11-21-19

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T h e i n d e p e n d e n t s t ude nt ne w spap e r of t he U niversity of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | November 21, 2019 ­| Volume 110 | Issue 89

PITT OFFERS BOXES AND WALLS SEE STORY ONLINE AT PITNEWS.COM NEW PRACTICE SPACES AFTER POSVAR BAN Rebecca Johnson Staff Writer

Pitt offered several student dance groups new practice spaces this week following outcry over a letter sent out last Friday banning them from practicing in Posvar Hall.

Nithya Kasibhatla, president of Pitt Nrityamala, said she received the surprising letter from Pitt last Friday, which was sent to all student organizations. The letter explained that dance groups like hers would no longer be able to practice in Posvar or risk losing access to EMS, the University’s online platform to book on-campus spaces.

“It was so last minute and a shock because we had never got any indication that we would get banned. I had the impression that Posvar was an open space to be used by anyone,” Kasibhatla, a sophomore chemistry and English double major, said. “We did feel that it had an impact on cultural groups specifically. The attitude toward people practicing in Posvar tends to be more aggressive toward the cultural teams.”

The list of dance teams primarily affected by the letter includes Pitt Nrityamala, Pitt PantheRaas, First Class Bhangra, Pitt Mastana, Ya’baso and FRESA. The first four are

Students at Boxes and Walls, an event hosted by hosted by the Division of Student Affairs Diversity and Inclusion Committee, participated in a mock military enlistment and learned about the difficulties veterans face after service. Hannah Heisler senior staff photographer

SWANSON STUDENTS CREATE ASL-TO-TEXT TRANSLATOR Madison Brewer Staff Writer

When Christopher Pasquinelli, a fifth-year computer engineering major, spent a summer interning at PNC, he worked alongside students who were either deaf or hard of hearing. He started thinking about the challenges faced by his fellow interns and how common they must See Posvar on page 2 be for people who are deaf across America.

“The problem was they needed an interpreter with them constantly,” Pasquinelli said. “I thought ‘there has to be an easier way for that.’”

Now, Pasquinelli and Haihui Zhu, a thirdyear computer engineering major, are prototyping an American Sign Language-to-text translator, after an early version won third place in the regional finals of the InnovateFPGA 2019 Global Design Contest — a worldwide artificial intel-

ligence competition open to anyone 13 or older.

Another student, Roman Hamilton, was on the competition team but is no longer involved with the project.

The competition required teams to use fieldprogrammable gate arrays — a circuit that can be reprogrammed to behave like a different circuit. From there, Pasquinelli, Zhu and Hamilton See ASL on page 3

News

Get to know soon-to-be City Councilor Bobby Wilson online at pittnews.com

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION LEADER TO STEP DOWN

Jon Moss

Assistant News Editor Pam Connelly — Pitt’s vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion and leader of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion — will step down in early January.

“It has been an honor to serve Pitt in this capacity,” Connelly said. “I am humbled by all that I have learned, and I’m proud of the dedicated and talented ODI team.”

Connelly has led the office — which coordi-

Posvar, pg. 1 traditional Indian styles of dance, and the latter two dance to contemporary African music and Asian pop music, respectively.

The letter had been issued a day after an online petition was created by a student last Thursday arguing that the groups should have a different, more suitable place to practice so other students can utilize Posvar as a quiet study space.

University spokesperson Kevin Zwick said the new restrictions were not a direct result of the petition and have always been in place by the University.

“There is not a new policy regarding the use of Posvar Hall,” Zwick said. “Each year, Student Affairs receives noise complaints from members of our community who are trying to study in the designated study areas of the building.”

After the Indian dance teams drafted a joint letter last weekend to University administrators explaining the clubs’ reliance on Posvar and their difficulty in booking other spaces on campus, SORC offered the teams new practice rooms at a Tuesday meeting.

Kasibhatla said the meeting was very informative and SORC helped find different practice spaces, such as the ballroom in Alumni Hall, as well as new rooms in the William Pitt Union and Trees Hall.

“The school has been helpful. They took time out of their busy schedule and offered

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nates diversity policies and procedures, implements diversity initiatives and delivers training and education — since its creation in 2015. Prior to that, Connelly served as an associate general counsel at Pitt beginning in 2002, providing litigation and legal counsel on a broad array of matters.

Connelly plans to practice law as a shareholder at Strassburger, McKenna, Gutnick & Gefsky, a Pittsburgh-based law firm. She said she will focus her practice on higher education law, litigation and employment law within the firm’s public, nonprofit and education practice group.

Pitt announced in October that ODI was reorganized and separated into two divisions — Inclusion and Access, and Civil Rights and Title IX. The University said it made the change to “create a platform for greater inclusion, education and prevention efforts.”

The inclusion and access division includes the offices of institutional equity and multicultural and diversity programming, as well as the Office of Disability Resources and Services, which was previously housed under the Division of Student Affairs. At the time of the announcement, the

University said it was conducting a nationwide search for someone to lead the division.

The civil rights and Title IX division is headed by Katie Pope, Pitt’s Title IX coordinator and associate vice chancellor for civil rights and Title IX. The division addresses other types of discrimination besides sexual misconduct, and, as a result, the University announced they will hire a civil rights investigator to expand these efforts.

A national search for Connelly’s replacement will commence soon.

many solutions for us like recommending different practice spaces in the WPU for instance,” Kasibhatla said. “Years past we always felt that we were on our own. It’s definitely become clear that they are willing to accommodate us if we reach out.”

Kasibhatla said the biggest reason they didn’t utilize some of the spaces earlier is because they weren’t aware they were allowed.

