3-30-17 by The Pitt News

The Pitt News

STUDENTS LEARN THE ART OF FREESTYLE Page 6

The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | march 30, 2017| Volume 107 | Issue 149

Paid parental leave extended to staff

EXPRESS YOURSELF

John Hamilton

Assistant News Editor The University announced the first paid parental leave program for staff on Wednesday, providing four consecutive weeks of paid leave to new mothers and fathers. The new benefit, which is available to benefits-eligible staff members, allows parents to take four weeks of paid leave during the 12 months following adoption, foster care or birth of a child. It also extends the paid leave to the mother’s partner, or parents who adopt, who were not previously eligible for any paid leave from the University. The new benefits will begin July 1. Staff members are those who work for the University but do not teach, according to the Office of Human Resources. Benefits-eligible part-time staff who work at least 20 hours per week will receive less time off, relative to their hours. A similar paid parental leave program has been in place for faculty since 2008. The Staff Association Council, a group that promotes communication between staff and the rest of the University, requested this benefit for staff members, according to Cheryl Johnson, vice chancellor for human resources. See Paid Leave on page 2

Kenyatta Bundy performs an original poem at an open mic night hosted by Pitt Progressives in Nordy’s Place Wednesday night. Elaina Zachos SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Pitt wraps up eighth RecycleMania Ashwini Sivaganesh

less sky, and students in white puffy Tyvek jumpsuits surrounded the trash sorting the contents of News Editor Some students walking through the parking lot the bags. The smell of pungent trash filled students’ between the William Pitt Union and Towers Patio nostrils as they strolled through the quad. “I thought they were rummaging through Wednesday morning said they thought they were trash to see if there were any alcohol bottles in it,” witnessing a remake of “CSI: Crime Scene Invesfi rst-year undeclared major Jacob Gallagher said as tigation.” he and a friend stepped outside Bruce Hall to inA cobalt blue tarp was set up under the cloud-

vestigate the stench. In fact, there was only one wine bottle in the pile labeled “Barco Law Building,” which a volunteer placed into a white bag for recycling. The tarps and trash piles were part of an annual “waste audit,” where students measured the amount and type of waste produced in different See Recycle on page 2

News Recycle, pg. 1

buildings on campus — although the results have not yet been released. The audit was the final event for Recyclemania, an eight-week program with more than 300 colleges and universities across the country competing to see who creates the least amount of waste during the time frame. Free the Planet, an environmental student advocacy group, partnered with the Office of Facilities Management to wrap up Pitt’s eighth Recyclemania event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Last year, Pitt came in 64th place, with a recycling rate of close to 43 percent and about 25 pounds of waste per person. Nationwide, participating schools, including Pitt, recycled 79.3 million pounds. Currently, according to Recyclemania, Pitt is averaging about a 5 percent increase in its recycling rate from last year. Will Mitchell, Pitt’s senior manager of custodial services, said the exercise was a visual representation that Pitt students could stroll by to see how much waste they produce, and more importantly, how well or poorly they sort it. Students collected the garbage bags from trash containers in Pitt’s busiest buildings — including the Barco Law Building, Lothrop Hall, Tower C and Hillman Library — and brought it to the tarp in the quad to start sorting. Within a half hour, there were sizeable piles of trash splayed on the tarp that slowly dwindled down once they were sorted into three different categories — trash, recyclable and compost. “Honestly, this waste is nothing in comparison to what [facilities management] sees during movein and move-out week — those are our busiest times of the year,” Mitchell said. Mitchell and Nick Goodfellow, the sustainability coordinator for Pitt Dining Services by Sodexo, looked on and answered any questions volunteers had while working through the trash. When the volunteers had sorted all the trash into three bags from each building, Mitchell said they would weigh each bag on a shipping scale in Chevron Science Center to determine the waste from each building. “We find that waste can fluctuate from year to year,” Mitchell said. He also said the information will be used for internal use and published later. As the volunteers were cleaning, numerous students, including sophomore political science

