2-18-15

Vol. 105 Issue 116

@thepittnews

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Pittnews.com

SYNCHRONIZED

Board increases

planning sessions Abbey Reighard Assistant News Editor The Student Government Board members are trading in weekend time for more of the office grind.

Board President Graeme Meyer announced at the SGB public meeting on Tuesday in Nordy’s Place that the Board will hold additional planning sessions every Sunday afternoon..

The Board typically holds planning sessions every Friday in the SGB office on the eighth floor of the William Pitt Union from 3 to 5 p.m. Meyer said the session was not enough time for the Board. The Board has decided to hold additional planning sessions on Sundays at 6 p.m.. The Board will determine an end time each week. .

“Anyone who wants to present anything to the Board can come,” Meyer said.

During the planning sessions, the Board members often meet with administrators and student groups, Meyer said. The Board also uses planning sessions to

SGB

Tuition payout: How Pitt spends your money Page 3

Shravanl Charyulu and Eva Roy from Pitt Indian Classical Dance Team practice for a Dhirana competition on Satur-

2 day. Meghan Sunners| Staff Photographer

Proposal made for South Oakland apartments Dale Shoemaker Assistant News Editor

Walnut Capital Partners may bring more tthan 350 more apartments to South Oakland by 2017.

Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority owns the property, and though Walnut Capital doesn’t yet own the title to it, they have entered into exclusive negotiations for the land, according to URA’s spokesperson Gigi Saladna. Thus far, Walnut Capital has agreed to purchase

the land at the appraised price of $1.415 million.

The plot is 4.04 acres located on Second Avenue, about two miles from the Cathedral of Learning, along the Monongahela River in South Oakland. Walnut Capital plans to construct 352 market-rate residential units on the land in two equal phases, according to the URA Director’s Report.

Although Pitt could not discuss specifics for Walnut Capital’s new building,

University spokesman John Fedele said, “the addition of new, quality housing is welcome in the Oakland area.”

Walnut Capital’s proposed building, Fedele said, could offer students, faculty and staff more housing options and will be good for the neighborhood.

“More housing options places subtle pressure on [other] local landlords to continue to maintain their own properties,”

Apartments

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February 18, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com survey via email to student groups that made allocation requests that month. He said the survey will ask the student groups for feedback on how the committee can improve the allocations process.

For the month of January, Reslink sent out 35 surveys and eight student groups responded. Reslink added, in the future, that he intends to advertise the surveys more at public meetings, and he plans to send the surveys to the student groups multiple times to increase responses.

“Hopefully [the allocations process] will be more beneficial and easier for them and we can make an all around smoother and better process.”

In other action:

Graeme Meyer discusses adding planning sessions. Jeff Ahearn | Assistant Visual Editor

FROM PAGE 1

SGB review project updates, allocations requests with Allocations Committee Chair Nick Reslink and any additional agenda items.

Meyer said he hopes the additional plan-

ning session will allow for more feedback for SGB from administrators and student groups.

Reslink is also looking for some input from student groups.

He discussed a new survey the Allocations Committee started sending out to student groups this term.

After every month, Reslink plans to send a

Meyer announced last night that the publication racks, a project the previous Board introduced more than a year ago, will be in place this weekend.

The Board passed Bills 027 and 028. The Board introduced both bills at last week’s public meeting and tabled them for one week.

Bill 027 added Rainbow Alliance and Campus Women’s Organization to the Student

Assembly, a collection of student groups that will work with SGB on initiatives. The previous Board introduced the Assembly and, last November, the student body passed a referendum that established the Assembly.

Before Bill 027, the Student Assembly only included the Student Affairs Affiliated Groups.

The Board intends to gradually increase the number of student groups in the Assembly, according to the bill.

Bill 028 expands the duties of the Student Government’s Community Outreach Committee in an effort to create more collaborative work between the committee and the Office of Pitt Serves.

