11-15-2016

The Pitt News

INSIDE

REVIEW OF PITT STAGES’ TIMELESS “HAIR”

The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | November 15, 2016 | Volume 107 | Issue 78

HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR SPEAKS AT PITT Elias Rappaport For The Pitt News

Members of the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy set up decorations in Schenley Plaza in preparation for Light Up Night this Friday. Kyleen Considine STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

SAFERIDER USE DROPS, PITT PLANS APP

Rachel Glasser Staff Writer

Over the past four fiscal years, SafeRider usership has declined by nearly 18 percent, but an app proposal could persuade more riders to turn back to the transportation system in the future.

Kevin Sheehy, director of the University of Pittsburgh Parking, Transportation and Services, said the University is looking into upgrading Saf-

eRider, in part by creating an app through which students can order a ride. He had no estimate of how long this would take but said in an email that the app could address student complaints about the University ride system.

“As we explore options involving an ‘app,’ we think that wait times can improve as well as the overall experience,” Sheehy said.

The reasons for the decline in ridership are not so clear. Some students complain that Saf-

eRider’s inefficiencies — such as long wait times and rigid guidelines about their routes — have deterred them from using the service. Others feel misguided after finding out that the service has limitations on where students can be picked up and dropped off.

Jordan Johnson, a senior linguistics major, said she didn’t utilize all 20 of SafeRider’s allotted rides because she was not satisfied with the See SafeRider on page 2

Sam Gottesman, a Holocaust survivor, still remembers his near-death experience 71 years ago.

Gottesman, originally from former Czechoslovakia, said that at one of the many concentration camps he was placed in, he found himself on the list of children who were to be shipped back to Auschwitz to become factory laborers.

He later realized that going back to Auschwitz would likely lead to his extermination. To avoid the potential death sentence, Gottesman marched to the S.S. officer’s door and requested to have his name taken off the list, citing his age of 21 years old as his main defense.

He was reprimanded twice and forced to strip naked, but the officer scratched his number — 37502 — off the list.

Gottesman still tells his story, mainly to high school students, to educate people about one of the most deadly and despicable events of the 20th century and to remind them not to forget the dangerous lessons of the past. In front of a packed crowd at the O’Hara Student Center, he spoke to 110 students and faculty, methodically reliving every detail through his heavy Central European accent.

Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity on campus, hosted the talk as part of its philanthropic goal to raise money for the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. The Philanthropy Chair of AEPi, See Lecture on page 3

News SafeRider, pg. 1

service. In her sophomore year, Johnson frequented the Centre Plaza Apartments — oncampus housing about 0.8 miles from the Cathedral of Learning — because her friends lived there.

Johnson said she called to get a SafeRider on multiple occasions around 11 p.m. or 12 a.m. from the Centre Plaza Apartments because she didn’t feel comfortable waiting on Centre Avenue outside of the apartments for the bus — which could take 20 minutes to arrive.

But the SafeRider phone operators told her to take a fixed-route bus since she was near a stop and the buses were running, so sometimes she would just walk home. “[I] would text four of my friends and be like, ‘Hey, I’m walking home right now. If you don’t hear from me in an hour, I’m dead. Call me,’” Johnson said.

SafeRider is designed to help students, faculty and staff for non-emergency situations when a fixed route shuttle — such as the 10A — is not available, according to Sheehy. The service runs from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday and until 5 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Students can take up to 20 rides on SafeRider per semester.

Friday and Saturday are SafeRider’s busiest nights, and it schedules three vehicles during this time instead of the normal two. SafeRider service boundaries are Baum Boulevard to the north, Carnegie Mellon University to the east, the Center for Biotechnology and Bioengineering to the south and Trees Hall and Robinson Street to the west, according to the University website.

SafeRider usership fluctuates often, but the past four years have seen a decline in the total number of calls and passengers. During the 20122013 fiscal year — July until the following June –– SafeRider fielded a total of 16,664 calls. This number decreased to 13,745 calls in the 20152016 year, a nearly 18 percent drop, according to data tables from the University of Pittsburgh Parking, Transportation and Services.

In that same period, there was a 14 percent drop in recorded passengers.

A saferider system is especially useful in a city without high rates of taxi service, but the surging popularity of rideshare apps, like Uber and Lyft, has replaced the need for both.

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Some schools, such as the University of Southern California, have partnerships with Uber to address inefficiencies in their own campus transportation systems. According to USC’s website, the university pays for eligible Uber rides within campus when wait times for its Campus Cruiser are longer than 15 minutes.

Sheehy said the University has approached Uber and has “been in talks, gathering information in regards to what they can bring to the table.”

“There are always legalities involved when moving into a partnership. The number one concern is safety,” Sheehy said. “Before we partner with an organization, we have to investigate all the ins and outs regarding the whole process and other safety precautions.”

