The Pitt News
The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | October 14, 2016 | Volume 107 | Issue 57
Obama visits Oakland for conference Police make arrest in Forbes Hall Alexa Bakalarski
Assistant News Editor Pitt Police arrested a previously convicted sex offender in a University-owned apartment building Tuesday. According to a criminal complaint, Pitt police officers were dispatched to Forbes Hall Pavilion at about 8:27 a.m. Tuesday after receiving a report that a homeless man was inside the lobby. There, officers found 45-year-old William J. Burkett sitting on a couch with his shoes off, watching television. According to the complaint, police asked Burkett if he lived in the building, and he said he was homeless without anywhere to stay. Burkett didn’t have any identification on him. Pitt dispatch informed the officers on the scene that Burkett was involved in two other incidents with Pitt police within the last week, in which he After stopping at Pitt’s Alumni Hall, President Barack Obama spoke at CMU about the future of innovation and was “given property warnings.” technology Jordan Mondell ASSISTANT VISUAL EDITOR While police contacted Allegheny Link –– an Allegheny County program which connects peoThe Frontiers Conference, a one-day progress — like making strides to improve Lauren Rosenblatt ple who are homeless or at risk of being homeless equality for women and minorities — event hosted by University of Pittsburgh, News Editor with services –– to find housing for Burkett, Pitt Obama wrote that “by almost every mea- CMU and the Obama administration, hostPresident Barack Obama thinks right dispatch requested the officers to contact them. ed a litany of science, technology, business sure, this country is better.” now is the greatest time to be alive. When the offi cers contacted Pitt dispatch, Pitt disAt the conference, the longtime “Star and innovation speakers, including the depAt least that’s what he wrote in his guest patch informed the offi cers Burkett was a Tier III Trek” fanatic also confessed that he was a uty administrator of NASA, the engineering editorial for this month’s edition of WIRED sex off ender. “science geek” and proud of it. The desire to lead for Uber and Pfizer’s chief medical of— a science and technology magazine — While it was not clear what Burkett’s past crime imagine, hypothesize, test and tinker is what ficer. and reiterated in a speech on Carnegie was, Tier III indicates that a person was convicted Obama offered scientific solutions to the makes this country special, Obama said. Mellon University’s campus Thursday afterof any sex offense that involves a minor who is “Innovation is in our DNA. Science has country’s problems, including shifting to noon. 12-years-old or younger, a sexual act with somealways been central to our progress,” Obama new energy sources, curing cancer or With technological advancements, inone by force or threat or a sexual act with someone said. “And it will play a leading role in overcluding a focus on clean energy and social See Obama on page 10 See Arrest on page 4 coming so many of our challenges.”
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researchers, innovators attend frontiers conference The Pitt News Staff For just a few hours on Thursday, you could walk on Mars without ever leaving Alumni Hall. In a partnership with Microsoft, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed OnSight, virtual 3-D technology enabling scientists to study Mars’ environment while wearing Microsoft HoloLens. NASA demonstrated the lens during the Frontiers public exhibit, one of five different events going on as part of the White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh Thursday afternoon. The conference, a program jointly hosted by the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and the White House, brought in researchers, professors, entrepreneurs, CEOs and President Barack Obama to share and discuss innovation. Kristin Lee, the communications director of the White House Office of Science and Technology, the White House wanted to highlight the latest innovations in such fields as artificial intelligence, personalized healthcare and climate issues. “We really feel that the purpose of today is to highlight the future of what’s possible and what America can accomplish over the
next 50 years,” Lee said. The Frontiers exhibit — which ran from 9 to 11 a.m. and was the only event open to the public — featured projects and presentations related to the conference’s numerous fields including drones, robots and virtual realities such as OnSight. The event was on the first floor of Alumni Hall. The rest of the conference focused on innovation from five frontiers: personal, local, national, global and interplanetary. For each frontier, there were speakers and panel discussions from professionals working in the track’s theme. Personal Track Steven Keating — now a graduate student research affiliate at MIT — entered medical school in an attempt to learn more about his own health and have access to medical data. After being diagnosed with brain cancer, Keating went through brain surgery to remove the tumor and then underwent a year of chemo, all the while asking questions and even requesting that his surgery be recorded. But Keating said he found it difficult to get any details about his treatment. “If we have easy access that is patientcentered and clear to use, we can drive the next revolution in healthcare from the
President Obama joined a panel discussion about the future of health care at the Frontier’s Conference. Jordan Mondell ASSISTANT VISUAL EDITOR ground up,” Keating said. Keating now works on developing novel platforms for 3-D printing, but he spoke about the need for more accessible health care information during the personal track of the conference. The track focused on in-