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“I think the most important thing is education on how much waste is unnecessary and how to dispose of it,” Washa said. “If you don’t know [what is recyclable and what’s not], you should find out rather than throwing it in the trash for convenience.” After close to two hours of sifting through materials, Menard said she was shocked by some of the discoveries she made. “I think the weirdest thing we found in the trash today was a semi-broken selfie stick,” Menard said. “But, someone threw out one whole Twix bar. I mean, who doesn’t finish their chocolate?” In addition to Wednesday’s event, there have been other efforts during the last three months to clean up waste on and off campus. According to Goodfellow, after the men’s basketball game against North Carolina in February, 20 student and faculty volunteers from several student ecology groups, including Free the Planet, went around the Petersen Events Center to recycle items left behind in the stands. “We want to make sure that Pitt is being waste conscious everywhere and not just in the dorms and buildings located on Terry Tan SENIOR STAFF ILLUSTRATOR campus,” Goodfellow said. Last semester a food audit mester, 25,000 fewer cups — a 16 percent decrease done at Market Central and the Perch revealed students waste 1,145 pounds of food daily. To — were used in the fall. “Honestly, I’ve seen recycling cans all over reduce waste in campus dining halls, Goodfelcampus in buildings and dorms,” Gallagher said low said they made a few changes after conductas he watched the volunteers. “If I don’t see one ing waste audits last semester in Market and the nearby, it’s as easy as holding on to it or throwing it Perch. After noticing that three times as many carbohydrates — especially burger buns — are into my backpack until I find one.” While the recyclable materials were easier to thrown away in the evening, versus any other time spot, as they were mostly paper and plastic prod- of the day, Goodfellow and the dining staff started ucts, sorting the compost from trash was a gruel- to serve less carbohydrates during dinner. But whether it’s food waste, or any other maing task because they are usually mixed together terial, Goodfellow and the other volunteers agree in foods. Emma Washa, a senior communication ma- that long-term change will only happen with cojor, picked up a half-eaten Chipotle bowl and operation among all members of Pitt’s campus. “Reduction is the primary goal — including started to separate the remaining food into two separate bags. Anything that came from animals reduce, reuse and recycle,” Goodfellow said. “Peo— such as meat and dairy products — went into ple just need to be more conscious of what they the trash pile and the rest went into the compost are wasting, and the change needs to happen on a larger scale.” pile. and economics major Amanda Roesch, couldn’t help but stare and wonder if she contributed to the waste in any way. “I usually make sure I throw things into the recycling if a can is nearby, but seeing them sort through it in person makes me questions if one of those coffee cups was mine,” Roesch said. According to Cynthia Menard, a junior ecology major and one of the volunteers, coffee cups were the one item that commonly went into the trash instead of recycling. However, Goodfellow said ever since dining services started encouraging students to use reusable mugs on campus last se-

March 30, 2017

Paid Leave, pg. 1 “We are excited to extend this benefit to our devoted staff as an investment in the well-being of their families,” Johnson said in an announcement she sent to University staff members Wednesday. In a tweet, Mayor Bill Peduto commended Pitt on their new policy. Previously, only mothers on staff who delivered a baby were eligible for any form of paid leave. After giving birth, they were eligible for six to eight weeks of Pitt’s short-term disability, which pays 60 percent of an employee’s salary. Under the new policy, a new mother would remain eligible for short-term disability for two to four additional weeks after the four weeks of fully paid leave. When Julie Rosol, an undergraduate administrator for the department of communication, had a son in 2013 she was glad she could take several months of paid leave. Her husband Derek, also a staff member at Pitt, was not eligible for paid leave at the time. “If it weren’t for our family’s support, it probably would have been tough,” Rosol said about Derek not having time off after their son’s birth. The new paid leave policy will add to other leave programs for staff, including short-term disability and the Family Medical Leave Act, a federal law that allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave to care for a new child.