“The biggest issue that came up during this meeting was that we weren’t made aware of the some of the opportunities that we had,” Kasibhatla said. “We’ve been to the training sessions, and we still didn’t know that they were available to us. If we did try to use some of the other spaces we were kicked out.”

Mekhala Rao, president of Pitt Mastana, said she feels that the cultural groups, which bring Pitt a lot of attention in the dance community nationally, are often overlooked on campus.

“In the Indian dance circuit, Pitt is known as a cultural hub and a powerhouse of Indian dance because all our teams are successful. When we go to competitions, people recognize us,” Rao, a senior sociology major, said. “When we come back to school we don’t get treated the same way.

Whenever we see posts on Reddit it’s always like, ‘Why do the brown people dance in Posvar?’”

Rao added that Posvar was not her team’s first choice, but their only choice.

“Posvar isn’t our first choice either. It’s our only option as a dance team at Pitt,” Rao

said. “Some of the dances we do we don’t wear shoes. It’s part of our culture. It’s part of our respect toward the dance itself. We get splinters and cuts, our knees always have bruises constantly and there are no mirrors.”

Gloria Givler, a first-year industrial engineering major, started a petition last Thursday — which currently has 33 signatures — arguing that the groups should have a different, more suitable place to practice so other students can utilize Posvar as a quiet study space. Givler said she created the petition jokingly while she was frustrated trying to study in Posvar, but she didn’t realize when she created the petition why there aren’t enough practice spaces for the groups.

“I was studying for my physics midterm and the dance teams were playing music really loudly. I was studying with a friend who said as a joke, ‘We should make a petition.’

But then I was really frustrated, so I decided to do it,” Givler said. “The University is so big. It seems ridiculous to me that they don’t have space for them.”

She added that her intention was not to negatively impact the teams, but draw attention to the issue.

“If the choice comes down to them practicing in Posvar or them not existing, I would much rather them practice in Posvar,” Givler said. “It’s disappointing that the University isn’t giving them the proper facilities, because they should be valued just as much as other student organizations.”

Other students at Pitt agree that the

dance teams practicing in Posvar hinders their studying.

Rachel Black, a sophomore psychology and French double major, said the loud music is distracting and discourages her from studying in Posvar. But, she also said she empathizes with the dance teams and thinks they deserve more respect.

“I do find them distracticing at night when they’re playing their music very loudly,” Black said. “But I don’t want to kick them out and leave them nowhere to practice. I think we should give the arts the respect they deserve.”

Kasibhatla said she believes the petition was created with good intentions, but was upset by its language that she felt targeted certain dance groups.

“I really appreciate that people want us to have other spaces because we want that too, but it felt aggressive and kind of like an attack,” Kasibhatla said. “She ultimately had good intentions and we appreciate that, but some of the phraseology was very aggressive.”

Rao said that, in the midst of this disruption, she wants her fellow students to understand what her team goes through to practice their routine.

“If everyone watched our eight-minute set, they would understand that we wouldn’t be practicing there if we didn’t have to,” Rao said. “Have a little more empathy for your fellow Pitt students.

We’re just trying to get by.”

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ASL, pg. 1 used machine learning — a special branch of AI in which a computer is trained to complete certain tasks — to execute the ASL translation.

Basically, their translator takes a video of a word being signed and translates it using an everlearning algorithm.

Though they are still determining the exact function the program will serve, Pasquinelli and Zhu see their program being marketed towards employers so that deaf or hard-of-hearing workers can communicate with their hearing coworkers. In addition, they see the translator as an important resource for first responders in emergency situations with individuals who communicate through sign language.

According to Zhu, the most important part of the engineering process is “defining the right question.” Samuel Dickerson, an assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, helped them decide the specific function of their program.

“I helped them, primarily, on some of the technical sides,” Dickerson said. “One of the things I was able to help them to do … was to limit the scope of what they wanted to do.”

According to Pasquinelli, the project started

off with a very broad idea — easing communication between the hearing and deaf. Then, the team narrowed it down to a specific task — translating ASL to text — that could be easily executed by a computer — in particular, a classification algorithm. In other words, the computer was trained to translate using pattern recognition.

Pasquinelli and Zhu created a three-stage system to translate signs into words. When shown a video of a person signing, the program begins by locating the hand. A single image can have hundreds of thousands of pixels, which, according to Zhu, is too much data for the computer to quickly sort through to interpret the sign. Instead, the computer finds the hand and pinpoints key structural locations of the hand.

“There are 23 key points of one single hand, so the second step is to build a system that can recognize the location of the 23 points,” Zhu said. “Now the data is quite low dimensional.”

With the reduced data size, the computer can combine the location of the 23 points to understand the position of the hand — that is, the computer can “see” the shape being signed.

From there, the computer converts the sign into a letter or word, Zhu said.

Some signs, however, involve movement.

To perceive the movement, the computer finds

a “center” of the hand by averaging the location of the 23 key points.

“Our system will estimate the center of the hand and use that velocity as the information of the motion,” Zhu said.

By combining movement and hand shape, the computer can recognize many different lexicons in American Sign Language, Zhu said.

For example, the phrase “hello” consists of a straight hand moving away from the head, like a salute. The AI connects all aspects of the sign to output the word “hello.”

But there is more to sign language than hand motions. For example, tone is conveyed through facial expressions and eyebrow movements. Eventually, the program will have to take these into consideration to understand the meaning of a signed word or phrase, Zhu said.

Another future project will be combining single lexicons into phrases. Like English, American Sign Language has its own grammar rules — making a direct translation difficult to understand.

“We are going to look at the natural language processes,” Zhu said. “That is one of the next steps.”

Furthermore, according to Pasquinelli, normal signing speed is too fast for the computer.

