The Pitt News
Pitt Senate Council analyzes effects of federal budget cuts See Online
The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | March 23, 2017 | Volume 107 | Issue144
Locals respond to bus rapid transit, land trust Rose Luder
Staff Writer After introducing new routes for the Bus Rapid Transit, the Pittsburgh Port Authority approached locals at the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation town hall meeting for their opinion. About 30 local Pittsburgh residents attended the OPDC town hall meeting at the Oakland Career Center Wednesday night. The discussion focused on plans for a new land trust program and gathering resident feedback on the Port Authority’s BRT system — or what the Port Authority team referred to as “a light rail on wheels.” Attendees recorded their feedback in a survey and then took to the floor to talk to representatives from OPDC and the Port Authority. The majority of the meeting focused on presenting the BRT, a new electric bus system that would travel on specially designated lanes from Oakland to Downtown. The Port Authority, which has been developing the project, released possible plans for the BRT routes March 9. Senior Planner for the Pittsburgh Department of City Planning Justin Miller said BRT is still its early stages. He said the system would use electric-powered buses capable of traveling faster than gaspowered buses, primarily running from
PITT FOOTBALL PRO DAY PAGE 8 Pitt football players line up to watch their former teammates run the 40-yard dash. Meghan Sunners
ASSISTANT VISUAL
EDITOR
Pitt hires full-time psychiatrist
James Evan Bowen-Gaddy Assistant News Editor
After months of long waits and few available psychiatrists, Pitt announced more on-call counselors to schedule same-day appointments and a new fulltime psychiatrist Wednesday. Pelin Duzenli, who will begin in April, currently practices as a licensed psychiatrist and behavior scientist at the Tidewater Physicians Multispecialty See Town Hall on page 2 Group and Chessen Behavioral Health,
both in Newport News, Virginia. Duzenli will join Jennifer Prins, a board-certified psychiatrist, hired in November, who now works two days a week at the Counseling Center. Prior to Duzenli’s appointment, the Health and Wellness Center has not had a full-time psychiatrist in place for students to visit since October 2016, when John Brooks left his position. In addition to Duzenli’s appointment, the Counseling Center announced
a “day-call intake system,” in which students should be able to see a counselor within 20 minutes of arriving at the Center, according to a release from Student Affairs. Prior to this system, students would often wait a week or longer to see a counselor if they were not in a crisis. Now, there are counselors in place who are on-call and do not have pre-set appointments, according to Shawn Ahearn, diSee New Psychiatrist on page 3
Correction: A previous version of the story “Police arrest 11 protesters at Allegheny County Jail,” printed March 22, reported that TeOnna Ross’ press release said prisoners participating in the sit-in refused to eat. This is incorrect. The press release said they refused to leave their cell or work. This story has been corrected online to reflect this. The Pitt News regrets this error.