For example, Bill 028 outlines the responsibilities of the Community Outreach Committee Chair, which includes serving as the Pitt Make a Difference Day Chair and spending 15 hours per week at the Office of PittServes during the summer months.

Allocations: Panther Judo Club requested $1,301.12 to send nine people to the Liberty Bell Judo

SGB

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February 18, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

Making cents: Where your dollars go at Pitt Nerine Sivagnanam Staff Writer College students across the country pay thousands of dollars each semester to attend college, but what proportion

Pitt 62 cents- academic activities 14 cents- financial aid 12 cents- institutional support

10 cents- facilities operation maintenance 2 cents- public service

Pitt Fact Book 2015

actually goes toward their schooling?

Approximately 62 cents on each of students’ tuition dollars go towards academic-related expenses. Other expenses from tuition dollars include institutional support, such as public safety and legal services, financial

CMU 36 cents- instruction 36.8 cents- sponsored projects 11.4 cents- administrative support 11 cents- academic support 4.8 cents- student services

CMU 2013-2014 Fact Book

3

aid and maintenance expenses.

The Pitt News compiled the following financial information using Pitt financial reports and reports from various nearby or similar universities.

Duke 47 cents- salaries & wages 32 cents- other operating expenses 11 cents- employee benefits 2 cents- interest on indebtedness 8 cents- depreciation & amortization

Duke 2013-2014 Financial Statements

4 FROM PAGE 1

APARTMENTS Fedele said.

Its latest property would succeed others in Shadyside, Squirrel Hill and East End, as well as two buildings — University Commons on South Bouquet Street and University Loft Apartments on Dawson Street — in Oakland, which it rents mostly to Pitt and CMU students.

The new building will be called Technol-

February 18, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com ogy Center Living and will feature integral parking for vehicles and bicycles, an outdoor swimming pool, a sports court, sun deck, fitness center and yoga area. According to the report, the exclusive negotiation period will last for 90 days, but the Acting Executive Director of URA could extend the negotiations for another 90 days.

The agreement between Walnut Capital and the URA came about after the URA put out a Request For Proposal asking development companies to bid on the land. Walnut Capital plans to construct an apartment build-

ing similar “in scope and quality” to their Bakery Living building on Penn Avenue, the report said.

Despite not yet holding the title, Gregg Perelman, CEO of Walnut Capital, said the first phase of the construction is expected to begin in November of this year, and that the properties should be open for rent by June 2017.

The first phase, he said, will include 176 apartments. This half of the project will cost about $35 million to $40 million from start to finish. The second half of the project will

cost about $30 million and will begin after the first phase’s completion.

Perelman confirmed that Strada Architecture will design both phases of the building and that PJ Dick, a Pittsburgh based construction company, will handle the construction.

The building has an ideal location because of it’s proximity to Oakland, Downtown and the South Side, Perelman said, and will be suitable for Pitt and CMU students, graduate students and young professionals in Pittsburgh.

“We want to create our own excitement, our own community,” Perelman said.

FROM PAGE 2

SGB

Classic. The Board approved $1,186.20 and denied $114.92 in line with the allocations recommendation.

MCAT Masters requested $1,917.76 to attend the annual American Medical Student Association Convention. The Board denied in full in line with the allocations recommendation. Board members Jack Heidecker, Natalie Dall and Lia Petrose agreed that the conference was a large expense for individuals, when the funds could be spent on something that would benefit more Pitt students, such as a guest speaker on campus.

The American Marketing Association requested $5,259.80 to send four members to the AMA International Collegiate Conference.

The Board denied in full in line with the allocations recommendation. Reslink said the Committee denied the request because they felt the conference was too focused on personal growth and some of the documentation in the request was inaccurate.

Institute of Industrial Engineers requested $2,248.72 to send four people to the IEE Northeast Regional Conference hosted by Northeastern University. The Board approved $1,770.32 and denied $478.40 in line with the allocations recommendation. Board member Matt Sykes abstained from the vote because he is an active member of IEE. Women’s Water Polo requested $1.630.95 to send 20 people to a regional conference tournament at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Board approved $1,616.70 and denied $14.25 in line with the allocations recommendation.