“When people are using this, right now, they have to sign a lot slower,” Pasquinelli said.

According to Zhu and Pasquinelli, one of the most important parts of the project is making sure it will actually be useful to the ASL community. Pasquinelli said he plans to reach out to the ASL community soon.

“There are some researchers working on translation … but it does not solve [the ASL community’s] need,” Zhu said. “The next step is to reach out to the ASL community to work hand in hand, together, to understand what we really need to provide.”

In the future, Pasquinelli and Zhu hope to build a smartphone application, making this product as portable as possible. As for now, there is no set timeline for the project, according to Pasquielli.

“It was a fun experience,” Pasquinelli said.

“If there are any engineers out there that are interested in learning artificial intelligence and machine learning, look into [the competition].”

For Pasquinelli and Zhu, this is all about helping people, Pasquinelli said.

“How I look at engineering, what I want to do is to help people and be able to build stuff that eases disabilities and anything in general,” Pasquinelli said.

Applications for The Pitt News 2020-2021 Editor in Chief and Business Manager positions are now being accepted.

The Personnel Committee of The Pitt News Advisory Board at the University of Pittsburgh is now accepting applications for the editor in chief and the business manager of The Pitt News for the 2020-2021 school year. Prior employment at The Pitt News or at another college newspaper is preferred but not required.

Applicants for each position must be an undergraduate Pitt student enrolled for a minimum of nine credits for the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 term. Applicants must also have and maintain a minimum of 2.5 GPA. The term for each position is May 2020 through April 2021. The editor in chief and business manager each must work a minimum of 25+ hours per week during the fall and spring terms.

These are paid positions. The editor in chief and business manager each earn between $8,800 - $9,500 per year and also receive a $14,500 academic scholarship.

Application deadline is Tuesday, January 7, 2020.

Interviews will be held Friday, January 24, 2020.

If you have any questions or want an application, please contact Terry Lucas, General Manager of The Pitt News, 434 William Pitt Union, trlucas@pitt.edu or Harry Kloman, News Adviser, kloman@pitt.edu.

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November 21, 2019

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Opinions

The Pitt News stands in solidarity with the PG News Guild online at pittnews.com

column

Crows on campus: Let them fly freely Grace McGinness Staff Columnist

Outside our windows, night falls sooner with each passing day. But the darkened skies are not just a result of the retreating sun.

Thousands of crows have taken to patrolling Pittsburgh as they migrate from the harsher Northern winter, as they have for years now, and as they have every year, many students lament over their presence on campus. But the University has already tried its hardest

Eli Savage contributing editor

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to exile these birds from campus grounds. It can’t and it should not do anything more that would result in their complete removal from campus. There’s plenty to appreciate about the crows.

The crows have caused some unfortunate problems for Pitt students in the past. Some students will remember slipping on their excrement and being pelted with it from above a few years ago when hundreds of the little beasts nested above the area surrounding the bus stops. Once they were nested for the season, Pitt could do little to move them and facilities workers had to routinely power-hose the mess off the sidewalks.

Despite all of that, we shouldn’t hold so much contempt for the birds. Pitt has done its best to stave off any problems by stopping the birds from nesting

where they could affect students’ daily lives.

Namely, the University has utilized audio recordings of distressed bird calls around the around campus at night to scare them away.

While the crows still hang around campus in mass flocks, where they nest for the winter has been pushed back to less populated areas behind buildings closer to Schenley Park like Frick Fine Arts far from where they can really bother students. Even with the successful relocation, the University remains cautious in attempting to push the birds completely offcampus for fear of where they might relocate if disturbed again.

Any additional measures the University could take to drive off the crows, besides cleaning up after them and the audio recordings, would involve shooting actual fireworks at them, which is a bit excessive. Penn State College uses “pyrotechnic bangers and screamers,” or fireworks, to scare them off. Penn State claims that the tactic is nonlethal, but even so the situation is not dire nor important enough to justify firing explosives at harmless animals. As of 2018, Pitt has no plans to use the fireworks to chase off the crows, and it should remain a line that it never crosses.

Regardless of methods, crows are also stubbornly resistant to efforts by humans to drive them out — they are are smart enough to learn when to avoid certain areas for a few hours only to return when the trouble has disappeared.

It’s unlikely the crows will ever completely leave Pitt’s campus, or the City in general.

Pittsburgh just happens to be in their natural migration path, and as a species, crows prefer to return to the area where they were born every year to do their own mating. Oakland is not just a vacation spot for these birds — it is a breeding ground, and it’s partially our fault that they’re even here in the first place.

Partially.

When crows and other social birds — like the infamous pigeon — started relocating

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to urban areas to avoid their largest natural predators like the great horned owl, they discovered all the benefits of city living and decided they did not want to leave. Researchers believe that birds now purposefully migrate and stay in cities to enjoy the added benefits of warmth, light and an abundance of resources much in the same way that humans have been moving more and more to cities for the last couple of centuries.

Pittsburgh’s rivers make the City an especially bird haven as they keep the City much warmer during the winter than out in the fields of the countryside. Oakland then becomes an ideal neighborhood to settle down in with all the lights from the University’s campus and large central streets that provide an extra boost of warmth, though experts still aren’t quite certain exactly why the birds prefer to nest in Oakland over similarly well-lit areas.

Even with their scavenging, nesting and bathroom habits, students have no need to fear the crows. They are not disease-ridden animals or an ominous sign of bad fortune or a familiar for witches or the messenger of the hooded figure of Death, contrary to popular belief. In reality, crows do not pose any direct danger to humans. At most, a person can slip on their excerment and fall into an unpleasant mess. Unless Alfred Hitchcock’s film “The Birds” comes to life from the black and white picture screen, we can learn to share the City with some real wildlife besides roaches and rats.