Town Hall, pg. 1
Oakland to Downtown, and vice versa. Beyond speed, the new transit system would also allow for better traffic flow patterns and possibly the installation of more bike lanes. A representative from OPDC handed each attendant a packet at the beginning of the meeting to collect feedback about the current bus system in place and their preferred BRT route. They offered four route choices, all of which included a direct route from Oakland to Downtown: one extending from Downtown to Squirrel Hill, one branching to Highland Park, and two that run directly between Oakland and Downtown. Amy Silbermann, senior analyst for the Port Authority, said she and her team will gauge public interest until the end of April so they can apply for a grant in the fall and potentially have the system in place as early as 2021. After the presentation on BRT lo-
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Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald calls on an Oakland resident to ask a question about the proposed Bus Rapid Transit System. Stephen Caruso CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
gistics, Port Authority representatives responded to concerns brought up by Oakland residents, including concerns about the transit system’s accessibility for elderly and people traveling to places other than Downtown. Ethel Deiulis, 77, said the new system is geared toward young people who could
make the trek to Fifth or Forbes — where the BRT system is planned to run — unlike older residents like herself. “Older people — we have all our stuff here,” Deiulis said. “We don’t need to get Downtown, we’ve got our churches and educational centers and medical centers here in Oakland. This is a system for
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young people.” Others worried the system would leave out community members outside of Downtown or Oakland, such as residential communities in Panther Hollow or Homestead. Silbermann said the new system should revolve around connecting Oakland to Downtown because these two areas are the biggest job creators. “The universities are the heart of our economy in this region, I don’t want to hurt them,” Miller said. “The idea is to have everyone together, the biker, the rider, the vehicular rider, to make it safer for everyone.” Overall, Port Authority representatives stressed that a major perk of the new transit system was increased safety. In past meetings, Oakland residents have complained about students in Oakland breaking laws regarding maximum housing occupancy, reselling parking passes and generally leaving the neighborhood looking trashed. The OPDC announced Wednesday it See Town Hall on page 3
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Town Hall, pg. 2
New Psychiatrist, pg. 1
will be responding to complaints about housing issues with a new initiative to make Oakland more resident-friendly, referred to as the Oakland Community Land Trust. The Oakland CLT is a program that seeks to conserve property by buying up large areas of land. According to OPDC board member Peter Bruten, the OPDC hopes to use CLT as a means to ensure Oakland is primarily being occupied by permanent homeowners. The OPDC plans to buy Oakland homes, and selectively sell them to people who plan to live in those homes long term. The OPDC thinks that establishing more long-term homeowners in Oakland will make the community more livable in general. Attendees brought up concerns that a land trust’s authority would be disregarded, as tenants often disregard landlords’ rules now by filling homes past their capacity. Wanda Wilson, the OPDC executive director, gave the short answer to this concern: “It’s all we can do.”
rector of communications for Student Affairs. The changes come after a five-month recruitment effort by the Wellness Center to fill the empty psychiatrist position as well as demands from students for more counselors and shorter wait times. During this time, Anna Shaw, a junior psychology and gender, sexuality and women’s studies major, created an online petition that received over 500 digital signatures criticizing the Counseling Center for their failure to fill the position. While the Counseling Center’s homepage said they were “actively recruiting” for a psychiatrist since May, the departure of her psychiatrist still took Shaw by surprise. “We must still put pressure on Pitt to take mental health seriously and to never allow for instances like this to occur in the future,” Shaw wrote on the petition’s webpage. After this lull, Duzenli, who specializes in students struggling with substance abuse, will join four new coun-
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selors and one new care manager, who will facilitate treatment with community partners when necessary, Ahearn said. Counseling Center director Ed Michaels said in the release the new hires will make a “big difference in [Pitt’s] ability to meet the ever-increasing demand for mental health services.” Michaels, however, was not involved in Duzenli’s appointment. Rather, Student Health Service — which has handled psychiatry services since the fall — hired Duzenli because she was “the best candidate for the job,” according to Ahearn. Marian Vanek, director of SHS, said in the release Duzenli has “excellent experience in multicultural environments as a general practitioner, psychiatrist, research associate and coordinator and international patient liaison.” Duzenli’s experience with “multicultural environments” comes partly from her position at UPMC as an international referral liaison, where she managed international patients’ medical treatment needs, from 2001 to 2011, according to the release.
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Since then, Duzenli received her postgraduate training in behavioral medicine and psychiatry from the Charleston Area Medical Center of West Virginia University from 2011 to 2014. With Duzenli’s upcoming arrival, junior Max Kneis, SGB board member and next year’s SGB president, said he was “finally happy to find out” a full-time psychiatrist was joining the staff. Kneis serves on Michaels’ Mental Health Task Force, which is comprised of both students and administrative members. According to Kneis, the task force works to improve policy, create programs and battle stigma related to mental health. Kneis said as part of the task force, he’d “wished there was more preemptive communication in the fall letting the students know” about the empty position, but he didn’t blame the Wellness Center for struggling to find a replacement. “I’m happy that we have full psychiatric services restored for students, even if it may have taken longer than we would’ve liked,” Kneis said. “We’ll continue to asses this. A situation like this can’t really happen again.”