February 18, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

EDITORIAL

5

OPINIONS

Admissions reversals reasonable when done responsibly

College presidents are influential members of the academic institutions over which they preside. But should they have the power to overturn admissions decisions?

The University of Texas recently brought this question to the front of college administrative debate. An investigation commissioned by the Board of Regents, released on Feb. 10, revealed that a “select handful” of University of Texas applicants are approved each year by the University’s president over the objections of the school’s admissions office, according to an AP report published in the New York Times.

The University’s president, William C. Powers Jr., told investigators that his decisions concerning those he admitted were made with the best interests of the university in mind. The University of Texas is a state —rather than private — school, and therefore, must consistently base admission on merit alone.

We should note that, here at Pitt, admissions decisions are not interfered with by even the highest ranking administrative official.

“That is not the practice at Pitt,” Ken Service, University of Pittsburgh vice chancellor for communications, said.

We can easily see why one may object to a single individual, regardless of administrative position, overturning admissions office decisions. This view, however, is perhaps shallow.

Students who deserve acceptance into their choice school do

not always manifest as strong applicants on paper. A student who underperforms on the SAT but founds a club or student organization may have the leadership and interpersonal skills required for academic and social success in college. But, because applications usually cannot show this, this kind of student would benefit from a university allowing its president or chancellor to admit such an individual. Students who know or get to meet the University’s highest ranking administrator could showcase their skills in a way impossible toward the entire admissions team.

So, because it is challenging for admissions officials to properly gauge students’ qualitative accomplishments, especially at large institutions like Texas or Pitt, the discretion of a university’s president can be helpful in giving deserving, yet initially denied, students a chance to study at their school of choice.

However, college presidents cannot abuse their power in admitting previously denied students to their institutions. Outside investigations and reasonable documentation should be in place at universities that allow their presidents to overturn admissions office decisions.

Nevertheless, universities should have the right to give their president or chancellor the power to admit students whom their admissions office previously refused to accept, so long as the practice is overseen by other administrative officials or investigators.

TNS

COLUMN

Fewer tests, more feedback: Reexamining college grading

Ben Morgenstern Columnist

Nearly all students can recall a time when a test gave them trouble.

Tests come with stress and are notoriously inaccurate at gauging a student’s knowledge of a subject.

Researchers have linked sustained mental stress to multiple health issues, like sleep problems, depression and eating disorders. According to the National College Health Assessment, one-third of college students in the past 12 months had difficulty functioning because of depression, while half said they felt overwhelming anxiety.

Professors, especially in nonhumanities departments, which often rely on highly consequential exams more than multiple papers for grading, should understand these realities and attempt to provide a less mentally taxing grading

system for their students. They should put less priority on exams and more priority on homework and weekly quizzes.

In a common college course, there are usually only three or four tests a semester, which can easily account for half of your final grade. Weekly homework and quizzes are common but usually account only for a mere letter grade or two.

College exams, especially in non-arithmetic based courses, can be subjective, depending on the professor. Two students could have the same level of understanding of a subject, yet one could receive a much lower grade on an essay just because of how a professor interprets his or her writing.

An average test tends to incentivize memorization over actually learning.

Students spend countless

hours poring over and memorizing equations to ace exams. Memorizing, however, doesn’t assist students in real-life situations in which one must interpret problems before finding solutions.

For one, students would feel less stressed if tests had less of an effect on their grade.

In the college environment, where stress levels are already incredibly high, anything we can do to help lower stress is beneficial for students. Besides stress, professors who prioritize homework and quizzes more tend to average out students’ knowledge in classes.

Rather than evaluating a student on three or four tests, 10 to 15 quizzes and homework assignments would give the professor more data to use when evaluating a student’s knowledge. In fact, a

Morgenstern

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February 18, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

FROM PAGE 5

MORGENSTERN 2014 study by Abdulrazaq A. Imam at John Carroll University showed that, in sections of introductory psychology, research design and learning and behavior courses, mean assessment gains were substantially larger for students who took weekly quizzes than for those who did not.