And at the end of the day, to be able to see such gigantic-sized roosts take to the air and swoop together amongst the neighborhood’s tallest buildings is downright majestic.

As the sun sets and tints the sky to a soft pink shade, the crows become more active and take off against the clouds. It’s the small details of life that keeps it all interesting, and students should not take for granted the delightful opportunity to see a mass movement of living things besides humans or bugs.

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Culture

SPEND 6 WEEKS WITH

‘THE WOLVES’ IN ONE NIGHT Sinead McDevitt Staff Writer

A group of girls sit and stretch on the artificial grass of an indoor soccer field.

They chat and laugh, like girls often do.

Over the course of six weeks of practices, this ordinary high school soccer team becomes anything but.

Pitt Mainstage’s performance of “The Wolves,” directed by Kelly Trumbull, a visiting assistant professor in the Theatre Arts Department, opened this past

Thursday, Nov. 14, at the Richard E. Rauh Studio Theatre. The story is centered on six weeks in the lives of a girls’ soccer team, the titular Wolves, and was originally written by Sarah DeLappe. It premiered off-Broadway at The Duke Theater in New York City in 2016 and went on to be a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

During these six weeks, the team gains a new member, struggles with inSee The Wolves on page 8

“The Wolves” storyline follows six weeks in the lives of a girls’ soccer team.

Photo courtesy of Samantha Saunders

‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ captures the spirit of Mr. Rogers

Thomas Wick

Senior Staff Writer It’s time for Thanksgiving break and for some that means either catching up on all their favorite shows at home while eating all the leftover turkey and stuffing in their fridge or catching a few films at the theaters. There are a lot of highly anticipated releases coming out in theaters from “Frozen 2” to “Knives Out” and “Charlie’s Angels,” and, of course, the Fred Rogers biopic “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is a compelling film, featuring one of Tom Hanks’ best performances as the late television personality — a person that he is actually related to. Despite what some of the marketing may have led you to believe, this is not a film about Mr. Rogers’

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life. Rather, it is a dramatized story that centers on a journalist named Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), loosely based on real journalist Tom Junod, who is known for being very bitter and critical in his articles. One day, he is assigned a profile on Mr. Rogers — and from there Vogel’s life changes completely.

Rhys’ performance as Vogel was excellent, though maybe too excellent. It’s very clear that the screenwriters wanted to make Vogel an angry individual to contrast with Mr. Rogers’ endless optimism to show how a man like Mr. Rogers can bring joy to everyone’s life. And in that sense, Rhys’ performance was a success.

Of course, that portrayal means a lot of the film focuses on Vogel’s bitter outlook on life and makes him unlikeable for most of it. It ultimately works in the film’s favor, though, when he inevitably develops and

begins to show empathy for the people he has wronged, but for a majority of the runtime it was hard to stomach his character.

But as much as I want to criticize this movie, my negative thoughts were immediately washed away by the performance of Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers. Hanks has always brought a trademark charm to some of the most likeable characters in cinematic history, such as Forrest Gump.

I forgot that it was Tom Hanks playing a character — all I saw was the real Mr. Rogers.

The film is directed by Marielle Heller, whose future movies I look forward to seeing. While I have yet to see her breakout hit, “The Diary of a Teenage Girl,” I adored her other film “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” — a film so good it earned Melissa McCarthy, an actress who has been in some of the most wretched and formulaic

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comedies of all time, an Oscar nomination. It follows that Heller did such a great job telling a humbling, intimate and relatable biopic about one journalist and now would be able to do the same for a film focusing on another.

The cinematography does what it should always do — heighten the emotions of the characters while keeping the audience immersed in the world. The film uses tight close-ups sparingly when the conversations are at their most enthralling.

There is a great moment in the middle of the film when Mr. Rogers and Vogel are having a conversation and the camera angles engross the audience even further.

If this were done by an amateur it would’ve been creepy, but leave it to Heller and Jody Lee Lipes, cinematographer for “TrainSee Neighborhood on page 7

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Neighborhood, pg. 6 wreck” and “Manchester by the Sea,” to make it work. The flow of the scene is just right and the camera lingers on the subjects for just the right amount of time to stop it from becoming disturbing.

Long takes are also a recurring technique in this film which makes the film more wholesome and intimate overall.

There’s a scene near the end in which the camera lingers on Mr. Rogers and for a few seconds he actually looks at the camera, as if he is asking us to meditate upon the themes of the film. Again, this would normally be a little pretentious and annoy me, given most films would just use this as an excuse to shove in an obvious message of some kind. But Hanks gives enough information on his face for the audience to interpret his thoughts in an open, rather than singular way.

Something else that made this film impactful was how it paid homage to the classic TV show. There are moments in the film when the quality of the camera shifts to the aesthetic quality of the old TV show. It’s a nice touch, but what is even more charming are the toy sets

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood (R) Fri - Tue: 12:25, 2:40, 4:55, 7:10, 9:25 Wed: 12:25, 2:40, 4:55, 7:10, 9:25 Thu: 12:25, 2:40, 4:55, 7:10, 9:25 Ford v Ferrari (PG-13) No passes through 12/1/19 Fri - Tue: 1:10, 4:05, 7:00, 9:55 Wed: 1:10, 4:05, 7:00, 9:55 Thu: 1:10, 4:05, 7:00, 9:55

Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) meets skeptical journalist Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) in director Marielle Heller’s unconventional biopic, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” Lacey Terrell | Sony Pictures | TNS they created for the transitioning shots.

These sets aren’t just the land of Make Believe but also Pittsburgh and New York City. Seeing the City of Pittsburgh appear crafted just like the sets in “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” was something I never thought I needed in my life, but I do, especially as finals draw near.