Gavi Stein, a junior applied developmental psychology major, calls SafeRider her “personal Uber.” She first rode at the end of last year, and after that, she said she began to call SafeRider weekly. But there are still times when she picks the rideshare company over Pitt’s service.

“If I was by myself on the side of the street I would call an Uber before I called a SafeRider just because SafeRider would take so long,” Stein said.

According to data from the University of Pittsburgh Parking, Transportation and Services, the average wait time for the 2015-2016 fiscal year was just over 10 minutes, which is lower than in previous years. For the 2014-2015 fiscal year, the average wait time was just under 11 minutes. For 2013-2014, it was just over 12 minutes.

Sheehy said that during the peak times between 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., the wait time can be longer, and wait times can be affected when students do not show up.

A no-show adds an average of 15 to 20 minutes wait time to the next pick up, and students calling for rides to or from fixed-route locations can also increase wait time, Sheehy said.

Even though Stein admits that the service is not always timely, she said it doesn’t bother her.

“Sometimes I’ve been on hold with them for like two minutes, and sometimes it’s been like 30 minutes. I don’t really mind,” Stein said. “I understand that they’re dealing with a ton of people at one time ... [If there was an app], I would probably use [SafeRider] more often, and I use it super often.”

Although students do not pay for rides individually, SafeRider is funded by the $90 See SafeRider on page 3

SafeRider usage decline over the years During the 2012-2013 fiscal year

16,664 calls fielded by SafeRider 30,411 passengers on SafeRider During the 2015-2016 fiscal year

13,745 calls fielded by SafeRider 26,183 passengers on SafeRider decline in wait times

10 minutes

average wait time for the 2015-2016 fiscal year

10.59 minutes

average wait time for the 2014-2015 fiscal year

12.12 minutes

average wait time for the 2013-2014 fiscal year

*According to data tables from the University of Pittsburgh Parking, Transportation and Services

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Lecture, pg. 1 Seth Appel, said the event was especially poignant less than a week after the anniversary of Kristallnacht — when Nazis in Germany torched and vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses.

Born in 1923, Gottesman was 15 years old when Nazi Germany invaded his home country, and he immediately felt the impact of the anti-Semitic regime. The Nazi government first enacted “the Jewish Laws,” a colloquial name for a different set of laws Jews lived under in Nazicontrolled lands in the 1930s.

Gottesman drew laughs from the mostly somber crowd when he gave a surprising description of the intimidating Nazi officer that eventually saved him from Auschwitz.

“I was lucky enough that the second-incommand was what we’d say is a ‘mensch.’”

In Yiddish, a mensch translates to a “good person.”

Gottesman’s humor came as a surprise to some in the audience, as Holocaust survivors are understandably solemn when reliving the terrors of their childhoods in Europe. Sophomore Alyssa Berman, who is double majoring in political science and Jewish studies, was

shocked at his lightheartedness.

“I really liked that he was cracking jokes at the end. I’ve never really heard a Holocaust speaker who was as friendly and joking as he was. And I guess that’s the part that moved me the most,” Berman said.

In 1943, Gottesman, along with every other Jewish person, had to reapply for citizenship. By April 1944, on the day of Passover, Nazi officers ordered Gottesman and the rest of his small town to be transported to a ghetto. They would later be sent to a concentration camp to either be killed or worked to death. It was not until the spring of 1945 that Allied forces liberated Gottesman.

Gottesman was constantly being uprooted to different camps, each with their own atrocities and painful memories.

He recalled asking where all the women were on his first day at Auschwitz. Another prisoner pointed to a chimney to answer Gottesman’s question. Later, on his first day at Bergen Belsen concentration camp, he realized that the situation could somehow be even more dire.

“There were dead bodies all over the place,” he said. “They could not even keep up picking up and doing away with the dead bodies. It was an awful camp.”

Near the tail end of his talk, Gottesman ad-

mitted that he had not told his son that he was a Holocaust survivor until his son asked him about it while in college.

Ethan Silver, a member of the AEPi fraternity, related to that detail specifically. When he was in third grade, both he and his mother found out that his grandfather had been in the Holocaust.

“I don’t think I really understood it,” Silver said. “I wrote a report about it, so I understand he went through a lot. I was the same age, when he told me, that he was when he went through [the Holocaust].”

Silver was struck by the drastic differences between his and his grandfather’s life experiences, just as Gottesman’s memories of being a young adult contrasted with the audience of college students seated in front of him Monday.

“He would tell me stories about him sleeping in a barn one day and then in the middle of the snow, the next,” he said. “And I was like, ‘I’ve been in a home every day I’ve been alive.’”

Speaking to a crowd of many Jewish individuals, Gottesman touched on how the Holocaust affected his faith in God. During the war, he said prayers on his way to his labor assignments. It was after the war when Gottesman began to lose faith in God and Judaism.