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March 30, 2017

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Opinions

column

from the editorial board

Internet privacy bill puts consumers at risk There’s little more central to modern life — especially for younger people — than the internet. But a federal bill about to land on President Donald Trump’s desk for his approval threatens to make this staple of contemporary life much riskier. In a party-line vote in the House of Representatives Monday, Congressional Republicans pushed through a law that would rescind regulations passed by former President Barack Obama’s administration last year. The rules dealt with internet providers’ use of online consumer information, disallowing the sale of users’ personal information without prior consent. The repeal would mean that internet service providers, like Verizon and AT&T, would no longer be required to ask permission before selling users’ information to advertisers. The vote also swept away Obama-era measures that required service providers to take “reasonable measures” to protect consumers’ information from hackers. In the event of hackers stealing the information, companies were required to quickly make the individual aware — a regulation they will no longer have to follow. Citing the “uncertainty and confusion” created by the Obama rules protecting privacy, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said in a comment to the Washington Post the repeal would actually improve consumer privacy on the internet. According to the representative, these regulations would be less confusing for individuals, consequently improving privacy. Blackburn, who has re-

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ceived over half a million dollars in campaign contributions from internet service providers over the course of her political career, contended that the rule protecting consumer privacy online is an overextension of government power. But it’s difficult to apply this typically Republican approach to regulations to the treatment of individuals’ information online. If we were in a time period where internet use for personal records was optional, it would make sense to think of online privacy as a liberty instead of a right — something that couldn’t be taken away by the government, but which the government would make no extra effort to protect. Internet use today, however, is anything but optional for the vast majority of Americans. Whether it be taxes, college applications or work communication, it’s difficult to participate in society without the use of online services, even for those not wealthy enough to own a personal computer. It’s true that few people read the signed agreements that allow companies to sell users’ browsing information. But they nevertheless form the basis of a reasonable expectation of privacy on the internet. Beyond the fact that most internet users don’t have much of a choice whether or not to store personal information online, in many parts of the country they don’t even have a choice of which provider to trust with this information. According to data from the Federal Communications Commission, over two-thirds of Ameri-

cans have to choose between just two different broadband service providers. Another 28 percent have only one choice, as internet availability has spread only slowly to less affluent sections of the country. While the GOP repeal negatively affects everyone’s privacy, it will likely have an especially unfavorable effect on younger and college-aged Americans. According to a 2016 study from the Pew Research Center, those under 29 are significantly more likely than individuals 65 and older to have shared personal information online. The House’s vote to pass this repeal bill is undeniably a significant blow to online privacy in the United States, and it’s likely that it will be signed into law by Trump when it reaches his desk. However, it’s still extremely important to express opposition to the legislation even as it turns into law, whether it be through calling your representative, participating in a rally or simply voting in the next election. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., our representative in the House, has created a petition on the White House’s website asking Trump to veto the proposed legislation. Signing the petition, regardless of the bill’s outcome, will send an important message to Republicans in the federal government that we don’t support their position on the issue of internet privacy. Whether or not we agree on other issues, one thing seems clear: it’s wrong to force anyone to hand over their personal information. No one should be voting in favor of making that happen.

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Trump’s dealmaking doesn’t deliver Nick Eustis Columnist

Donald Trump has described himself many ways, but one word he’s used over and over again is “dealmaker.” “Deals are my art form,” Trump bragged on Twitter in December 2014. And at a campaign stop in August 2015, the reality TV personality rated his book “Trump: The Art of the Deal” second only to the Bible. After just three months into Trump’s presidency, though, that image has taken some hits, from his inability to enact a functioning executive order on immigration to the failure of his health care bill in Congress. While Republicans currently have control over the full federal legislative apparatus, deep divisions within the party may force the president to consider how effective his self-proclaimed deal-making expertise is in his new job. In the past several years, two divisions within the party have emerged along the political spectrum: On the far-right side of the Republicancontrolled House of Representatives sits the Freedom Caucus, a group of 31 Tea Party conservatives, while the Tuesday Group, an anti-Tea Party of sorts, sits closer to the center of the political spectrum, comprised of 50 moderate Republicans in the House. Now, after announcing his first budget proposal as president March 16, Trump must put his deal-making skills to the test to satisfy both conservative and mainstream Republicans, while being wary not to alienate Democrats too much. Trump’s failure to strike this balance was a large factor in the premature death of his signature health care bill, the American Health Care Act. The Freedom Caucus thought the bill did See Eustis on page 5