The intertextuality doesn’t end there.

The film uses a relaxing score reminiscent of the “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” show

TPN

and there is even an exterior shot of the WQED station that they filmed the original series in. There is a lot of love for both Pittsburgh and “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” in this film. Even as someone who knows very little about the show, I can tell that a lot of thought and care went into maintaining the essence of the heartful vision that Mr. Rogers had when he did the show.

I could nitpick this movie to death

if I wanted to, but if I did then I might end up turning into a bitter critic myself and honestly, I want to be a little more like Mr. Rogers. “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is wonderful and whether or not you have seen the show you still owe it to yourself to watch it. I hope this film doesn’t get overshadowed in the coming Oscar season because it is definitely a personal favorite of mine this year.

The Irishman (R) DON’T MISS THE IRISHMAN -FINAL DAY Tue: 12:00, 4:00, 8:00 The Irishman (R) DON’T MISS THE IRISHMAN -PLAYING FOR 2 DAYS ONLY THROUGH TUESDAY, 11/26 Mon: 12:00, 4:00, 8:00 The Irishman (R) DON’T MISS THE IRISHMAN -PLAYING FOR 3 DAYS ONLY THROUGH TUESDAY, 11/26 Sun: 12:00, 4:00, 8:00 The Irishman (R) DON’T MISS THE IRISHMAN -PLAYING FOR 4 DAYS ONLY THROUGH TUESDAY, 11/26 Sat: 12:00, 4:00, 8:00 The Irishman (R) DON’T MISS THE IRISHMAN -PLAYING FOR 5 DAYS D ONLY- FRIDAY, 11/22 THROUGH TUESDAY, 11/26 Fri: 12:00, 4:00, 8:00 Jojo Rabbit (PG-13) Wed & Thu: 12:45, 3:00, 5:15, 7:30, 9:40 Parasite (R) Fri: 2:05, 4:40, 7:20, 10:00 Sat & Sun: 11:30 AM, 2:05, 4:40, 7:20,10:00 Mon & Tue: 2:05, 4:40, 7:20, 10:00 Wed: 11:30 AM, 2:05, 4:40, 7:20,10:00 Thu: 11:30 AM, 2:05, 4:40, 7:20,10:00

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FOR RELEASE NOVEMBER 21, 2019

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis

11/21/19

jury and has interpersonal drama, all of which culminates when a tragedy strikes in the fifth week of the season. By the end of the play, it’s clear that in the face of tragedy, the girls view their lives and what is truly important to them in a different way than they had at the start.

The moment the lights came up on the actors Thursday night and they all started chattering while doing their stretches, I was suddenly thrown back to my own practices with my high school girls’ rugby team. In the back of my mind I was filling in names and faces in place of the characters — an intended reaction, given that none of the characters actually have names.

The characters are only listed in the program with their jersey numbers, and the one character who isn’t a member of the team is simply “Soccer Mom.” By the end, the audience only learns a couple of their names, and really only one name is repeated enough that it can’t be easily missed. Otherwise, these girls are nameless, free to be filled in with whoever the audience can think of, which speaks to the strongest part of this play’s script — how relatable the characters are.

These are just your average high school girls who talk about boys and their hopes for college. They talk about topics they know little about — like the actions of a Cambodian dictator — and say things without thinking and hurt each other. But they’re not malicious, they’re just flawed, and after they hurt people, they try to apologize with varying degrees of success. These characters feel like real people who are on a soccer team together. Maybe they’re not best friends, but they know each other well and certainly get along.

The set for the play is minimalistic, featuring just a stage filled with fake grass and a soccer net. There are a few props used by the characters, like a bag of orange slices, and the soccer balls the girls practice with, this allows the excellent acting and brilliant dialouge to speak for themselves.

The play doesn’t have an intermission, and the changes between scenes are clearly marked by the projected text listing what week it is along with a sortof chapter title that’s related to what the

girls are talking about when the lights come up again, these little clues are just enough context to help the audience figure out what is going on in the scene.

Each scene is of the girls before or after a game. The audience slowly finds out about each of these girls’ home lives and past experiences via their conversations, which are often unrelated to their backstories. #2 has religious parents and a seemingly conservative upbringing, #13 is a bit obnoxious and doesn’t consider the consequences of what she says and #25 is the team captain who doesn’t like being disobeyed.

Very few of the conversations carry over from one week to the next, with each scene opening up on a completely different conversation. The scenes that are followed up on have extra weight to them, like when #7 and #14 end one scene talking about weekend plans and start the next in the middle of a fight.

The audience has to reorient themselves to figure out what exactly happened to cause such a large shift— but the transitions are easy to follow, thanks to Trumbull’s masterful direction. For the most part though, the dialogue is just characterization, and DeLappe’s use of dialogue to tell the audience about these characters and their relationships is masterful.

But a strong script alone isn’t enough to make a good show. In the few times the team’s anxiety-ridden goalie #00 speaks, first-year Cadence Reid puts a lot of power behind her words. Her first lines come at the very end of the first scene, where she gives her opinion on the Cambodian dictator, that he deserves what has happened to him, and in doing so, reveals more about herself. Reid and the other actors bring the characters to life and, through their portrayals, show that they have whole lives outside of what the audience sees in the brief vignettes of the play.

“The Wolves” does not feel like watching a play. It feels like watching a group of girls grow up, make mistakes and try to figure out how to navigate the world and the people around them. The entire cast and crew should be proud of this performance and I must insist that if you can, go see this play.

“The Wolves” runs until Sunday, Nov. 24, at the Richard E. Rauh Studio Theatre.