“I had a bone to pick with God,” he said.

SafeRider, pg. 2 transportation fee each student pays per semester. The fee also covers other campus shuttles; the Port Authority of Allegheny County Fare-Free Program, which allows students to use PAT buses free of charge and other safety and security features on campus.

Ryan Scandaglia, a senior English writing major and Pitt Pathfinder, said in tours SafeRider is presented as a no-questions-asked shuttle for students to use if they feel unsafe. However, Scandaglia said that since the information about SafeRider is so specific, he often does not mention that it is not for transportation to stops on the fixed bus routes.

“Pathfinders can’t say everything we are supposed to, you know?” Scandaglia said. “Our tour would be three hours long. You say what you think is best, based generally on our tour script.”

On one occasion, after the SafeRider operator told Johnson to take the fixed-route bus, again at the Centre Plaza Apartments, Johnson asked if a SafeRider would pick her up at an intersection one block away. The operator responded that he or she would send a vehicle.

“What’s the difference between me feeling unsafe a block away?” Johnson said. “A block different?”

The Pitt News SuDoku 11/15/16 courtesy of dailysudoku.com

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Opinions

column

from the editorial board

Revive Pitt’s journalism major GAMERS SHOULD PASS With a Donald Trump presidency just months away, the media world is fighting to win back the trust readers have abandoned.

Which means that in a world full of fake news and unverified fluff masquerading as information, there has never been a larger need for young adults to learn how to most accurately inform their communities.

But making quality contributions requires an understanding of reporting and editorial ethics and there are currently few paths to acquire that knowledge on Pitt’s campus. It’s time the University expand its nonfiction English writing track into a full journalism major and show that a free, informed press is something worth valuing.

We know, it’s shocking that the student newspaper would push for a serious journalism program — but this is more about the future of the profession than the desires of our individual staff members.

Most universities offer dedicated journalism programs — including Pitt Johnstown — but in 2009, Pitt merged the journalism track with the creative nonfiction track to create just the nonfiction writing track. Now, students can major in communication and take classes about the media or enroll as an English major with a nonfiction focus. The latter option provides students with some great opportunities to practice journalistic writing styles, but there is no stable path to learn the complexities of functioning as a reporter in the working world.

Now that the University is bringing in more staunch journalists, such as Pulitzer Prize nominee Doug Swanson and Patrick Doyle, the former editor of Boston Magazine, Pitt should make an effort to create a more focused journalism program.

Which isn’t to say there aren’t professors who have been trying to maintain the journalism side of the nonfiction track since 2010.

News advisor to The Pitt News Harry Kloman, a writer for Pittsburgh City Paper, already teaches an intro journalism course and a review writing course. Maggie Jones, who writes for New York Magazine, was a finalist for a National Magazine Award and was a 2012 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. She teaches an intro to journalism and nonfiction course as

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well, plus topics classes in nonfiction.

Former Washington Post writer Cindy Skrzycki teaches a “Journalism Bootcamp” course, but beyond that class, there are no skills-based courses that teach students about bias and how newspapers actually function.

Plus, because students in the writing track don’t need to take strict journalism courses, professors who teach these classes have to promote their classes every single year to draw a turn out.

Pitt’s writing department has also committed funds to support journalism projects such as Longform, a site devoted to aggregating and highlighting the best journalism writing around the country. This is a great boost for writers trying to earn attention for their hard work. Yet, the people paying to go here have few opportunities to learn the underpinnings of journalism while in the classroom.

We need to treat reporting as the professional trade it is. This is becoming a larger problem as so much of the public demonstrates media illiteracy. This election season has made it clear just how much the American public has lost its understanding of the way news outlets work.

People don’t understand that editorials like this one don’t reflect biased reporting in news stories or that topics from decades ago don’t appear in publications again unless newsworthy developments arise. Disinformation is rampant — as evidenced by the egregious amount of fake news on social media — and the only way to fight it is to provide ethical counterbalances.

Moreover, as we enter an era that’s going to need a lot of fact-checkers and watch dogs, news outlets are in desperate need of welltrained journalists. Despite providing a platform for young writers, institutions rampant on college campuses like The Odyssey and The Tab aren’t offering that training.

At The Pitt News, we do our best to educate those interested in the field and require no prior experience to join the organization. But it would be beneficial if students had somewhere to turn for developing basic skill sets instead of being thrown into the tumult of a daily newspaper with little to no preparation.

ON SEASON PASSES

Michelle Reagle STAFF ILLUSTRATOR

Thomas Wick

For The Pitt News As soon as I started playing “Battlefield 1,” I couldn’t stop.

The World War I shooter that I and hundreds of others had been anticipating finally came out in late October and has quickly become one of the most immersive and exciting multiplayer games

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of the year.