There isn’t one solution that would work across all departments, according to Lara

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Putnam, a history professor at Pitt.

While math and science departments tend to be exam- and homework-focused, history and English departments focus more on readings and papers.

“We want to give students a chance to really show what they know,” Putnam said, adding that each student has a “different skillset in different forms of assessment.”

While some students may excel in a testing environment, others may prefer writing papers or giving presentations to display their understanding of class material.

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Lower stress quizzes would help with assessing a student’s knowledge, Putnam agreed, but she also pointed out some flaws.

“Grading that many quizzes can be timeconsuming,” Putnam said, “there are only 24 hours in a day.”

“Quizzes can be used as ‘formative assessment,’” Putnam said. If a professor is experienced, they can gauge where the class is as a whole and shape the rest of the class around those results. Weekly quizzes can be a good form of communication between the students and the professors.

If professors implemented changes to their grading system — for example, by adding more frequent quizzes and homework assignments — then students would benefit both academically and personally, thereby promoting learning and reducing stress, which should be the goal of every professor aiming to better the development of their students holistically.

Ben Morgenstern primarily writes about education for The Pitt News.

Write to Ben at bdm46@pitt.edu.

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February 18, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

NASCAR

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SPORTS

Pit(t) stop: Former Panther wrestlers find work in NASCAR Jasper Wilson Senior Staff Writer

As they listened to the strange inquiry, they each had the same reaction.

It was November 2013, and three former Pitt wrestlers had joined the workforce after finishing school in April: Donnie Tasser helping to coach junior and high school wrestling at his alma mater, Belle Vernon, and doing freelance sports writing for his hometown newspaper while living in Shadyside; Zac Thomusseit, working in Michigan as a sales representative with Milwaukee Tools; and Matt Wilps, staying around Oakland as an assistant coach with the Pitt wrestling program.

These were the circumstances under which, seemingly out of nowhere, each received a call from someone who wanted to know the answer to an odd question: Any interest in trying out for a spot on a NASCAR pit crew?

NASCAR? Pit crew? Them? It had to be a joke.

None followed the sport, and their familiarity with cars and tools was minimal at best.

“We sort of dismissed it and didn’t really think of it as a legitimate thing,” Wilps said.

But familiarity with NASCAR, or cars in general, isn’t actually all that important for incoming pit crew members, who primarily change tires and fill the vehicles with gas.

Add that the caller’s curiosity was genuine and, one by one, they came around.

This Friday night, all three will work trackside at the famed Daytona International Speedway in Florida as members of pit crews in the Nextera Energy Resources 250, the opening race of the NASCAR Camping World Donnie Tasser (bottom) takes out a tire while Zac Truck Series.

Thomusseit (middle) places a new one on the car. “[It] wasn’t something I ever expected to happen,” Courtesy of Donnie Tasser Tasser said. “Yet here we are.”

November 2013 Zac Thomusseit, Donnie Tasser and Matt Wilps receive calls inviting them to try out for NASCAR pit crew spots

Summer 2014 All three try out for pit crew (Thomusseit in June, Tasser and Wilps in August)

The opportunity came about thanks to the person on the other end of that phone call: Devin Dietrich, a former high school wrestling coach in Grove City.

Dietrich, now a commercial real estate review appraiser for a bank in downtown Pittsburgh, still actively followed the sport in the six years since he’d stopped coaching and wanted to continue his connection with it. So, in 2013, he began trying to set wrestlers up with NASCAR teams.

“It started trying to help one guy out, and that led to networking with a few teams and establishing relationships,” Dietrich, who isn’t paid for his services by either party, said.

Dietrich reached out to Pitt head wrestling coach Jason Peters that fall, wondering if he had any former athletes who might be interested.