The Pitt news crossword

The Wolves, pg. 6

ACROSS 1 Many big reds 5 Namely 10 X-ray units 14 Honolulu happening 15 Lacking significance 16 Music halls of old 17 Directive on an env.

18 Play lightly, as a guitar 19 Apt. part 20 Upscale boutique 22 Holden Caulfield’s little sister 24 Constellation near Scorpius 25 Bookstore category 26 Personal records 29 Tire spec 31 Divest (of) 32 Berkeley Breathed’s cartoon penguin 33 Old money that looks new 37 Bark 38 Handle 39 Purpose 40 Small craft on the deep sea 43 Big fishhook 44 Way to go: Abbr.

45 He broke Lou’s record for consecutive games played 46 Accolades 47 Valedictorian’s time to shine 49 Purpose 50 Liquids 51 Quarrel of yore 56 Work to get 57 In an aloof way 59 Twice tri60 Exec’s helper 61 “Try someone else” 62 Vienna-based oil gp.

63 “Luke Cage” actor Rossi 64 It helps raise dough 65 Bridge position

3 Cricket clubs 4 Summery headwear 5 Campbell-Martin of TV’s “Dr. Ken” 6 Aboard 7 Lumber defect 8 Shiba __: Japanese dog 9 Pace 10 Stiffly awkward 11 Fear of poisonous snakes 12 Churchill Downs event 13 Unchanged 21 Some discount recipients: Abbr.

23 For madam 25 NBA great “__ Pete” Maravich 26 Limerick lad 27 Herculean 28 Outstanding prize money 29 Say the Word 30 School near Albany 33 Trig function: DOWN Abbr.

1 Applaud 2 Mercury or Saturn, 34 “The Raven” but not Mars writer

November 21, 2019

11/21/19

By Brian E. Paquin

Wednesday’s Puzzle Solved

©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

35 Facts and figures 36 Some emailed files 41 Diminished slowly 42 Shortage 43 Private eye 46 DIY purchase 47 Seriously reduce 48 Forensic drama set in the Big Apple

11/21/19

49 To date 50 Significant achievement 51 Pocket bread 52 Donation to the poor 53 Rap’s Salt-N-__ 54 Hacking tools 55 Peacemaker’s asset 58 Olympic runner Sebastian

8

Sports

PANTHER FOOTBALL PANTHERS PREP WILL FALL SHORT FOR HISTORIC HOME VS. HOKIES TOURNAMENT MATCH

Ben Bobeck

Senior Staff Writer 1965 was an eventful year both around the world and right here at Pitt.

The University was in talks to become a state-related institution, Chancellor Edward Litchfield resigned and the men’s soccer team appeared in the NCAA National Tournament for the second time in four years.

The five decades since have seen Pitt boast national championships in football and women’s gymnastics, multiple Nobel laureates and incredible innovations in medicine and technology. But for all the success throughout the University, there was one glaring hole in Pitt’s list of accolades — its men’s soccer team never returned to the NCAA tournament during that 54-year span.

That all will change Thursday night, when the Panthers (9-7-2 overall, 4-3-1 ACC) host the Lehigh Mountain Hawks (13-4-3 overall, 6-0-3 Patriot League) in the first round of the National Championship Tournament at Ambrose Urbanic Field. It is the Panthers’ third tournament appearance in program history and first since that 2-0 loss to East Stroudsburg on Nov. 22, 1965, in Pitt Stadium.

Junior forward Edward Kizza paced an at times stagnant Panther offense, but stout defensive organization buoyed Pitt under fourth-year head coach and 2007 national champion Jay Vidovich. Kizza had another prolific season in front of the goal after scoring 15 last season, netting 11 goals and four assists, including both tallies in Pitt’s 2-1 victory in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament at

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Ambrose Urbanic Field on Nov. 10. The Ugandan native earned All-ACC First Team honors, and was named to the ACC All-Tournament team alongside his teammate and first-year defender Arturo Ordonez.

As a conference, the ACC is wellrepresented in the tournament with 10 overall entries, including four top-10 seeds and three regional hosts in Clemson, Wake Forest and the overall top seed Virginia, which emerged victorious in the ACC Tournament.

Pitt had a strong showing against Clemson in the semi-finals of that competition, losing 1-0, and beat Virginia in Charlottesville in mid-October. That 2-0 win for the Panthers was the Cavaliers’ lone loss of the season and certainly cemented Pitt as a team that could compete at the highest level of the college game.

The Panthers will welcome the Patriot League champion Lehigh in their firstround match. The Mountain Hawks, led by coach Dean Koski in his 28th season, went unbeaten in the Patriot League to claim their first conference title since 2015. The Mountain Hawks will be making their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance under Koski and fifth overall.

Lehigh is led by Wexford native and North Allegheny High School graduate sophomore forward Josh Luchini, the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year. The Mountain Hawk’s offense had a total output of 25 goals on the season, with the 2017 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette High School Player of the Year Luchini See Soccer on page 10

Patrick Jones II (91) pursues a sack of UNC quarterback Sam Howell (7).

Sarah Cutshall visual editor

Alex Lehmbeck Staff Writer

In Lane Stadium two years ago, Pitt fans were filled with optimism before suffering through a heartbreaking loss that came down to the final play. Then, when the Virginia Tech Hokies entered Heinz Field last year, they were shocked by a near perfect performance from the Pittsburgh Panthers.

Now in one of the most important games of Pat Narduzzi’s head coaching career, Pitt fans can only pray the Panthers will channel last year’s energy into Saturday’s matchup, which has vital Coastal division implications.

The loss at Lane Stadium two years ago was actually the first major performance of junior quarterback Kenny Pickett’s ca-

November 21, 2019

reer. Early in the game, Pitt decided to sub in the first-year for only the third time of the season. He proceeded to take most of the snaps for his team.