Still, “Battlefield 1” is not a perfect game. As if the $60 price tag wasn’t enough, Electronic Arts, the game’s publisher, also wants us to pay for the game’s obnoxious season pass, which is a terrible deal for consumers and an alarming trend in the gaming industry.

See Wick on page 5

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Wick, pg. 4 A season pass allows players to purchase an all-access pass to optional, downloadable content for a game. Despite the fact that all of the downloadable content isn’t immediately available, season passes are available for purchase on release day.

Any extra content — such as multiplayer maps or additional campaign missions — that isn’t part of the initial video game package is downloadable content, and these typically comes out in increments within months after the game releases. Although downloadable content is technically optional, that doesn’t stop companies like EA from trying to force gamers into buying it — and season passes make gaining access to that content look easy and affordable.

The benefit is that paying one price as soon as you buy the game saves money overall because players don’t have to buy each newly released map or mission individually. The season pass trend began in 2011 with Rockstar Games’ “L.A. Noire,” and five years later, it has only

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intensified.

The problem is that when you purchase a season pass, the content hasn’t been identified or clearly outlined yet — and in some instances hasn’t even been made yet.

In essence, season passes are one of the most outlandish and greedy concepts that video game companies have developed. It’s comparable to paying for a season pass to a concert venue without knowing what shows — if any — are going to come to town. The season pass tactic allows multi-million dollar gaming companies like EA to squeeze out as much money as possible from consumers, causing video games to become less fully packaged experiences and more like prolonged, rationed money-making scams.

According to the Entertainment Software Association’s most recent data, the video game industry rakes in more than $4 billion yearly, profiting from more than 155 million Americans. Out of all video game purchases — including computer and smartphone games — downloadable content accounts for more than $15.4 billion in extra purchases. Down-

loadable content has created immense profits for EA specifically, generating $1.3 billion last year, according to Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen.

Season passes are adding to that profit. “Battlefield 1” players can pay $50 now and gain full access to the game’s downloadable content when it is eventually released instead of paying for the four individual content packs at a later date for $15 each — or $60 in total.

So, it’s a deal, but what exactly are we getting a deal on?

The reality is that those who purchase a season pass are often blindly paying for content that was going to be a part of the initial game but was charged as downloadable content instead, as Capcom did with “Street Fighter X Tekken” add-ons. In this way, companies take away consumers’ purchasing power.

Once we’ve forked our money over, the gaming company is under no obligation to make quality content.

2K Games released “BioShock Infinite,” another popular first-person shooter, in March 2013 and offered players a season pass for $20. The first pack of downloadable content came out in

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July 2013 for $5, and second pack was released that November for $15. The third pack came out in March 2014 — over a year after the game’s release date — for $15.

Many fans were upset over the long delays for the downloadable content they had paid for all the way back in March 2013 when the game was released. The reason for the delay: the developers didn’t start development on the packs until after the standard game was released. It isn’t acceptable for companies to charge consumers for content when neither the developers nor the consumers know what that content is going to be.

The solution is simple: Either companies give clear information about the content within a season pass, or companies can eliminate season passes from the equation. I’m in favor of the latter.

If companies were upfront about what gamers are getting with their season passes, I might be tempted to purchase one. But right now, video game producers are misleading millions of consumers who are tricked into thinking they’re getting a good deal.

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Culture

‘HAIR’ REVIEW: A TIMELY TALE OF SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK AND ROLL Matt Maielli

Senior Staff Writer As the entire cast of Pitt Stages’ “Hair” strips naked under low blue stage lights upstage, a hippie mulling over his Vietnam draft card downstage sings, “Where is the something? Where is the someone that tells me why I live and die?”

This is “Hair’s” most iconic scene and is no less iconic, or shocking, in a college production. This is, after all, the same interracial New York play that defined “rock musicals” for decades after its opening, most recently with a 2009 Broadway revival. The cast, noting the show’s significance renewed after the results of the 2016 election on Tuesday, offered a free show last Wednesday, a day earlier than previously scheduled and doled out hugs in costume outside the Cathedral.

The University theater department’s production of the show runs until Nov. 20 at the Charity Randall Theater with showtimes from Wednesday to Saturday at 8 p.m. and a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m.

“Hair” follows the “tribe,” a band of hippies in the late ’60s Big Apple who preach freedom, peace, love and drugs. The audience meets Berger (Matt Keefer) first, a free spirit who takes off his jeans and asks an audience member to hold onto them after the first song. There’s Sheila (Sarah Fling), a political activist, and Woof (Davis Weaver), an odd soul who “grows things” and is obsessed with Mick Jagger.

Woof says he’s not gay — though his flirting with Berger suggest otherwise to the rest of the tribe.

As the tribe takes turns, introducing each other through song, we meet Hud (Harry Hawkins IV), a black militant who declares himself the “President of the United States of Love,” and pregnant Jeanie (Julia de Avilez Rocha), who was knocked up by a “speed freak” but wishes it was by another member of the tribe, Claude.