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Opinions
column
Body neutrality embraces realistic body image Erica Brandbergh Columnist
As I took my seat in the waiting room at Pitt’s Student Health Center, I noticed a basket holding an assortment of buttons. I began sifting through and saw the same motto emblazoned in bold letters on many of them: “Love your body!” It was the middle of National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders Week at the end of February — a five-day period of awareness events about the eating disorder open to the public — so the buttons fit the day, but this sort of body positive rhetoric has started popping up everywhere. With actresses on magazine covers citing the importance of positivity for personal health, grafitti on the walls of bathroom stalls throwing their support behind it and stickers across laptops loudly spreading word about the movement, the pressure to love your body can feel overwhelming. I know I am not the only one who must feel as if this statement is hinting that it is easy for everyone to just decide to love their bodies. As someone that has a past with eating disorders and body dysmorphia from elementary school and into high school, disordered thinking about body-related issues is something that I had to deal with constantly. These thoughts would intrude upon every aspect of my day — whether it was while brushing my teeth in the morning or having lunch or at a social event — and made me feel like my body was an obstacle to living a normal life. Even now, I realize how difficult it will be for me to ever get to the point of completely loving myself. For myself and others with a history of eating disorders or body dysmorphia, this sort of unconditional love that body
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positivity promotes won’t come easily. To go from having deep-seated self-image issues to making the leap across the board to not only accepting your body, but loving it is a hurdle that while admirable, may not always be attainable. According to feminist author Autumn Whitefield-Madrano, body positivity adds another layer of constraints on women. “My problem with body love,
did before. Joan Chrisler, professor of psychology at Connecticut College, points out that love — even self-love — often carries with it expectations of perfection that are easy to disappoint, especially with regards to your own body. “We have this notion of love that is connected to perfectionism — the image that we should be in bliss all the time is
Jordan Mondell CONTRIBUTING EDITOR beside the fact that it’s a high standard, is it’s asking women to regulate their emotions, not just their bodies,” she told New York Magazine in an interview March 1. I am in complete support and very passionate about the self-love and body acceptance movement that is underway, but I believe it is more effective to work toward “body acceptance” and neutrality rather than “body positivity.” Body neutrality — the idea of accepting your body as it is right now — is a new concept being pushed by many psychologists and body activists as a moderate approach to self-love. If women aim for nothing less than total love for every aspect of their bodies, falling short of that can make them feel worse than they
so strong in our culture,” she said to New York Magazine in an interview. Body love is being able to see all your imperfections as perfect, and being able to unconditionally love your body in its current state, but body neutrality is the stage in-between — the stepping stone off body hatred that allows you to become more aware of your personal feelings and understanding and lessening your negative self-thoughts. Body neutrality is looking at yourself in the mirror and maybe not liking how your thighs look in the shorts you are wearing, but allowing that to be a passing thought. It is going through the day wearing those shorts, pushing that idea to the back of your mind and realizing that it
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doesn’t matter. It can be going to a restaurant with friends and ordering a cheeseburger, because that’s what you’re craving — or ordering a salad because that’s what you’re craving. It is going to the gym because you want to feel healthier and get your blood pumping, not because you desperately feel the need to change your body. It’s much easier to lessen negative thoughts about your body or your selfimage by focusing on acceptance, rather than a feeling of obligation. And according to the Cleveland Clinic, a nonprofit academic medical center, self-acceptance is one of the first steps to getting to self-love. It is important for women to realize that their worth exists beyond their bodies, that they should not value themselves by what their bodies do or do not look like. And while both bodypositivity and body-neutral movements do their best to get to this point, for some women it’s simply easier to take a less pressured approach to get there. I’m sure at some point in every woman’s life, she has had issues with her body or has wanted to change something, but they shouldn’t feel the pressure to get to total body acceptance right away. And of course, this sentiment isn’t exclusive to women — men too can have problems with body image, and can benefit just as much from a body-neutral approach to self-acceptance. The decision to love oneself won’t come with the snap of your fingers. For me, I have to remind myself every morning to vow that I will work to accept myself as I am and take it day by day. Getting to body love is a long process. It’s okay to work toward body acceptance first.