novations in health and included speakers who work to make medicine more precise and patients more involved in the healthcare process. The keynote speaker, Dean Kamen, See Frontiers on page 9
Pittsburgh Police release use of force report Alexa Bakalarski
Assistant News Editor A report released Thursday evening by the Pittsburgh police found that, from 2010 to 2015, one in 10 arrests in the city have involved the use of force. Additionally, there was a “higher-thanexpected” rate for the use of force against black individuals over the past six years, although the disproportionality between use of force against black and white people is decreasing. The report, released Thursday by city police, is part of a partnership with the White
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House Police Data initiative, which also includes 12 other cities in the Unites States, according to a press release from the Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety. The initiative aims to use data to make community policing more transparent. “Quality policing is characterized by fairness in how we treat all citizens,” Police Chief Cameron McLay said in the introduction of the report. “On occasion, quality policing will include use of force — but only when necessary to make an arrest, prevent an escape, in self defense and/or to save others from bodily harm.” In Pittsburgh, incidents involving the use
of force decreased 16 percent from 2010 to 2015, according to the report. The International Association of Chiefs of Police defines force as “the amount of effort required by police to compel compliance by an unwilling subject.” Force can, and sometimes does, result in injury to the person subject or the officer. The study can be found online at the Pittsburgh Public Safety website. Here are some more key findings from the report: -In 2014 and 2015, the total number of use of force incidents averaged just over 1,500. -The number of police use-of-force in-
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cidents fell 16 percent in the six-year study period. -34 percent of incidents resulted in injury to a suspect. This number is low compared to a 39 percent average suspect-injury rate among the other 12 participant cities in the study. -Most officers used force between one and five times over the six-year period. -120 officers reported using force more than 25 times. From 2010 to 2015, there was a 35 percent decrease in the number of subject injuries, and a 32 percent decrease in the number of officer injuries during the report’s span.
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The show goes on: PSO plays free concerts during strike Kevin Lynch
Staff Writer Over the years, fans of Pokemon, Star Wars and even Nelly have gracefully assembled in Heinz Hall, donning their finest dress, to see the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra recreate their favorite soundtracks and hit singles. That isn’t quite the case these days. The striking musicians and their supporters have been gathering Downtown every Friday through Monday to picket in Tshirts and jeans. Additionally, a ragtag army of classical music fans, sporting garb from tossle caps and gym shorts to neck ties and high heels, crammed into Carnegie Mellon University’s Kresge Theatre last weekend for a free look at the ensemble. As the musicians took selfies with the crowd of more than 250 students and hustled from one stage to another to accommodate the oversized gathering, the audience’s breach of the typically posh PSO dress seemed of nominal importance. “We play our hearts out no matter what
you wear,” said Jim Rodgers, principal contra bassoonist with the PSO, who’s now in his 16th year with the ensemble. The 99-member, internationally esteemed orchestra, led by conductor Manfred Honeck, is more than 100 years old, and has survived economic hardships in the past. In 1926, the orchestra held a free concert, supported with donations from the musicians, just to capture the attention of the public. More than 50 years later, the players have found themselves in a similar situation. Facing what the PSO management has deemed to be a destructive money shortage, the musicians have fought back against salary and job cuts by striking and welcoming their eclectic fan base to a series of free concerts in provisional venues. These first-come, first-serve events began Oct. 7, at CMU’s Kresge Theatre, where the musicians played a selection of chamber pieces, ranging in size from trio to octet. The weekend’s events concluded Sunday afternoon at Pittsburgh’s Creative and Performing Arts School with a full ensemble perfor-
mance. The free concerts — which are posted on the Musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Facebook page — have brought further attention to the current contract dispute, which began in February between PSO musicians and management. Among the changes in the latest contract proposal is a reduction in base pay from $107,000 to $91,000, a shift in pension plans to a defined contribution plan and several layoffs. Micah Howard, the committee chairperson for PSO musicians, claims those changes would demote the world-class music corps to “minor league” status. Howard compared those numbers to the base salary of rival Cleveland Orchestra, which is $130,000 per year, and said that these cuts would “knock [the PSO] so far out of the park.” “Any hot player that comes out of school will be constantly trying to get out of Pittsburgh,” said Howard. The 120-year-old orchestra, according to