After a miraculous fourth-down completion from Pickett to wide receiver Jester Weah resulted in what appeared to be a game-winning touchdown, it was ruled that his knee touched down just short of the end zone. The Panthers had four chances to punch it in from the goal line in the game’s waning seconds. They were stopped on all four attempts, and Pitt fans were left with an awful taste in their mouth — representative of what had been a disappointing season.

The next year was the complete opposite. Pitt never even gave the struggling See Football on page 10

9

Soccer, pg. 9 responsible for more than half — scoring 11 goals himself while adding 2 assists.

At the other end of the pitch, Lehigh’s defense is anchored by senior GK Will Smith. Smith also earned all-conference accolades for his performances in net this season, and was named 2019 Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year. Smith was the conference leader in save percentage with 86.2%, total saves with 87 and shutouts with 10.

Also on the roster for the Mountain Edward Kizza (9) maneuvers around Duke’s Brandon Williamson (19). On Hawks is junior forward Bratislav PetThursday night, Pitt men’s soccer will play in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 54 years. Joy Cao staff photographer kovic, the elder brother of Pitt first-year

Football, pg. 9 Hokies a chance, thanks to its dominant run game. The dynamic running back duo of Qadree Ollison and Darrin Hall torched the Hokies for a combined 421 rushing yards, leading Pitt to a statement 52-22 victory.

With the dominance of the teams’ current defensive lines, fans should expect to see a much different matchup. Pitt (7-3, 4-2 ACC) leads the nation with 45 sacks on the season, and Virginia Tech is just outside of the top 10 with 33. Pitt also ranks seventh in the country in rushing yards allowed per game, with the Hokies also in the top 30.

Junior linebacker Rayshard Ashby is the leader of Virginia Tech’s stout defense. He’s earned ACC Linebacker of the week four times this year, tied for the most of any defensive player in the con-

pittnews.com

ference.

No. 25 Virginia Tech (7-3, 4-2 ACC) enters Saturday’s matchup as one of the hottest teams in the nation, fresh off of a 45-0 beatdown of Georgia Tech. The Hokies made a quarterback switch after an embarrassing 45-10 loss to Duke earlier in the season, putting in sophomore quarterback Hendon Hooker.

With Hooker at the helm, VT is 5-0 and back in the hunt for the Coastal crown. Hooker has been heroic for the Hokies, posting a 61.1% completion rate with eight touchdowns and no interceptions. He’s also racked up four scores on the ground.

An additional and potentially pivotal note is the Hokies’ strong punting unit.

Junior Oscar Bradburn leads the nation with a 48.3-yard gross punting average.

If this turns out to be a defensive battle, field position could be huge.

The impact of this game in the ACC

Championship race is clear. If Virginia Tech wins, all it needs to do is beat Virginia to clinch the Coastal. For Pitt to take the division, it must win on Saturday and beat Boston College next week, and Virginia Tech must also beat Virginia. A Virginia loss is certainly possible, as Virginia Tech has beat the Cavaliers in their past 15 meetings.

With Atlantic division winner Clemson almost surely going to the College Football Playoff, there will be an open spot for an ACC team in the prestigious Orange Bowl. This means that it is fairly safe to assume that whichever team wins the Coastal will be getting a spot in the Orange Bowl, regardless of the ACC Championship result.

If these implications weren’t enough to play for already, Virginia Tech has some extra motivation in this game. Hokies legendary defensive coordinator Bud Foster, who has been with the team since

November 21, 2019

standout Veljko Petkovic. The elder Petkovic has tallied one goal in eight appearances this season after scoring three goals and two assists his freshman season. For Pitt, Veljko has surpassed his brother’s total scoring with six goals and five assists in his first campaign as a Panther.

Thursday will mark the second alltime meeting between the Hawks and Panthers, with Pitt winning the first 3-0 back in 2015. The winner of Thursday’s match will go on to face the No. 3 seed Georgetown (15-1-3, 7-0-2 in Big East play) in the second round at the Hoya’s Shaw Field in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, Nov. 24.

1987, is retiring after this season, making this his final game at Lane Stadium.

Since becoming defensive coordinator in 1995, Foster has helped lead the Hokies to 27 straight bowl berths, the longest active streak in the NCAA. Since 1996, Foster’s “Lunch Pail Defense” has led all Power Five teams in interceptions (332) and sacks (889).

PREDICTION: The hype is there. I want to believe in the Panthers. They’ve shown grit and relentlessness this whole season, and Saturday is their biggest test so far. They are going to come ready to play.

However, Pitt’s monstrous defensive line won’t be enough to shut down Virginia Tech’s near-flawless quarterback play. Pitt, with a weak running game this year, will have to rely too heavily on the pass game against a turnover-feasting defense.

Virginia Tech: 24, Pitt: 21

10

I N D E X

Rentals & Sublet • NORTH OAKLAND • SOUTH OAKLAND • SHADYSIDE • SQUIRREL HILL • SOUTHSIDE • NORTHSIDE • BLOOMFIELD • ROOMMATES • OTHER

For Rent South Oakland ** 3 Bedroom Town­house, fire‑ place, LAUNDRY, DISH­WASHER, off street parking, patio, yard, clean. Partially Fur­nished. Located on Blvd of Allies & Dawson Street. PITT Shuttle stop, only 15 minute to PITT CMU. $1995+. Avail­able 8/1/2020. NO PETS. Coolapart­ments@ gmail.com video tour at tinyurl.­com/blvdo‑ fallies ** 5 Bedroom/2 full bath; HUGE HOME‑ duplex style, three sto‑ ries. COM­PLETELY REMOD­ELED, 2 living rooms, 2 kitchens, 2 dining rooms, LAUN­DRY, DISH­WASHER and a huge yard to enjoy!