After those initial phone calls, he began working on getting Thomusseit, Wilps and Tasser, along with a few other former wrestlers, tryouts with Joe Gibbs Racing. But when Gibbs abruptly stopped its developmental program in December of that year, it looked like their opportunities had disappeared before they’d even begun.

But Dietrich kept working and eventually found another suitor: Hendrick Motorsports.

By this point, it was 2014.

In June, Thomusseit went down to the Hendrick Motorsports headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., and tried out.

Competing against 49 others, he went through agility, speed and strength drills.

He impressed them enough to receive an invite back the next month for a second, 25-person tryout, where everyone worked at one of the three positions they’d likely hold on the pit crew, which is determined the person’s height

Nascar

Feb. 20, 2015 Three will work at Daytona Motor Speedway on pit crew

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February 18, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

COLUMN

NBA trade deadline still provides excitement for fans Imaz Athar Staff Writer

Slam dunks and long shots brought Madison Square Garden to its feet over the weekend, but that is the last NBA action it will see until Thursday.

NBA All-Star festivities wrapped up on Sunday night, and it was a memorable event in New York City. NBA fans rejoiced while panicked New York Knicks fans briefly forgot about the misery that “Zen Master” Phil Jackson has put them through as the Mecca of basketball came to life this weekend.

Golden State Warriors sharpshooter Stephen Curry almost never missed in the 3-point contest, Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Zach LaVine made us question our existence with a series of superhuman dunks in the dunk contest and Russell Westbrook, point guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder, earned MVP

honors in an entertaining All-Star game packed with highlight plays.

A weekend like this causes every NBA fanatic to crave even more basketball.

But, thanks to commissioner Adam Silver, there won’t be another basketball game until Thursday. In years past, the All-Star break was shorter — many NBA games were played on the Tuesday after All-Star weekend. However, with the encouragement of high-profile NBA players who are required to spend more time participating in events rather than resting their bodies, Silver extended this year’s break.

I understand that this extended break is great for the players because it gives them a much-needed rest within a long 82-game season. But the selfish fan within me wants more basketball, sooner rather than later.

While I was initially upset that there

wouldn’t be a game until Thursday, I was excited that the next couple of days could be more entertaining than an NBA game itself.

Why? Because of the NBA trade deadline.

Whether it was strategic or simply coincidental, this year’s trade deadline is on Thursday. This means that, although there isn’t an actual game until Thursday, the All-Star break will still be full of the crazy rumors and transactions that fans love to follow.

The rumor mill immediately began to turn after Sunday’s All-Star Game, as ESPN analyst Marc Stein talked about trade rumors involving star Phoenix Suns guard Goran Dragic on “SportsCenter.”

In recent years, rumors and transactions have become the bread and but-

Athar

T P N S U D O K U

Zach LaVine won the 2015 dunk contest Saturday

9 night. TNS

Today’s difficulty level: Hard Puzzles by Dailysudoku.com

February 18, 2015 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com FROM PAGE 7

NASCAR and body type, and put through pit stops.

Thomusseit, who wrestled as a heavyweight, worked as a carrier, and had the responsibility of putting new tires on.

First, the jackman raises one side of that car up. Next, someone called the changer takes the old one off after removing lugnuts with an air gun, and then moves the old tire out of the way.

From that group, Thomusseit was one of six to be offered a five-year developmental contract in August that began in January.

After speaking with Thomusseit a week after the first tryout, Tasser decided to give it a try, too.

“Maybe there is something to that,” Tasser said.

He promptly called Keith Flynn, the developmental pit crew director at Hendrick, and set up a workout. Wilps, coincidentally, was going on a family vacation to the Outer Banks around the same time and joined in, contacting Flynn a couple FROM PAGE 8

ATHAR ter of the NBA. High profile players such as LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Deron Williams, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and James Harden have all been involved in major trades and signings since 2010.