Claude (Dan Mayhak, who has a voice like Hozier) is a New Yorker so stoned he thinks he’s from Manchester, England, and

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Pitt Theatre Arts program’s production of “Hair” runs Nov. 10 through Nov. 20. John Hamilton SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER fights with himself and the rest of the tribe about his draft application, providing the only thread of story to this trippy, chara c t e r- d r i v e n musical.

Two weeks ago, this all would have felt like gentle liberal reminders of social justice. It was always relevant, though — Elizabeth Coen, a visiting assistant theater arts profe s s or, even published a Medium post with interviews from people detailing their reactions to the events of the late ’60s and the play itself.

But today, it feels like a necessary push, love and pleasure instead of hate and fear.

It’s hard to watch “Hair” without thinka call to action of what to do in a world that seems like it doesn’t make sense, in a ing of the present day. When Jeanie shouts “Anybody who says pot is bad is full of sh*t,” you remember that eight states have now legalized recreational marijuana.

In the slow, poetic “Dead End,” a song about being black in America, Hud falls backward off a chair, hands up, into the arms of the ensemble, reminiscent of every victim in that same scenario since Trayvon Martin in 2012.

All this nudging builds to the finale when the cast joins hands, country that you thought you knew. “Hair” singing “Let the Sun Shine In,” a symreminds us that sometimes the only way to phonic flower child anthem of hope. fight a world made of nonsense is with a See Hair on page 8 different type of nonsense — one born of

‘Hair’ reminds us that sometimes the only time to fight a world made of nonsense is with a different type of nonsense — one born of love.

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A WILD RIDE Pitt’s newest addition to its writing program is Doug Swanson, formerly a Texas-based journalist who dug into the Southwest’s hidden, corrupt and violent past.| by Ellen Kruczek | For The Pitt News Infamous Vegas mobster Benny Binion was the kind of criminal you only see in the movies — two murders, gambling rings, fatal feuds with rivals.

But until new Pitt English professor Doug Swanson came along, the mobster’s story went largely untold. Swanson published the story of the “doughy rural-route cherub” in 2014, describing Binion as an angel, “at least until he decided he wanted somebody dead, which had happened with some frequency.” “Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion, the Texas Gangster Who Created Vegas Poker” does what all good journalism should: differentiates fact from fiction and rumor from reality while documenting the life of a man largely shrouded in mystery.

It was this came intensity in writing — digging for truth, characterizing the nature of crime — that garnered a Pulitzer Prize nomination for Swanson in 1981, years before he would begin writing about Binion.

Swanson received a nomination for his work covering local crime for the Dallas Times Herald in the early ‘80s but lost the Pulitzer twice in the same year. The initial winner of the 1981 Pulitzer was The Washington Post’s Janet Cooke. But Cooke had to return the prize for fabricating a story about an 8-year-old heroin addict, so the Village Voice’s Teresa Carpenter won for her local crime coverage.

“I like to tell people I’m a two-time Pulitzer loser,” Swanson joked.

Despite not having a journalism program — opting instead for the more creatively inclined “non-fiction writing” track — Swanson joins a growing number of writing professors at Pitt with journalistic bylines in major publications. Recently, Pitt’s welcomed Michael Meyer, who’s been published in The New York

Times, The Wall Street Journal and Time. The University has also recruited Jeanne Marie Laskas, who’s written for The Washington Post Magazine and GQ and reported the story featured in the award winning 2015 movie “Concussion.”

Like several professors who have moved to Pittsburgh from places as far as China, the city is a new beast to Swanson — even if teaching isn’t. Swanson taught for three years at the University of North Texas in Denton and completed a one-year teaching partnership at the University of Texas at Austin. Before working as a professor, he wrote for the Dallas Times Herald until it closed, then moved to the Dallas Morning News, where he worked as an investigative reporter for 35 years. His stories ranged from profiles of open carry practitioners in Texas to investigations into juvenile detention abuse.

After his 1981 Pulitzer nomination, Swanson picked up a new side job: novel writing.

“Big Town,” the story of a disenfranchised lawyer, came out in 1994. Though he was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best New Novel, the work never received the same acclaim as his reporting. Four other novels on the same character came out shortly after.

But Swanson, who’s mild-mannered with a dry sense of humor, is more interested in talking about his most recent passion: nonf ic tion books. “ Texans like to read about Texas,” he said.

Texans also like to talk about Texans, and the native they talked a lot about was Benny Binion. A man with everything to lose, he was an early 1900s Texas gangster who broke the law to get what he needed. Swanson emphasizes that Binion was not a criminal who happened to be a businessman but the opposite.

“I heard about [Binion] for many years,” Swanson said. “I did some research and real-

I like to tell people I’m a two-time Pulitzer loser.