Howard, is comparable in quality to Pittsburgh’s sports teams and has been a “destination orchestra.” “[Musicians] want to raise their families here,” said Howard. “That won’t be the case anymore. They’ll be thinking immediately about how to get out of the situation.” However, Christian Schornich, chief operating officer for the PSO, said that the organization is undergoing an “extreme financial crisis” that requires the contribution of the musicians. “We are facing a $20 million cash deficit in five years,” said Schornich. “If we don’t do something of serious nature, we have to close our doors in spring next year.” The organization currently operates on a budget of $33 million. Factors contributing to the forecasted deficit include a $1.5 million operating deficit, a $10 million pension obligation in the next five years and $1.2 million loss of other revenue. From the overall budget, according to See Symphony on page 4
The Pitt News SuDoku 10/14/16 courtesy of dailysudoku.com
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Symphony, pg. 3 Schornich, $12 million alone account for the musician’s salaries. This, along with the “extreme volatility” of the current pension plan, accounts for the proposed cuts to the musicians. “Even after the reduction, we have an excellent compensation,” says Schornich. Further, Schornich calls the benefits that come along with compensation “absolutely exceptional.” “We have 10 weeks paid vacation, we have 12 weeks minimum paid sick leave, we have every 10 years of paid sabbatical year for musicians, health care and retirement plans are included as well,” Schornich said. Howard says that management is “using [the] most pessimistic numbers,” especially considering the success the orchestra has had in the past year. “[The PSO] exceeded goals in ticket sales, and has had a record-breaking fund drive — that’s why their forecast makes no sense.” The management acknowledged that ticket sales and the organization’s annual fund have indeed helped, but Schornich says
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“revenues by no means would support an orchestra of this world-class and this size.” “[The PSO’s financial forecasts] have been reached by a thorough analysis,” said Schornich. “We are an audited organization, and there’s no reason to doubt that this is accurate forecasting.” In addition to concerns over the financial forecasts credibility, the musicians also worry that management will only continue contract talks if the musicians first agree to pay cuts. Literature that the musicians were passing out on Penn Avenue on Thursday, Oct. 6, said “It has become clear that it was never Management’s intention to truly negotiate.” “The orchestra’s too important to allow it to be brought to a point where we won’t be able to say ‘no,’” said Rodgers. “As stewards of the legacy of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra we can’t allow this to happen.” As a result of the continued disagreement, musicians who used to spend their mornings in the practice room have assembled into a glob of gold T-shirts, pacing the Penn Avenue sidewalk Downtown, with signs reading, “On Strike.” Mateus Pinho, a first-year student at Pitt who has been playing the violin since
the second grade, was in attendance at the makeshift CMU concert Friday. Despite agreeing that PSO’s management is under tight economic constraints, Pinho ultimately expressed solidarity with the musicians. “From an economic standpoint, [PSO management] is definitely reasonable for wanting to cut, but the musicians are well worth the additional money,” he said. Most of the public — on Facebook and through vocal support at pickets and free concerts — just want the feuding parties to get back to the table and talk it out. “I think the musicians should sit back down and talk,” said Francis Dannenberg, 61, at Friday’s free show. “I don’t think that our musicians are overpaid. They’re worldclass and they deserve every penny they’re getting and they don’t need a pay cut.” After last week’s show, Rodgers stayed to chat with fans, including his dentist, and continued to make the case for PSO musicians. But ultimately, he reiterated what everyone, on both sides of the argument, have been saying. “I hope that we all find a solution and we can all move forward, and get back to the music,” Rodgers added. “That’s the important thing, getting back to the music.”
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Arrest, pg. 1 incapable of declining to participate. In the report, police said Burkett “served a long sentence in prison” as a result of his crime. After receiving information that Burkett was a sex offender, police handcuffed him and escorted him out of the building. The Pitt police officers on scene took Burkett to Pitt’s Public Safety Building on Forbes Avenue and placed him in a holding cell. After speaking with a trooper from the Pennsylvania State Police, officers discovered Burkett failed to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law –– a law which requires authorities to inform people of the whereabouts of sex offenders –– within the required 72 hours after Burkett was released from prison on Sept. 29. Pitt police transported Burkett to the Allegheny County Jail and charged Burkett with criminal trespass and failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements. “This is a case where the security precautions Pitt uses to protect student living areas worked as designed, thanks to our security and police officials’ prompt and effective action,” Pitt spokesperson John Fedele said in a statement in response to Burkett’s arrest. Burkett awaits a preliminary hearing Oct. 25. His bail is set at $10,000.