Eustis, pg. 4 not go far enough in removing popular Obamacare provisions. At the same time, the bill was unacceptable to more moderate Tuesday Group members, as they knew voting to cut provisions would earn them the ire of their constituents. In his speech after pulling a vote on the AHCA Friday, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan implied that Trump had been a significant help during negotiations over the legislation. Yet, far from whipping votes for the bill’s passage, the president sat pretending to drive in a semi-truck on the White House lawn the day before the bill failed. And, even before that, Trump’s interactions with Freedom Caucus chair Mark Meadows, R-N.C., publicly committing the representative to the bill before he was ready, were amateurish at best. His actions all but ensured that the far-right group wouldn’t sign on to the AHCA. Considering Trump was elected president on his deal-making prowess, his failure to even get his entire party to support this key piece of legislation undermines that reputation. Trump’s budget faces nearly identical obstacles to passage to his health care proposal. And while most of the official work in the next step in

Terry Tan SENIOR STAFF ILLUSTRATOR the budgeting process will be done in the legislative branch, the executive has traditionally been held responsible for helping forge the compromises necessary to pass the legislation — something Trump seems woefully unprepared to do. Without votes from Democrats, the House and Senate will need to craft a budget that satisfies most members of the Freedom Caucus and the Tuesday Group, as well as almost every Republican senator. The debates over the AHCA,

and Trump’s seeming inability to make deals even with members of his own party, make clear just how tough this will be. Republicans in both chambers have already voiced their objections to the contents of Trump’s proposal. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., criticized proposed cuts to the State Department, saying they would weaken national security. And Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., called the president’s proposal “draconian, careless and counterpro-

ductive.” A complete lack of a response from the Trump administration to Congress’s concerns doesn’t bode well for communication between the two as the budget process goes forward. There’s more than one way for Trump to appease both sides in Congress. Democrats angered by the presidential budget’s elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts, which provides funding for public art, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which operates PBS and NPR, could be won over even by small concessions. For example, these specific programs are such small parts of the budget that Trump could afford to keep if he cut our $600 billion defense budget by just 0.001 percent. A cut to the military, even that small, may lose him votes from the Freedom Caucus, but this would be counteracted by increased support from moderates on both sides. Ultimately, Trump will need to be the dealmaker he proclaims himself to be, and work out a compromise with his own party. Otherwise, his budget awaits the same fate as the AHCA: dead on arrival. Nick primarily writes on politics and American culture Write to Nick at npe3@pitt.edu

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Culture

beats and bars : cmu cyphers make rap a lifestyle Salina Pressimone Staff Writer

Without pausing or even setting his backpack down, Oliver Liburd walks up the cement steps to his friend’s porch, where a deep bass beat is pulsing. Still in his CMU Engineering T-shirt, Liburd steps into the loose circle of his friend and launches into a freestyle rap, forming the next line in his head as he goes. “I got my two friends here, yeah, we’re three musketeers, and I’m eatin’ my candy bar while I’m spittin’ bars. You can’t kill this cause I’m shootin’ for the freakin’ stars, and I’m from Mars — nah, from Venus, ‘cause I’m a genius.” Liburd, a sophomore mechanical engineering major and a member of the Carnegie Mellon University Cypher club, is a freestyle rapper. Cypher is an organization for students interested in learning how to freestyle or continuing to hone their rapping skills. Members use rap as a hobby, a path to a career goal or a way to relieve stress from the daily grind of college life. Every Friday evening beginning at 4:30 p.m., the CMU Cyphers meet up in the basement or under the relaxed brick foyer of a friend’s house to escape into freestyle rap. They stand in a loosely packed circle around a small stack of four Sony speakers with someone’s iPhone plugged in and relay words back and forth to the background of a hip-hop or EDM beat. This evening, they’re on a front porch on Beeler Street in Squirrel Hill, crowded in a loose circle around Liburd. “Yeah I’m at my summit, I’m never gonna plummet,” Liburd continues. “I freakin’ want it, but I’m never gonna summit ... I can’t summit.” Three other Cypher regulars nod their heads and sway emphatically as Liburd lets loose a steady cascade of words. “Bars! Bars!” They shout to acknowledge his flow and then explode into laugh-