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The Pitt news crossword 3/23/17
The Pitt News SuDoku 3/23/17
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Culture Jordan Mondell CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
cmoa explores humans’ impact on earth’s crust Prachi Patel and Taylor Percarchik For The Pitt News
It’s become commonplace to talk about climate change, species endangerment and the impact of humanity on the earth. But that impact has become so large that some geologists are proposing we’ve changed the very rock beneath our feet. To explore this possibility, the Carnegie Museums are presenting “Strange Times: Earth in the Age of the Human.” The interdisciplinary series of events spans from January to May and explores the widespread impact of humans on Earth during what some say is our current geological epoch — the Anthropocene epoch. While the term “Anthropocene” may be unfamiliar to the general public, co-producer of “Strange Times” Edith Doron said everyone has experience with the theme. “[People] have been exposed to research, books on biodiversity, or know that term,” Doron said. “Climate change crisis, pollution, political ecology — it’s in a pocket of culture in all sorts of ways. This is all in the horizon of the Anthropocene.” What is the Anthropocene epoch? Epochs, or divisions of time within the field of geology, are subdivisions of periods, another category of time. Currently, we are in the Quaternary period and, formally, the Holocene epoch. Some, however, propose that we have entered a new epoch — the Anthropocene. According to Dr. Josef Werne, professor of geology and environmental science at Pitt, geological time is defined by the rock record.
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He said the “rock record” is geological evidence preserved in sediments and sedimentary rocks that says something about past climate and/or environmental conditions. When there’s a major change in the rock record, or layers of the earth, the name of the time period changes as well. “People are saying … [that] humans have become such a dominant force on the planet that we’re changing the way the rock record records things,” Werne said. “Human activities can alter this, for example, by causing more erosion, which changes a sedimentary deposit, or by causing acid rain, which dissolves some rocks.” Although we are officially still in the Holocene epoch — which began about 12,000 years ago — a number of scientists and geologists believe the recent impact of human activity, including agriculture and climate change, calls for the naming of a new epoch. The Anthropocene epoch has a proposed starting date of about 1800, at the beginning of the industrial revolution, according to the Working Group on the Anthropocene — which is working to have the term “Anthropocene” formally accepted as the current geological period. The term “Anthropocene” comes from the
root “anthropo,” meaning human, and indicates this epoch is defined by the impact of human activity on the planet. There is debate, however, about when this epoch began, or even if human activity will actually create a noticeable difference in the rock record — something that Werne said won’t be known for millennia. Although Werne said the impact of human activity is obvious in ecosystems and natural landmarks — such as lakes — it takes longer to change the rock record. “ W e won’t be able to tell that for a long time. It might also be something that, we get our act together and figure out how to do things in a way that doesn’t impact the planetary system so much and we get this tiny little stripe [in the rock record] that no one can identify millions of years down the road.” The peculiarity of human activity To explore the Anthropocene and humanity’s impact on the earth, Carnegie Nexus — a program piloted in September 2015 to foster collaboration across the four Carnegie Museums— is producing the “Strange Times” series. Through myriad films, lectures and performances at the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History, the Carnegie Science
Climate change crisis, pollution, political ecology ... is all in the
horizon of the Anthropocene.