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Located on Dawson Street. PITT Shuttle stops di­rectly in front of house, only 15 minute level walk to PITT/CMU. $3,395­+.

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pittnews.com

Employment • CHILDCARE • FOOD SERVICES • UNIVERSITY • INTERNSHIPS • RESEARCH • VOLUNTEERING • OTHER

1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments. No pets.

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Rents starting at $650 for 1BR. May or Au­gust availability.

412‑999‑2124 1‑2‑3‑4‑6 bedroom apartments and houses available for August 2020. Owner Managed. 40+ years on campus. Fully fur­ nished or unfur­nished, most units are newly remodeled Kitchens and baths , located on Atwood, Semple, Oakland Ave., Ward, Mckee Place, Juliet and Parkview Ave. Call or text Tim @ 412‑491‑1330 www.­ TMKRentals.com 2 BR 1 BA on cam­pus bus route. Avail­able immediately. $750/ month includ­ing utilities and ca­ble.

On street park­ing. No pets. 412‑576‑8734 2‑6 bedroom. All newly renovated, air‑conditioning, dish­washer, washer/ dryer, and parking.

Most units on busline and close to Pitt.

Avail­able Summer 2020. 412‑915‑0856 or email klucca@veri­ zon.net.

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3 BD apartments available in South Oakland from $1195‑$1600 M.J. Kelly Real Estate mjkellyrealty@gmail.­ com. 412‑271‑5550.

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Huge 2 BR apart­ ments. Available May 1, 2020 or Au­gust 1, 2020. 412‑361‑2695 3444 Ward St. We have studios, 1, 2, and 3 bedroom apart­ ments. Bright and spacious. Free heat­ ing and free parking.

Move May 1, 2020 or August 1, 2020. Call 412‑361‑2695 3BR, 2BA furnished apartment. Dawson Street. Spacious bed­ rooms, living room, dining room, kitchen.

Washer & dryer in unit. Free parking available. Pitt bus stops at door. $1500/ mo. + all utilities.

412‑818‑9735 4 BR HOME ‑ SEM­PLE STREET, LO­CATED NEAR LOUISA. EQUIPPED KITCHEN, FULL BASEMENT. NEW CENTRAL AIR ADDED. AVAIL­ ABLE IMMEDI­ ATELY AND RENT­ING FOR MAY AND AUGUST 2020.

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412‑ 343‑4289 or 412‑330‑9498.

416 Oakland Ave., Garden Court. Bright and spacious 2BR, 1BA. Hardwood floors, laundry. Move May 1 or Au­gust 1, 2020. $1395 includes heat. Call 412‑361‑2695.

Apartments for rent. 3 and 4 bedroom apart‑ ments available. Some available on Dawson Street, At­wood Street, and Mc­kee Place.

Newly re­modeled.

Some have laundry on site. Min­utes from the Univer­sity. For more info please call Mike at 412‑849‑8694 Before signing a lease, be aware that no more than 3 unre­lated people can share a single unit. Check property’s compliance with codes. Call City’s Per­mits, Licensing & In­spections.

412‑255‑2175.

Dawson Village Apts. near CMU and Pitt.

One bedroom apts. $935 + electric. Avail‑ able for immedi­ate move in. On bus line, close to restau­rants and shops. Contact Jerry at 412‑722‑8546 For Rent: 340 S Bou­ quet Street Pgh Pa 15213

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Deadline:

Two business days prior by 3pm | Email: advertising@pittnews.com | Phone: 412.648.7978

3 bedrooms/1 bath/­ cental air/ laundry on site Contact John at 412‑292‑8928 Hudson Oakland Apartments. 2BD 1BA Located on Craft Ave, Semple St, & Cable Pl. $1,300‑ $1,495/month +elec­ tric. Within walking distance to Pitt. Tel: (412) 407‑9001 x.1 www.hudson‑oakland.­ com Now renting for Fall 2020. Apartments and houses of all sizes.

Conveniently located throughout South Oakland. Rents start‑ ing as low as $620.

John C.R. Kelly Re‑ alty. 412‑683‑7300 www.jcrkelly.com Share spacious, fur­nished apart‑ ment, S. Oakland.

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Rent includes gas, electric, and wa­ter/ sewage 412‑818‑9735 South Oakland Houses and Apart­ ments with Laundry and Central Air Call or Text 412‑38‑Lease Studio, 1, 2, 3, and 4 BD apartments avail­ able in South Oak­land from $800‑$2500

November 21, 2019

M.J. Kelly Real Estate mjkellyrealty@gmail.­ com. 412‑271‑5550.

Squirrel Hill Half‑double, 3 BD with garage, on bus line. Call 412‑281‑2700. Avail‑ able Now! Squirrel Hill duplex, 5547 Beacon St., available June 1, 2020. All on one level, no steps, 3BR, 2 full baths. Five minute walk to bus to Oakland, Pitt, CMU, downtown Pittsburgh and major Squirrel Hill shopping dis­trict.

Hardwood floors entire house, bedroom #1 (18’x16’), bed‑ room #2 (12’x16’), bed­room #3 (12’x8’).

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No pets, no smoking. $1795 +utilities. Call Ray at 412‑523‑2971 or email rwiener602@ g­mail.com.

Sublet Sublet Other SUBLET unit ‑ 1BR, shared kitchen and bath. Atwood Street. Available Dec. 1, 2019 thru July 31, 2020. $400/ mo., utili­ties extra.

Contact Robert at 412‑889‑5790

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pittnews.com

November 21, 2019

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