- Doug Swanson

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Pitt hired Pulitzer Prize finalist and former Dallas Morning News reporter Doug Swanson to teach journalism. Katie Krater STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER ized there had not been a full biography written about him, which was a happy surprise ... I sort of stumbled upon it.”

Binion created the Westerner Gambling House and Saloon in 1951 and founded the World Series of Poker 1971, which spurred poker’s popularity across the world. He also evaded taxes and murdered when it furthered his business. Despite this, he was such a beloved and generous civic figure in Las Vegas that the city raised statues in his honor. Known for selling $2 gourmet steaks and being connected to a family known for donating to city government, among other charitable acts, Binion became a well-loved man in Vegas.

“There were 18,000 people at his birthday party. He was the greatest friend you could ever have — and the worst enemy,” Swanson said.

It took Swanson two years of thorough re-

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search to complete the 309-page book. As an investigative journalist, Swanson knew what research to do. But he wasn’t expecting just how much pushing he would need to dig up some information — it took about a year just to receive Binion’s prison records from the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.

His patience and work paid off, though, and he found out more about Binion than anyone ever had. Even after the book, Swanson kept uncovering details of Binion’s storied past.

“People kept coming to me with stories [after the book was published], like a woman who played with Binion’s child,” Swanson said. “She told me when Binion lived in Dallas, his house had underground escape routes in case any enemies came up to kill the family.”

The research uncovered deeply buried facts, including memos to the attorney general See Profile on page 8

7

Hair, pg. 6

Profile, pg. 7 showing President Harry Truman’s involvement in pursuing Binion on tax evasion.

For his work, Swanson received attention from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, which described the book as a “slambang thrill ride” about a man not well known outside of Texas.

Following the release of the book, Swanson’s wife Susan Rogers — also a former journalist — received an offer to become Pitt’s vice chancellor of communications. Previously, she was vice president for university advancement at the University of Texas. Swanson also received an offer for a part-time teaching job.

Rogers and Swanson packed up their belongings and moved into a historic, leaky home 10 minutes from campus.

Swanson’s fifth floor Cathedral office is plain. His desk isn’t cluttered with papers, and no pictures of his wife Rogers or his two children hang on the off-white walls. He hasn’t had much of a chance to make the space his own since he arrived in Pittsburgh this July, but he’s spent plenty of time exploring.

“There’s a lot of parts of the city to look into and explore. That’s what I like about here. So

far it’s great ... Though if you’re not used to this, it can seem claustrophobic with the hills and the trees,” he said. Even the weather doesn’t bother him yet.

Swanson’s favorite part of Pittsburgh is its architecture. Dallas tears down and makes new buildings when they get too old. Pittsburgh preserves them. Even in the South Side Slopes, where small brick buildings intersperse between trees above the hills, Swanson was amazed.

“It was like [a] small West Virginia coal town,” he said. “It was such a startling sight.”

Swanson is now working on a book on the history of the Texas Rangers Division, as well as starting an investigative journalism class at Pitt. As the future unfolds for Swanson, he can’t help but look at the past, whether through his books or his visits to Texas. He says the cliché of the West is that most think it’s still a frontier.

In Pittsburgh, a town where history seeps out from a landscape littered with decrepit steel mills and buildings faded by years of stale air, Swanson said he’s noticed something different about the atmosphere. Maybe unfolding Pittsburgh’s past requires a little less digging.

“Pittsburgh has reinvented itself, though there’s a sense that it’s an old place too. You don’t get that in the West.”

The Pitt news crossword 11/15/16

During the song, there’s a projection of images from the present: young black men with hands up, police lights shining off their faces, as well as protesters hoisting signs that read, “REAL MEN DON’T RAPE” and “REFUGEES WELCOME, RACISTS GO HOME,” fully realizing the timelessness of “Hair.”

Before curtain, hippies in ’60s era garb spring about the theater barefoot, asking each other, “Who has the joints?” setting the “peace and love” tone as soon as you find your seat. Even during the intermission, cast members arm themselves with an acoustic guitar and a drum pad, playing simple tunes up on stage, including an appropriate cover of The Zombies’ “Time of the Season.” The play starts abruptly, as actors storm the stage and jump into the full-throated bohemian ballad “Aquarius.”

The theater department’s intense production plans paid off, with the front half of a bus sticking out into the middle of the stage and gridiron columns traced with vines anchoring the set. The rest of the show’s effects rely on video projec-

tions, especially in the groovy “Walking in Space.” The tribe gets high, and the stage itself turns into a magnificent lava lamp, painting the whole room in a host of trippy colors, the stage shining with orange, red and blue.

“Hair” also carries simple, compelling images, such as Jeanie emerging from the stage floor wearing a gas mask and the play’s aforementioned nude scene.

When anthropologist Margaret Mead (always-energetic Ben McClymont) interrupts the tribe to study their way of life, she leaves touched by their philosophy.