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FINANCIAL FRIDAY:
Know Your Financial Situation and Estimate Your Net Price of College Today Mark Mulkeen Filling out your FAFSA is the way to ultimately discover how much financial aid you will receive. But if you’re an incoming student who would rather not wait for the monthslong period it could take to see the results, a way exists to estimate your financial aid package without any wait. Almost every four-year college nationwide uses a form of the Net Price Calculator (NPC), an online application that estimates the amount of financial aid new students will receive, along with the cost they will be responsible for out of pocket at a certain college based on their financial information. It’s useful for both students still deciding on a school and students who have already committed to their school and are just eager to know how much aid they may receive. The NPC is primarily designed to give you an estimate as if you were an incoming firstyear student attending school full-time. The application is not designed for transfer and part-time students and therefore will not give an accurate estimate in regards to those two types of students. Furthermore, the NPC is not designed for students already attending a university. Finding this estimate is a quick process of about 20 minutes, much quicker than the months-long process of waiting for your financial aid notification. It is important to emphasize that this is nothing more than an estimate and that there is absolutely no guarantee that you will receive the same award as the NPC estimates. “The results that it generates are not final
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decisions. They are solely estimates based on the limited information that is provided,” Lindsay Smith, a Pitt Financial Aid Counselor said. In addition to being quick, filling out the NPC is also a straightforward process. You can sign into the application with your College Board username and password, or as a guest. If you are still deciding which college to attend, signing in through the College Board will allow you to receive an estimate from multiple schools without having to re-enter your information. According to Smith, students filling out the NPC are asked to provide a mix of demographic, academic and financial information. The necessary academic information is similar to the information students provide when filling out college applications. “In regards to academic information, it will ask for the student’s high school GPA, high school ranking percentage, SAT and ACT scores and intended major.” Smith said. The necessary financial aid information tends to mirror the information students provide when filling out FAFSA’s. “Financial information will also need to be completed for the student and their parents including earned income from work and other untaxed income, current assets in cash or checking/savings accounts, and a few other questions relating to deductions and credits on the tax returns.” Smith said. The NPC is a worthwhile estimate to access before attending college, even if you don’t believe you will receive any financial aid. You might be surprised by how many students receive aid from Pitt. In the previous academic
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year of 2015-16, 53 percent of full-time beginning undergraduates received some type of aid in the form of grants and scholarships, according to Pitt’s NPC section of the College Board. If you have decided you are attending Pitt, or any other school, it’s time to start thinking about how to pay for school, and waiting for your FAFSA results to do could be more timeconsuming than expected. Now is the time to see how much you will have to pay out of pocket, so that you can check what resources you have, and what additional resources you may need to utilize. The NPC provides an immersive estimate that will give you a holistic view of your estimated college expenses. “Not only does the Net Price Calculator help students estimate their financial aid
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award, it also gives students estimated out-ofpocket expenses for attending that school.” Smith Said. A link to the NPC can be found on Pitt’s financial aid site (www.oafa.pitt.edu) under the financial aid tab. Financial planning is an important element of preparing for college, and you should utilize every resource available. The NPC is a helpful accommodation provided by colleges nationwide, including Pitt. Regardless of your financial situation, the NPC is a useful way to estimate your financial aid amount and net expenses so you can begin planning for college as early as possible. Just 20 minutes of your time now will put you months ahead in your college preparation.
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Opinions
column
Top 10 inventions Obama U.S. must follow Canada’s forgot to mention lead and tax carbon from the editorial board
In lieu of our Casual Fridays, The Pitt News Editorial Board is collaborating with Pitt Tonight host Jesse Irwin and Pitt Tonight writers to bring to you our very first Top 10 List. President Barack Obama and tech giants from around the country took Oakland by storm on Thursday for the White House Frontiers Conference, an event that highlighted new technology, innovations and products that could shape life for future generations. While the conference shone an optimistic spotlight on ventures including space travel to Mars, artificial intelligence and new methods to fight climate change, several key innovations were left off of the agenda. Feeling slightly cheated, we’ve come up with the top 10 inventions and innovations that apparently weren’t good enough for POTUS. 1. Galaxy Note 7 Apparently these hot commodities weren’t allowed past security at the conference. Needless to say, we’re heated. 2. Forbes Digital Plaza In his speech Thursday, Obama didn’t even touch this one. How could he not? It’s got everything. A TV screen, an advertisement screen, a hypnotic and an LED artistic display that plays top-40 hits and laser shows — what’s not cutting-edge about that? It’s almost exactly what being on Mars is like, probably.
3. Shake Weight Michelle Obama should’ve been all over this. Maybe she was, and couldn’t convince her husband to shake things up. Regardless, missed opportunity. 4. Facebook Poke button What’s better than a “Let someone know
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from afar that you’re virtually touching them” button? While we’ll admit that a block-allpolitics-until-Nov. 9 button would be more innovative, we recognize the technology just isn’t there yet.
5. The Wesley W. Posvar building’s architecture We don’t see how this iconic classroom building didn’t make the cut at the Frontiers Conference. Part classrooms, part airport hangar, part labyrinth, part secret lair — Posvar’s structurally dynamic hallways and confusing-yet-enchanting, and oft-broken escalators are the epitome of hope you can believe in. 6. Vapes These little devices have helped millions of people quit smoking and millions of teenagers look cool. Maybe he didn’t want his wife and kids to find out, but rumor has it, Obama vapes. 7. 3-D printed pancakes Pamelas may have a run for it’s money if Obama gets his hands on one of these. Disclaimer: You do still have to mix the batter and pour it into the printer. 8. Maternity crop tops We think these speak for themselves. 9. Bill Gates’ Omniprocessor The Omniprocessor reinvents sewage plant treatments by taking feces and turning it into water. Seriously, it actually does that, and no one said anything about it. 10. Dippin’ Dots This is basically ice cream for astronauts, right?