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Jacob Buckman, co-founder of CMU’s Cypher Club, freestyle raps at one of the club’s weekly meetings. Theo Schwarz SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER ter and applause when he reaches the inevitable end of the freestyle cycle and runs out of rhymes. Warm-up: Where it all started CMU senior computer science major Jacob Buckman founded the group in fall 2014. Once they gathered enough interest from other students, the Cyphers took off as an official club second semester of that year. It started out with only four members, but has grown to see about 15 people

at any given Friday meeting and has become an open group with new members constantly passing through. Liburd initially heard about the club through the Student Taught Course in freestyle rap, which Buckman and junior finance major Marcus Plenty began in the fall 2016 semester. These self-designed courses offered through the Student College at CMU may be taught by any CMU student and offer Satisfactory/No Credit

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elective units in a variety of topics. Buckman and Plenty’s mission for the class is to help students learn about the inner workings of freestyle, without the frustration of repeated failed attempts at trying to learn the art independently, which Buckman vividly remembers. “I took the skills that I learned just through sheer practice and trial and error See CMU Cyphers on page 7

CMU Cyphers, pg. 6 ... then presented it to them in a structured format,” Buckman said. “I hope that by giving them that structure, it allows them to advance in the relevant areas more quickly.” The weekly 80-minute Freestyle Rap class, which Buckman and Plenty still teach, includes a lecture about the fundamentals of rap and the structure of freestyle, followed by drills such as sporadically cutting the beat to encourage students to keep the rhythm in their heads. The course tests students’ knowledge with a midterm and final freestyle rap presentation or recording. Buckman and Plenty’s grading criteria is based on delivery, content, enthusiasm, “hypeness” and “dopeness.” The class naturally funnels students into the club. The increasing popularity of the class and his own apparent progress is what hooked Liburd and prompted him to begin practicing everywhere he could. In fact, some of his best freestyling comes from unexpected venues — like the shower.

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“It’s a perfect time to multitask because no one can hear you, so you put on the speaker and just rap,” Liburd said. Background music: The freestyle community In addition to their basement rap sessions, the Cyphers have also performed at a few open mic nights and CMU events for prospective students. So far, the Cyphers haven’t battled any other university clubs because there are no other schools in the Pittsburgh area — and very few nationwide — with freestyle rap organizations. Though there may not be clubs at the university level, there’s a budding subculture of freestyle rap in Pittsburgh, extending beyond the CMU Cyphers. Rhyme Calisthenics, an MC Competition that combines rap battles and game shows, has made its way to Pittsburgh on two separate occasions: the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in 2009 and the Shadow Lounge in 2012. Twelve different rap challenges, called the “Wheel of Skillz,” test the performers and their flow. Pittsburgh has also hosted the largest hip-hop battle league in the nation, Grind Time Now, which held freestyle compe-

titions in its “Steel Town Smackdown” in 2010 and 2011 — although it’s more recently held competitions in Orlando, Florida, and Kansas City, Missouri. For now, the Cyphers’ primary goal is to provide a welcoming space for both beginner and experienced rappers to assemble and improve their freestyling skills together — whether that be on the open cement porch beside a street of passing cars or in just about anyone’s basement. “The door’s always open. There’s no being late to Cypher,” Liburd said. Backing Liburd’s statement, professional and creative writing double major Christian Zeitler rolls up about a half hour into the jam session in a blue Aztecpatterned button-down shirt and khaki pants. Zeitler, a junior at CMU, skips over every other cement step, trying to get through the door quicker, and jumps into the spirited crowd. He passes around his Goldfish crackers to the other members and begins swaying to the music, spinning his Animal Rescue League sunglasses around his fingers when the beat drops. Zeitler said the Cypher community is encouraging to all its members, whether

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they’re veteran rappers or just beginners. For instance, if any of the rappers gets into a lull and their words escape them momentarily, the group makes other sounds with their mouths and hands to provide a cushion of support. “Something that’s really cool about the club is that we’re actually like, hella supportive. And what’s more is we get hyped for you on your level. The reason you hear people freak out frequently is not because everyone’s really good ... if you’re new here and you get four bars out, people lose their shit,” Zeitler said. “I think because of that, people feel comfortable returning.” Chorus: More than just music Senior engineering and music tech major David Buzzell, one of the club’s newer consistent members, wasn’t interested in freestyle or rap when he was growing up — Mozart and Beethoven were more his speed. But a whimsical dabbling in rap — mostly to make fun of his friends who regularly freestyled — after a concert last semester paved Buzzell’s way into freestyle. “[My friends] thought it was amazing, like the best thing that they’ve heard,” See CMU Cyphers on page 8

