? So many students did, much faster than we should’ve had to this year.

We stayed isolated in our dorms, missing out on milestones and having difficulty making friends.

We lived in fear of our loved ones getting sick.

Now that we’re back on campus, we know that not all of us will be responsible. And after all that, you are attempting to manipulate universities’

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