Mead, a role that’s typically played by men in drag, then turns to the audience and breaks the fourth wall.

“I wish every mother and father in this theater would go home tonight and make a speech to their teenagers and say, ‘Kids — be free, no guilt. Be whoever you are, do whatever you want to do. Just as long as you don’t hurt anybody, right?”

If Mead had delivered those words a week before, it still would’ve resonated with the audience but maybe only for the drive home. At this moment in time, though, hopefully they have the power to stay with you for at least four years.

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November 15, 2016

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Sports

men’s basketball

PITT WAXES GARDNER-WEBB, 99-80 Dan Sostek

Ryan Luther slams home a dunk, two of his eight points for the Panthers.

Wenhao Wu SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

I don’t know why you wouldn’t be like Sheldon Jeter was tonight,” Stallings said. “ShelSenior Staff Writer don looked like he was counting down and Despite his team’s easy 99-80 win over today was number 29. He played with effort the Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs, Pitt and energy and attention to detail, and he men’s basketball head coach Kevin Stallings talked, and he moved, and he covered for was disgruntled after the game. people and he rebounded. That’s how I’d “With all due respect to Gardner-Webb, want to play every game if I was a senior.”

I think we missed an opportunity to get Jeter — who notched his second career better tonight,” Stallings said. “I was disapdouble-double with 14 points and 13 repointed in our intensity, our concentration, bounds — said Stallings was more frustratour focus.” ed with the 19-point win Monday than the There was at least one player Stallings team’s three-point victory on Friday. didn’t have concerns with: senior forward “[Stallings] liked the fact that going Sheldon Jeter, whom Stallings coached at against a team we were supposed to win Vanderbilt in 2013 before Jeter transferred against, they punched us in the mouth, and to Pitt.

“If I’m a senior, I have 28 more chances.

See Men’s Basketball on page 10

women’s basketball

PANTHERS PUMMEL PENGUINS, 63-50 Mackenzie Rodrigues Staff Writer

After the two youngest players on the Pitt women’s basketball team led the way in the regular season opener, a familiar name emerged at the top of the stat sheet in game two: Brenna Wise.

A team-record 9,771 fans spilled out of school buses and into the Petersen Events Center at 11 a.m. Monday morning to witness the Panthers (2-0) defeat the Youngstown State Penguins (0-2), 63-50, in the team’s eighth annual School Day. Wise — Pitt’s sophomore forward and top scorer and rebounder last year

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— contributed 16 points along with 10 rebounds to lead all players in the Panthers’ win.

But it wasn’t an easy victory for Pitt.

The Penguins won the opening tipoff, and within 12 seconds, they put the first points on the board. A 3-pointer from senior guard Jenna Hirsch put the Panthers behind, but two successful free throws from Wise closed the gap. Another three from Hirsch doubled Youngstown State’s points.

“They came out aggressive and hit two big threes to start the game,” Pitt

Brenna Wise (50) paced the Panthers Monday with 16 points and 10 reSee Women’s Basketball on page 10 bounds. Abigail Self STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

November 15, 2016

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Men’s Basketball, pg. 9 we responded [on Friday],” Jeter said. “Today, he was a disappointed that there was lackluster energy. And there was.”

Stallings’ disappointment notwithstanding, the outcome of this one was never in doubt. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the contest came with the pregame starting lineup announcement.

Pitt junior forward Ryan Luther made his first career start in place of senior Michael Young, who had 26 points and 10 rebounds in the season opener Friday and earned ACC Co-Player of the Week honors for his performance earlier in the day.

Stallings said Young’s benching was due to a “minor infraction” that he would not detail further.

The surprising lineup change would prove to be a minor footnote in a major blowout.

The Panthers dominated from the onset, only trailing in the opening seconds and improving to 2-0 with a 99-80 victory over the Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs Monday night at the Petersen Events Center. The game was Pitt’s second win of the 2016 2K Classic, following a 93-90 doubleovertime victory over Eastern Michigan last Friday.

Using a balanced offensive attack early, the Panthers received their first five buckets

Women’s Basketball, pg. 9 head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio said.

“We just needed to settle into the game and be ready to defend the three-point line, something we talked about going into this game.”

Fighting to keep the ball in the Panthers’ half, Wise put up the team’s first 3-pointer, a crucial shot. Then, Pitt junior guard Aysia Bugg pushed the ball up the court to take advantage of the Penguins’ miss.

The Panthers couldn’t stop the Penguins’ shots, and, with six minutes left in the first quarter, found themselves in an 11-5 hole. But with Pitt center Brandi Harvey-Carr at the foul line, two more points went up for the Panthers.

McConnell-Serio turned to her bench for a much-needed spark.