Jaime Viens Columnist
He may have missed out on the presidency, but when it comes to climate change, Sen. Bernie Sanders had it right. In a 2014 contributing piece to The Huffington Post, Sanders implored Congress to pursue a tax on carbon consumption, writing, “A carbon tax must be a central part of our strategy for dramatically reducing [air] pollution, a view shared by… both ends of the political spectrum.” Last week, Justin Trudeau, Canadian prime minister, took that suggestion to task. Trudeau announced that Canada will impose a steadily increasing tax on carbon emissions beginning in 2018 in attempt to meet standards set forth by the Paris Agreement. Under Trudeau’s rule, the territories can impose the tax either directly, meeting a $10 per gallon value, or impose a
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Jaime Viens COLUMNIST cap-and-trade system. The “cap” would put a limit on emissions, and the “trade” would provide a market for carbon allowances, meaning the less the province emits, the less it has to pay. If a territory fails to choose a method of taxation, the government will implement its own basic carbon tax of $10 per ton, increasing by an increment of $10 each year until it reaches $50 in 2022. The Paris Agreement reached its minimum entry requirement — 50 U.N. parties that account for at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions — on Oct. 5, and will go into effect Nov. 4. The United States and China ratified the accord on Sept. 3, adding to the 77 parties who have entered the agreement. While this may seem like a step in the right direction, for decades, the United States has continuously fallen flat on international environmental policy. Congress has relentlessly avoided See Viens on page 7
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Viens, pg. 6 appeals for a comprehensive climate legislation to reduce the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions over the past eight years. We have failed to enact long-discussed carbon taxation, but as the second largest emitter in the world, it is critical that we take action now. The Environmental Protection Agency reported that, in 2014, the United States was responsible for a total of 15.1 trillion pounds in greenhouse gas emissions, with carbon emissions alone accounting for over 80 percent of this outflow. A carbon tax is the most feasible, effective incentive-based method of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Not only will it curb our largest source of air pollution, but it will promote a shift toward more efficient, cleaner renewable sources. Leveling the playing field will increase the demand for renewable energy, increasing its highly criticized affordability and accessibility. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — the organization responsible for the Paris Agreement — negotiated the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. Former President Bill Clinton signed the agreement, however, Bush later removed the signature as he felt the protocol was too forceful and that limiting emissions would impede the U.S. economy. At the moment, our primary problem is that we face the threat of a presidential successor who fails to recognize the scope and severity of the climate change crisis. “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeted, adding on a separate occasion, “I will not support or endorse a carbon tax.”
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While advertising her environmental policies, Hillary Clinton has also failed to provide support for a carbon tax. But her ambitious plans to produce a third of the nation’s electricity from renewable resources by 2027 and cut greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent from their 2005 levels by 2050 are highly impractical without a tax incentive to hasten the transition to clean sources. In order to work, the carbon tax would have to pass through Congress, a feat which such legislation would likely not survive under a Republican House and Senate. Much of the opposition is based on the opinion that imposing a carbon tax would hurt the economy. But economists on both sides of the political spectrum have argued in favor of the benefits that revenue-neutral carbon taxes have the potential to produce, including job production, the cost benefits of a higher demand for clean energy and increased GDP and average annual income. Over the past eight years — in response to growing concern — the United States has taken big steps towards decreasing our carbon footprint, but it has not been enough. The United States was responsible for 16 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions in 2012, yet only holds 4 percent of the world’s population, while India — a country holding roughly 18 percent of the world’s population — is only responsible for 6 percent of global carbon emissions. The United States has contributed enough to the climate change crisis and steadily decreasing air quality. Now we must do our part to counter the consequences of our exorbitant GHG emissions by imposing a tax that promotes renewable resources and, overtime, promises a more cost-effective means to a cleaner environment. Jaime Viens primarily writes about social and environmental issues for The Pitt News. Write to her at jrv28@pitt.edu.