Fans’ eyes are glued to Yahoo! reporter Adrian Wojnarowski’s Twitter feed as they await his latest “Wojbomb,” one of his breaking news tweets. In many ways, ESPN’s NBA trade machine has become what fantasy football is to the NFL — fans can become their favorite team’s general manager and devise their own often unrealistic, too-good-to-betrue hypothetical mega-trades that would change the landscape of the league. Even columnists participate in the fun, simulating trade machine transactions and coming up with lists of players on the trade block.

The trade deadline has, in many ways, become more engaging than NBA games themselves because fans can take an active part in the experience, rather than passively watching an NBA game. What’s made the trade deadline even more appealing is the

of days before the tryout to secure a spot.

The two drove down to Charlotte together in the first week of August.

“It was kind of spur of the moment,” Tasser said.

The pair went through the same twopart tryout process over the next two weekends with one other person, Tasser practicing as a changer and Wilps as a carrier, before receiving a phone call asking if they could be in Charlotte the first week of September, when the rest of the developmental class would start.

The trio even making it that far was noteworthy.

Previously, pit crew members who were former college athletes almost entirely came from other sports like baseball and football, according to Flynn, who coached high school and college football for 25 years and was also a high school athletic director before beginning his work with pit crews. But the athleticism, strength and mental toughness that made them talented wrestlers (Thomusseit and Wilps were All-Americans and Tasser competed at the NCAA Championships) translates well to their new endeavor. fact that crazy things actually tend to happen.

Carmelo Anthony was actually traded to the Knicks, Dwight Howard was actually traded to the Los Angeles Lakers before signing with the Houston Rockets, and LeBron James actually did go back home to Cleveland Cavaliers.

The most absurd rumors aren’t empty, and the fans’ dream scenarios are realistic.

I still find it troubling that many fans seem to be more invested in transactions than actual games. Some may argue that a large focus on transactions takes away from the purity of the sport, and fans’ infatuation with rumors just goes to show that the quality of regular season NBA games isn’t good enough to hold fans’ attention.

But transactions can pique fan interest in games — fans want to see star players play in new jerseys, they want to see how teams perform with new players and they want to argue over how well players fit in with their new teams.

The NBA was brilliant to set the deadline on Thursday — not only will fans remain invested in the league when games aren’t being played, but fans will be even more interested in watching players play with new teams after the All-Star break.

“[Wrestlers] are used to competing one on one. They’re used to having that mindset, that focus, that concentration of repeating an athletic movement over and over and over again at the correct time,” Flynn said. “But it’s that competitive nature that they have when they go out on the mat that it’s one on one. The pit stop depends on them.”

For the last part of 2014, they spent their days working out at the Hendrick facilities, practicing pit stops on a covered stretch of concrete and doing grunt work for the Cup teams during their practices.

Initially, they and their teammates struggled with their still unfamiliar pit stop tasks. However, with time, they improved enough for each to not get fired — a common occurrence — and join a specific driver’s team within Hendrick: Tasser with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Wilps with Jeff Gordon and Thomusseit with Jimmie Johnson. If they continue to progress, they will be offered Cup car contracts after two years.

Speaking in December, Tasser said the developmental crews averaged 13-anda-half- to 19-second pit stops, while the people who pit for Sprint Cup, NASCAR’s

9 highest level, complete their pit stop duties between 11 and 13 seconds.

Since their new assignments, the three men’s schedules changed somewhat. Instead of lifting with the other developmental programs members, they do so with their teammates, attending their meetings and specific practices, still training together in the afternoons.

All three 25-year-olds live together, as they did in Sutherland Hall their freshman year, with a developmental pit crew member for Michael Waltrip Racing, who Thomusseit met during his Hendrick tryout.

All of their success could start a flow of wrestlers to the profession.

“Wrestling’s not something that has a secondary career path like football. If you’re not good enough to go to the Olympics, then you’re done. You’re coaching, or it’s just over,” Tasser said. “It’s nice we can open people’s eyes to another athletic venue that wrestlers can pursue when they’re not competing.”

Note: Donnie Tasser was a member of the sports staff at The Pitt News from 2010-2013.