-Edith Doron
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Center and the Andy Warhol Museum, the “Strange Times” programming delves into the Anthropocene through not only a geologist’s perspective, but through the lens of the arts and humanities as well. The program is also collaborating with the Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival to put on three films and discussions — March 24, March 31 and April 7 — about humanity’s impact on earth. To probe the strangeness of humanity’s relationship with the Earth, the series held a conversation between conceptual artist Mark Dion and herpetologist José Padial — who studies amphibians and reptiles — on Feb. 23. The series continues with a performance exploring field recordings with the contemporary classical music group “Bang on a Can” March 25. A conversation with Pulitzer Prizewinning author Annie Proulx on her new novel “Barkskins” — which tracks a family’s generational relationship with trees and deforestation — wraps up the series April 20. The “Strange Times” organizers aim to examine how human interaction with nature and the planet over the past 200 years or so has been markedly different from the human activity that came before the Anthropocene epoch. Because of this relatively recent difference, the program underscores the “strangeness” of our current geological and environmental impact. At its core, the programming aspires to capture the strangeness of human interactions with the Earth, according to Doron, who is the Carnegie Nexus Senior Program Manager. The title of the series stems from the first two lines of “Ode to Man,” a famous chorus in Sophocles’ “Antigone.” The lines read, “There is much See Geology on page 7
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Geology, pg. 6 that is strange, but nothing / that surpasses man in strangeness.” “You have to see the entire chorus folded into those two lines,” Doron said, explaining the significance of the text on the series title. “Because the rest of that chorus, all the verse, is about our distance, and troubled relationships with nature, and to the way we understand our being, and beings in general. Because of the strangeness about us.” Educating Pittsburgh through interdisciplinary collaboration Doron, as well as Ben Harrison, curator of performance arts and public programs at the Andy Warhol Museum, are the two co-producers behind the project. When brainstorming a theme for the series, they both felt the urge to explore the Anthropocene. “One of the words I had on a post-it was the word ‘Anthropocene,’” Doron said. “I knew it from the humanities and visual arts. When I met Ben Harrison of the Warhol, he sort of jumped at the idea because he comes from the performance art side of things. That really created the backbone.” On their own, each of the four Carnegie Museums cater to a specific audience, but
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TNS Harrison believes this collaborative series will encourage viewers to experience events they normally wouldn’t consider attending. “[We’re] building on an existing audience as opposed to starting from scratch, but I think because it’s cross disciplinary, we’re hoping to find those gaps and intersections where we can cross-pollinate,” Harrison said. “It’s all about finding different entry points. Finding entry points to these very broad and difficult topics.”
Eric Crosby, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Carnegie Museum of Art, hosted the cross-disciplinary conversation between Dion and Padial. He believes interdisciplinary work bridging the arts and sciences is inevitable in the search for truth and greater understanding. “It’s fascinating to think about the points of intersection between this history and the history of art. In many ways, the work of artists calling attention to human impacts prefigured
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this scientific consensus,” Crosby said. “The search for truth and greater understanding always bring the arts and sciences together.” Together, Doron and Harrison strive to use this topic to bring diverse disciplines into conversation with one another. “There’s so many artists for whom questions of what we mean when we say the word ‘environment’ [are] at the fore for them,” Doron said. “And they explore in very provocative ways, and we just thought, ‘This is it. This is going to be able to bring natural history, science, art, technology, literature, philosophy together in a way that matters for our audiences.’” The impact of the “Strange Times” series on the Pittsburgh community hasn’t gone unnoticed. While the Carnegie Nexus began as a two-year program running from September 2015 to 2017 — and its only product to date is the “Strange Times” series — it has been extended until May 2018. This extension means the four museums will continue to collaborate and traverse intersections across disciplines. “We have splintered ourselves off into these disciplinary expertises, in silos of knowledge. We don’t understand each other anymore,” Doron said. “[But] I think we’re at a turning point now.”