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The Pitt News
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Emily Brindley | Assistant News Editor Alexandria Stryker | Assistant Copy Alexa Bakalarski | Assistant News Editor Copy Staff Matt Moret | Assistant Opinions Editor Amanda Sobczak Mia DiFelice Ashwini Sivaganesh | Assistant Sports Editor Bridget Montgomery Michelle Reagle Jordan Mondell | Assistant Visual Editor Corey Foreman Rielly Galvin Emily Hower | Assistant Layout Editor Katie Krater Sarah Choflet Amanda Reed | Online Engagement Editor Matthew Maelli Sydney Mengel
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Sports
good times: fans celebrate mazeroski’s series-winning hr Steve Rotstein Sports Editor
It was Oct. 13,1985, and Saul Finkelstein was having a bad day. But it was also the 25th anniversary of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees. So Finkelstein, a lifelong Pirates fan, stopped by the 457-foot marker on the Forbes Field Wall across from Schenley Plaza in Oakland. He sat down at the flagpole and listened to the game all the way through. It made him feel better. After that day, Finkelstein began coming back every year on Oct. 13, to relive one of the greatest baseball games ever played. Finkelstein met Pittsburgh sports author Jim O’Brien seven years later at a Piratefest event, where O’Brien was asking if anyone had stories about the Fans gather outside the Forbes Field Wall to listen to the 1960 World 1960 game. Finkelstein shared his tradition, and Series Game 7 re-broadcast on Mazeroski Day. Edward Major STAFF O’Brien decided to join in. About 25 people showed up that year, including PHOTOGRAPHER
leader Herb Soltman and the other members of the Game 7 Gang — a group of friends from all across Pittsburgh who met at the first reenactment and have stayed in touch ever since. The crowd swelled to about 200 people in the years that followed, and more than 1,500 fans showed up for the 50th anniversary of the game in 2010. The tradition continued Thursday as Soltman –– a 1956 Pitt graduate –– stood up to speak at a makeshift podium outside the remainder of the outfield wall at Forbes Field just before 12:30 p.m. Thursday. Dozens of Pirates fans assembled to take in the Mazeroski Day celebration hosted by the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy. “My name is Herb Soltman. I’m the leader of the Game 7 Gang, and the only turf I’ll protect is the Forbes Field Wall,” Soltman told the crowd. “It’s time to recall, reminisce and rejoice. Let’s play ball.” At 12:59 p.m., everyone rose for the singing of the national anthem, then settled in with their hot dogs and See Mazeroski on page 9
PREDICTION: PITT 40, VIRGINIA 31 Dan Sostek
and six interceptions on the season. Narduzzi is complimentary of the senior’s quick adjustment Senior Staff Writer into a new system. One week after defeating Paul Johnson and the Georgia Tech “I give Kurt a lot of credit for coming in and doing what he’s Yellow Jackets, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi and the Panthers will done because it’s not easy to transfer in there in your senior year,” have to harness a Bronco — Bronco Mendenhall, that is. Narduzzi said at his Wednesday media teleconference. Pittsburgh travels to Charlottesville, Virginia, Saturday, Oct. Benkert has been most dangerous this year when scrambling 15, to take on Mendenhall, the first-year head coach of the Virout of the pocket and throwing deep. He is mobile, but his head ginia Cavaliers. coach prefers for Benkert to pass the ball before he thinks about The Cavaliers have been fairly unimpressive this season, with running. their worst moment of the season coming in their Week 1 home “We liked the chance of extending plays, which is what he loss to FCS school Richmond. But the team features a talented does natural, which is what we have fostered and developed,” quarterback in Kurt Benkert, and will look to take advantage of Mendenhall said Wednesday. “But we were working there from Pitt’s weak pass defense. a starting place that was quite different, meaning he wanted to do Here’s how things will play out on Saturday: that anyway, so run really is the second or third option.” New QB in town This could cause trouble for Pitt’s defensive backs, who have Over the past two seasons, when the Panthers have taken on had difficulty defending receivers this year –– particularly when the Cavaliers, they’ve gone up against quarterback Matt Johns. the quarterback has ample time. Avonte Maddox (14) is listed as doubtful on Pitt’s Johns is still on the roster, but is no longer the starter under center. Youth injection? Week 7 injury report. Meghan Sunners SENIOR STAFF Instead, Benkert beat Johns out for the starting job in training See Preview on page 9 PHOTOGRAPHER camp. A transfer from East Carolina, Benkert has 13 touchdowns
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Mazeroski, pg. 8 Cracker Jacks as they awaited the first pitch. Between 75 and 100 people had gathered when the broadcast began blaring out of an iPod and through the speakers. Some sat on benches, some sat in lawn chairs and others just stood around to take it all in. Eventual World Series MVP Bobby Richardson led off the game for the Yankees and lined out to Pirates shortstop Dick Groat. Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski caught a pop-up for the second out, then third baseman Don Hoak caught another pop-up to end the 1-2-3 top of the first inning. After every out, the assembled crowd applauded as though the game were taking place live. Bob Skinner drew a walk for the Pirates in the bottom of the first inning, the first baserun-
Preview, pg. 8 Pitt’s pass defense has been anemic this season. The Panthers even struggled against Georgia Tech, who came into last Saturday’s game with the third-worst passing offense in the nation. For the first time in weeks, Pitt shook things up in the defensive backfield with the release of Monday’s depth chart, adding first-year cornerbacks Damar Hamlin and Therran Coleman as third-string corners. “Just thought I would mess with you guys,” Narduzzi told reporters at his Monday press conference. “Shake it up this week and throw them out there.” One of the potential reasons for the shift is the health of junior starting cornerback Avonte Maddox, who left Saturday’s game against the Yellow Jackets after appearing to hurt his wrist.