Pitt first-year guard Alayna Gribble subbed in for fellow first-year guard Jas-

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from five different players to jump out to a 12-5 lead. Young entered the game after the first media timeout to sub in for Luther, but the substitution failed to jolt Pitt’s offense as Gardner-Webb immediately went on a 5-0 run.

Taking Luther out for Young didn’t give the Panthers the spark they needed, but bringing him back in did the trick.

With 12:05 left in the first half, Luther p u m p faked a d e f e n d e r, drove to the basket and converted a layup while drawing a foul. He hit the free throw to finish off the threepoint play.

A little over two minutes later, the 6-foot-9 forward utilized another pump fake to get to the rim, this time finishing with a powerful twohanded slam.

After Luther gave Pitt a boost, sophomore guard Cameron Johnson offered some breathing room. The 6-foot-8 wingman drilled a pair of threes and a layup to extend the Panthers’ lead to 16 with just

under eight minutes left in the first half. “[The run] just happened naturally in the flow of the game,” Johnson said. “My teammates did a good job of finding the open spots.”

Meanwhile, the rest of the team remained hot from beyond the arc, draining four more threes. Johnson tallied 14 points, three rebounds and three assists on a perfect five-for-five shooting performance, and Pitt led 52-32 at half.

While the team controlled the game throughout, Stallings didn’t think it would have been good enough against a stronger opponent.

“Maybe I’ve sent the wrong message about tempo and offense and things like that,” Stallings said. “We’re not ready to beat anybody that’s equivalent to us in terms of talent because we don’t sustain any type of defensive intensity.”

In terms of scoring, the second half saw more of the same as Young and senior for-

ward Jamel Artis each scored layups in the post and senior guard Chris Jones followed with a 3-pointer. Young was scorching to start the second half, scoring 11 of Pitt’s first 16 points of the period and going five for five from the field.

Unlike the team’s season opener, the Panthers’ lead was never in danger of evaporating. Pitt’s advantage never dipped below 17 for the remainder of the game, thanks in large part to a 13 for 26 performance from beyond the arc.

“I think we got a lot of shots in the flow of the offense,” Johnson said. “If they played man-to-man, we were able to break them down and play inside-out and kick it out. Shots went in early.”

Young and Johnson led the Panthers in scoring with 18 points apiece.

Following the win, the Panthers will hit the road for the first time this season, traveling to New York for the elimination rounds of the 2K Classic at Madison Square Garden. Their opening round matchup is against the Southern Methodist Mustangs on Thursday, Nov. 17.

ESPN2 will air the game vs. SMU with tipoff set for 7 p.m.

Stallings is confident his team will respond and show more urgency.

“These guys are good kids. They’ll respond,” Stallings said. “I was asked how I’ll get it fixed. They’ll fix it. They’ll want to fix it.”

mine Whitney and promptly made her first three, helping the Panthers reach double digits. Wise tied up the game with a layup, 12-12.

Youngstown State took the lead once more, refusing to give Pitt control of the court. But Wise continued her streak of successful free throws, giving the Panthers a their first lead of the game, 1716.

Whitney, back from the bench to take over at point guard for Bugg, assisted Wise with a layup to make it 21-16 Pitt at the end of the first quarter.

“We kept the intensity up once we saw that we were letting them get back in the game,” said Pitt sophomore forward Kauai Bradley, who finished with 13 points. “That encouraged us a little bit more to go harder and harder so they wouldn’t come back as much.”

Pitt started the second quarter with renewed fervor. Tracking the Penguins’

passes, the Panthers waited for the right moment to pounce and block a layup attempt, maintaining the lead they had struggled to create.

The first half ended with Pitt leading in double digits, 39-26, and Youngstown State failing to recreate the dominance they had established in the first minutes of the game.

Whitney and Wise worked together to start the second half with two points for the Panthers. This was Whitney’s first completed shot of the game, unusual for a strong shooter. Bradley shot and made her second three-point basket. She then caught a Penguins pass and forwarded the ball to Wise for an easy layup. The Panthers’ lead increased to 20 points, 48-28.

Youngstown State started the final quarter with the first three successful baskets, adding seven points to their score, more than they scored in the en-

tire third quarter. The Penguins continued to nail their shots, decreasing Pitt’s lead to 13 points at 57-44.

“Third quarter wasn’t bad,” Bugg said. “Fourth quarter we came out a little dry, and that affected the lead change and how much they came back.”

Consecutive baskets by Bugg and Pitt sophomore forward Kalista Walters stretched Pitt’s lead to 14. Whitney added to that with a layup for two more points to make it 63-47. With 30 seconds to go in the game, Youngstown State added three more points, but Pitt secured the win, 63-50.

“The next two days, we’ll prepare for Loyola,” McConnell-Serio said. “But at the same time, we need to prepare ourselves and do what we do.”

The Panthers will host Loyola University Chicago (0-1) at the Petersen Events Center at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17.

I think we missed an opportunity to get better tonight -Kevin Stallings

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