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Sports
Sophomore guard Damon Wilson transferring from Pitt next season See Online
Panthers make last impression on NFL scouts at Pro Day Steve Rotstein Sports Editor
With a little over a month left before the 2017 NFL Draft, the Pitt football team’s draft-eligible standouts made one last impression on NFL teams Wednesday morning. Dozens of NFL scouts, coaches and reporters packed the practice facility at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side, as 19 Panthers showed off their skills in their final audition in front of professional talent evaluators. The athletes performed in the bench press, vertical jump, broad jump, 40-yard dash, pro shuttle, three-cone drill and 60yard shuttle. There were even a couple of special
guests in attendance — former Pitt stars Aaron Donald and Tyler Boyd. AllAmerican running back James Conner said he expected to see his former teammates there. “I knew those guys would be here, because that’s all family. Those are my brothers,” Conner said. Conner, quarterback Nathan Peterman, tight end Scott Orndoff, defensive end Ejuan Price and offensive linemen Adam Bisnowaty and Dorian Johnson each attempted to improve their scores and times from last month’s NFL Scouting Combine, where top NFL prospects from around the country gathered in Indianapolis for a four-day stretch to work out for all 32 NFL teams.
The other 13 draft-eligible Panthers who did not receive invitations to the NFL Combine used this opportunity to show the talent evaluators what they missed. The day started in the weight room, where the athletes hit the bench to perform reps of 225 pounds on the bench press. Current and former Panthers crowded around along with Dave Andrews, the head strength and conditioning coach, to shout in encouragement as the players performed their lifts. Offensive lineman John Guy had the strongest showing on the bench with 25 reps, while 349-pound nose tackle Tyrique Jarrett followed close behind Dontez Ford had one of the’ most impressive workouts at Pitt’s Pro Day Wednesday. Meghan Sunners ASSISTANT VISUAL EDISee Pro Day on page 9 TOR
Harris carves up Kent State in 7-0 shutout Steve Rotstein Sports Editor
History nearly repeated itself Wednesday afternoon at the Pitt softball team’s 2017 home opener at Vartabedian Field. Junior pitcher Kayla Harris came five outs away from tossing her second perfect game in less than a month, but instead had to settle for a one-hit shutout in Pitt’s 7-0 win over the Kent State Golden Flashes (814). The Panthers (15-11 overall, 0-6 ACC) snapped a six-game losing streak with the much-needed victory. Pitt head coach Holly Aprile admitted the possibility of coaching Harris through her second perfect game of the season crossed her mind sometime around the sixth inning. “It did, it actually did. But I know how hard it is to do that,” Aprile said. “So somebody just getting like that bloop single, it’s so hard to achieve that. Either way, she pitched a terrific game.” Despite narrowly missing out on another brush with perfection, Harris left the field satisfied with her dominant showing. “I went out there and did my thing. My defense was Giorgiana Zeremenko mashed a pair of home runs Wedneday in behind me, I trusted my pitches and now I feel confiPitt’s 7-0 win over Kent State. Kyleen Considine STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
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dent going into the weekend,” Harris said, referring to the team’s upcoming series against Boston College. Harris took the circle for Pitt in near-freezing temperatures and calmly put up a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the first. After scoring only 11 runs over the course of their six-game skid, the Panthers then exploded out of their offensive slump with four runs in the bottom of the first. First-year left fielder Hannah Edwards led off the inning with a drag bunt, then immediately stole second base. After sophomore third baseman Olivia Gray walked, junior shortstop McKayla Taylor brought her home with a long single off the right field wall. Junior cleanup hitter Giorgiana Zeremenko followed with a two-run double off the center field wall, then senior first baseman Kaitlin Manuel added an RBI single to cap off the four-run inning. Two innings later, Zeremenko — who slugged a team-record 17 home runs last season — belted her fourth homer of the year over the wall in right-center field to give Pitt a 5-0 lead. “It definitely feels good to be back at home, being on the home field, having our fans, our whole entire See Softball on page 9