Frontiers, pg. 2 described the work at his own company, DEKA, where 500 engineers are working on improving technology for medical treatment, such as prosthetic arms and a redesigned wheelchair with self-balancing technology that allows it to navigate any terrain. Despite the progress made by Kamen and other researchers, panelist David Okonkwo — Pitt neurosurgeon professor and UPMC executive vice chair of neurosurgery — said failure is a common experience for researchers. “There’s a lot of people doing brilliant
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ner of the game. Rocky Nelson followed with a two-run home run to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead, and the crowd roared. The Pirates scored two more in the bottom of the second, and the crowd cheered again, sensing a blowout in the making. But, as everyone there knew, this one was far from over. The Yankees were a powerhouse like no other, competing in their 25th World Series and looking for a 19th championship. They won 15 games in a row to end the regular season — an MLB record. And they had defeated the Pirates by 10 runs or more three times in the series. But the Pirates had scraped out three wins of their own over the Yankees by three runs or less, and here they were –– locked in a winnertake-all Game 7 for the World Series title. The Yankees got their first hit of the game –– and scored their first run –– on Bill Skowron’s solo home run in the top of the fifth, then
took the lead on Yogi Berra’s three-run blast in the top of the sixth. The fans rose to sing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch, then groaned when the Yankees added to their lead with back-to-back hits in the top of the eighth. “That could be it,” one fan muttered. But the Pirates battled back to take a 9-7 lead on Hal Smith’s pinch-hit three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth. “[Smith] was the hero, until the last of the ninth,” Game 7 Gang member John Urso said. “Everybody forgot about him.” The crowd went wild, only to listen in disbelief as Hall of Fame outfielder Roberto Clemente bobbled a ball in right field for the second inning in a row, allowing the Yankees to tie the game in the top of the ninth. Luckily for Clemente, another Hall of Famer was due up to start the bottom half for the
Pirates. Mazeroski was the first Pirate to come to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, and there would be no need for any others. The Hall of Fame second baseman sent a long fly ball over the still-standing wall to give the Pirates a 10-9 walk-off victory and their third World Series title. Everyone in attendance stood and cheered in celebration –– no high-fives, though, since they didn’t exist in 1960, according to Soltman. “I was crazy enough to be at the mob scene at home plate when Maz came around,” Soltman said. If you weren’t there with him in 1960 when Mazeroski rounded third base, jumping and wildly waving his cap in the air, you can still experience the moment every year on Oct. 13. “We’re always told we can’t turn back the clock. Nonsense,” Soltman said. “We can and we should.”
While he is still listed on the depth chart, he’s listed as doubtful to play on Pitt’s injury report. If Hamlin and Coleman play, they will both lose their redshirt status for the season, removing an extra year of eligibility. Narduzzi says they’ve been nearing playing time the entire season. “They are just getting closer,” Narduzzi said Monday. If Maddox can’t play, redshirt freshman Dane Jackson will likely start opposite senior Ryan Lewis. Jackson replaced Maddox against Georgia Tech and impressed his head coach in his first game action. “You look at Dane’s first play in the game, Dane did a nice job,” Narduzzi said Monday. “It wasn’t like he was tentative. I think the first play he came in, it was run his way and he stuck his head in and dove in the pile and got in on the action. So you didn’t see a timid guy out there.”
Air opportunity Like Pitt’s pass defense, Virginia has struggled to stop offenses through the air. The Cavaliers have actually allowed more passing yards per game — 309.6, last in the ACC — than the Panthers, who have surrendered 302.3 per game. Pitt quarterback Nathan Peterman has been locked in lately, and Narduzzi said a combination of pass protection and good decision-making has been key. “Our offense has done a great job of protecting him on the sack part of it, but he’s done a good job of getting rid of the ball, putting it where he can, and rushing it at times so we don’t give up a sack,” Narduzzi said Wednesday. “Maybe he takes a hit at times to give the receivers time to get open.” Peterman is completing 65 percent of his passes on the season, good for third in the conference, and the redshirt senior has thrown only
two interceptions. He’ll try to carve up a team on Saturday that has been bad statistically, but has its head coach excited — as the Cavaliers defense forced five interceptions against Duke quarterback Daniel Jones last week. “[There’s] a lot of continued advancement in scheme understanding, technical development, personal skills and just simply consistency,” Mendenhall said Wednesday. “And it’s fun to see the progress being made and the growth that’s happening with still a long, long, long ways to go.” PREDICTION: Virginia is on a two-game winning streak and is playing at home, but that’s about all the Cavaliers have going for them in this matchup. Pitt’s roster is more complete as a whole and has looked more impressive while facing better competition than Virginia. But the Panthers’ defense just isn’t consistent enough to allow for a blowout. PITT 40, VIRGINIA 31
work that will culminate in failure,” Okonkwo said. “And science is more consistently failure than success, but you plug away.” National Track Like a scene straight out of a science fiction flick, the IBM corporation’s computer program, Watson, beat two of Jeopardy’s winningest contestants at their own game in 2011. Guru Banavar, vice president of cognitive computing in IBM research, discussed Watson, as well as other advancements and possibilities in artificial intelligence during the conference’s national track in CMU’s Jared L. Cohon University Center.
On top of being an impressive technological advancement, Banavar said Watson is also designed to be conversational and responsive. “You ask a question and [Watson] comes back with an answer,” Banavar said. “Maybe the answer isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, but you refine it a little bit — maybe you ask [for] more details.” Other speakers during this track focused on the possibility of using artificial intelligence in such fields as medicine, transportation and wildlife conservation. Speakers were figures in computer science, medicine and engineering, with a focus on technolog-
ical and policy developments and the challenges still faced in the field. Jennifer Magnolfi, a researcher at Programmable Habitats — a startup based in New York that explores the performative collaboration between humans and machines for assisting human performance — said her company focuses specifically on augmented human performance. Magnolfi highlighted the future of robothuman interactions, especially in the workplace, where the two might meet head-on.
October 14, 2016
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Obama, pg. 1
White House Science Fair. Earlier in the plenary session, Roman Mars, the founder and host of “99 Percent Invisible,” a podcast that focuses on architecture and design, conducted a live podcast with Stanford professor Raj Chetty about how demographics affect success in innovation. Chetty’s research found that being around innovation increases the likelihood of innovation and segregation correlates strongly with differences in opportunities. In one of his studies, Chetty and his colleagues found that a third grader’s math scores predicted that student’s likelihood of becoming an inventor. Those children with a high socioeconomic status were even more likely to receive a patent in their lifetime. “You need two things in order to be an inventor — you need to be smart ... and you need to be from a high-income family,” Chetty said. To improve this landscape, Chetty is looking for a way to bridge the gap created by systemic inequalities. Making the opportunity to study STEM available to everyone is an important step moving forward, Obama said. “We don’t want somebody with a brilliant idea not in the room because they are a wom-
an,” he said. “We don’t want some budding genius unavailable to cure cancer or come up with some new energy source because they were languishing in a substandard school as a child.” In his speech Thursday, which focused largely on Pitt and other universities, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said that at the heart of every innovation was a “human spark,” and it was the responsibility of current leaders to nurture and foster that spark. “Today’s pioneers are at the very horizons of humanity. [They are] looking at the entire universe as they question the status quo, disrupt the limits of today and define our future,” Gallagher said. As his presidential tenure comes to a close, Obama warned that innovation should not be done away with “when we’re tightening our belts.” Instead, he said scientific and technological advancements should remain at the forefront of the agenda, with facts, data and science leading the way to solving some of the country’s biggest problems. “For us to use our brains doesn’t mean we lose our heart,” Obama said. “It means we can harness what’s in our heart to get things done.”
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Parkinson’s disease and reengineering our cities as populations “grow to be smarter and more productive.” Part of the goal, Obama said, is to make sure America keeps its “competitive advantage as the world’s most innovative economy.” Officials from the White House slotted the conference for Pittsburgh because of the city’s burgeoning tech scene, which has brought Google, Uber and a range of startups into the area in recent years. In exhibits at both Pitt and CMU, Obama and other attendees got to test out new innovations, from a space capsule to an unmanned quad-copter to a paper microscope. The idea of innovation, Obama said, isn’t new to Pittsburgh. “Pittsburgh has been revitalizing itself through technology for a very long time,” Obama said. “There’s a reason the U.S. Steel Tower is also the corporate home of UPMC Medical Center, because the city is now home to groundbreaking medical research.” Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, opened the plenary session that Obama attended with a discussion of
what he said is the next natural step in technology — artificial intelligence. “We went from writing things down to putting them in electronic form to embedding them into services. Artificial intelligence is really just the next step in the process,” he said. “This is a new superpower for humanity.” Through artificial intelligence — which includes designs like self-driving cars and computer programs that can respond to humans — he said, people will be able to solve the “big problems” that go beyond human capacity, like sequencing a genome quickly and efficiently. In preparing for the future, the President said it was important to not only focus on innovation, but also the people driving that innovation. “We realized we can’t look to the future if we’re also not going to lift up the generation that’s going to occupy that future,” Obama said. Throughout his time in office, Obama has sought to draw attention to the importance of educating a broad spectrum of young people, from different socioeconomic backgrounds, in science, engineering, technology and mathematics through programs such as the
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October 14, 2016
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