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Softball, pg. 8 support system here,” Zeremenko said. Zeremenko continued to torment the Golden Flashes in her third plate appearance, launching her second homer of the game over the leftcenter field wall to make it a 6-0 Panthers lead in the bottom of the fifth. Aprile said Zeremenko has made some adjustments to her swing to help her return to form. “Specifically [she’s been] working on striding toward the pitcher. She has a tendency to step out,” Aprile said. “That is keeping her in line, gets her more on time, gets her foot down on time.” Meanwhile, Harris continued to cruise, making it through the first five innings without allowing a single Kent State batter to reach base. Manuel did her best to keep the perfect game intact with a defensive gem, making a diving stop at first base and flipping the ball to Harris for the first out in the top of the sixth. But Harris’ perfect run ended in the Golden’ Flashes’ next at-bat when catcher Nicole Teefy blooped a single into right field, just past the outstretched glove of Pitt second baseman Alexis Solak. After the game, Harris said she wasn’t even aware how close she was to another perfect game. “Through the first five innings, I wasn’t re-
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ally thinking about it,” Harris said. “Honestly, after that one hit happened, I looked at the scoreboard, I saw one hit, and I was like, ‘Oh.’ I didn’t even know what was going on. I just continued to throw my pitches and did what I did.” Harris escaped the inning unscathed, and the Panthers tacked onto their lead in the bottom half. Sophomore Taylor Myers pinch-ran for fellow sophomore Gabrielle Fredericks after a leadoff single in the bottom of the sixth, then Myers came home to score when Gray grounded into a double play. Pitt took a 7-0 lead into the top of the seventh, and Harris came back to the mound looking to finish off her second shutout of the season. Taylor turned a perfect double play on a hard-hit ball to short, then Harris struck outfielder Bailey Brownfield out to end the game. The Panthers will begin their first home ACC series 3 p.m. Friday against the Boston College Eagles at Vartabedian Field, looking for their first conference win of 2017. Harris wasn’t shy about offering predictions for the upcoming series after her near-perfect performance. “I think if we just take this energy going into the weekend and play exactly how we played today, we’ll sweep Boston College,” Harris said.
Pro Day, pg. 8 with 22. From there, the throng of players, scouts, coaches and media traveled across the parking lot to the team’s indoor training facility for the jump, sprint and shuttle events. Several Panthers turned heads with their performances in the vertical jump. Price improved his leap from the NFL Combine by three inches with a 34.5-inch vertical jump, but cornerback Ryan Lewis and wide receiver Dontez Ford outdid him. Lewis posted a 35-inch jump Wednesday, showing off the hops that helped him secure the game-clinching interception in Pitt’s 42-39 win over Penn State Sept. 10. Ford did him one better with a 36-inch leap, which would have tied for 12th-best among wide receivers at the NFL Combine. “I feel like I did well overall,” Ford said. “There were some areas I wish I could have done better, but it is what it is at this point ... in the vertical jump, I think if I could have gotten another rep, I could have gotten up even higher.” Next it was time for the main event of the day — the 40-yard dash. Current players lined up alongside the velvet rope barrier to catch a glimpse of their former teammates showing off
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their speed one last time. Reporters and the players clocked them on their phones’ stopwatches, comparing unofficial times with one another as the athletes sprinted past. Lewis had the fastest unofficial time of the day, clocking in at 4.35 seconds according to a Pitt Athletics press release. “I just knew I had something to prove,” Lewis said. “A guy who didn’t play until his senior year, didn’t get invited to the Combine, a lot of people really counted me out. I just used that as motivation the whole time to stay humble through it all.” The players then competed in the pro shuttle, three-cone drill and 60-yard shuttle before dispersing into individual drills by position group. Most of the teammates completed the workouts without issue, but Johnson — projected as a late second-round pick by CBS Sports — was unable to finish his workout after a slip-up in the threecone drill. “It stinks,” Bisnowaty said about his hobbled linemate. “We’re here to show what kind of football players we are. Hopefully he’ll feel better.” Most players sounded satisfied with how they did, but Conner exhibited an unmatched level of confidence when grading his performance. “A-plus,” Conner said. “I just felt confident. I was prepared, I’ve been training for this, so I expect nothing less.”
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