CMU Cyphers, pg. 7 Buzzell said. “I was like, ‘No, calm down,’ but they encouraged me to keep with it.” Buzzell isn’t the only one who stumbled upon freestyle by chance. In fact, many of the Cypher members are pursuing starkly different studies at CMU, including writing and finance, but they each prioritize making time to integrate rap into their lives. As an engineering student, Liburd has to fit freestyle in around his other academic commitments, even if it means

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sometimes turning assignments in late. Rap stretches beyond just a Friday night rouse for Liburd — it has become an outlet for him in trying or stressful times. “Some people work out for their form of self-expression or their form of coping, and some people dance, but neither one of those has done what rap has done for me,” Liburd said. “It’s where I talk about my life.” Others in the group incorporate freestyle into their lives because they plan to use these skills in their future careers. Buckman, a prospective Ph.D. student

studying natural language processing, has also found ways to weave freestyle into his career goals. “Nobody who is citing my future papers will ever know that I freestyle, and nobody that I freestyle with will ever read one of my scientific papers,” Buckman said. “It’s related only in that it’s about words, and I love words.” Buzzell is exploring career options that will incorporate both his engineering degree and his passion for music. He hopes to be the mind behind the music, the one who makes and connects the circuits that

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allow for that stack of speakers to provide the background EDM music that the Cyphers rap to on Friday afternoons. On the Beeler Street front porch, Buzzell takes center stage under the flickering porch light, as the beat blasting from the speakers begins winding down. “I don’t know, I’m tryna keep the flow. You think that it’s stopping, but I wanna give ya more,” Buzzell raps to his fellow club members. “I’m feelin’ so fly cause I wish I could get some high, and not off the weed but off the music life.”

Sports

softball

Panthers slam state rival Nittany Lions, 7-1 Steve Rotstein Sports Editor

With the in-state rival Penn State Nittany Lions in town, and bragging rights on the line, the Pitt softball team left no doubt about who the best softball team in the state is Wednesday night. The Panthers (17-13) climbed out of an early 1-0 hole with seven unanswered runs in a 7-1 victory against the Nittany Lions (12-18) at Vartabedian Field. Sophomore pitcher Sarah Dawson silenced Penn State’s bats over five innings of scoreless relief, and fellow sophomore Gabrielle Fredericks blasted a two-run pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the sixth to put the game away. “It’s always a little bit sweeter when you win over Penn State. In any sport, really,” Dawson said. Pitt head coach Holly Aprile was proud of her team’s allaround dominant performance in the win. “I thought we were really good in all facets of the game,” Aprile said. “We pitched really well, we played defense very well, I thought we were good at the plate. Usually you come out on the victorious side when you’re good in all three phases.” Sarah Dawson pitched five scoreless innings of relief in Pitt’s Nittany Lions center fielder Rebecca Ziegler led the game 7-1 win over Penn State. Kyleen Considine STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER off with a two-strike double to the left-center field gap, then

came home to score on an RBI single down the third-base line by first baseman Kristina Brackpool. The Panthers tied things up in the bottom of the second after junior shortstop McKayla Taylor led off with an infield single. Penn State third baseman Shelby Miller then made an errant throw on Pitt junior center fielder Erin Hershman’s sacrifice bunt attempt, allowing Taylor to come around and score. Panthers starting pitcher Brittany Knight only gave up one run in the first two innings, but Aprile saw Knight laboring and decided to call on Dawson for the top of the third. “I thought [Knight] was behind in counts a little bit, struggling a little bit,” Aprile said. “Sarah had a great outing on the weekend, and we wanted to get her in there and keep her rolling.” Dawson gave up a single to Brackpool after a groundout, but Pitt first-year catcher Valeria Ortega gunned Brackpool down trying to steal second base. Miller then drew a walk, but she too made an ill-fated attempt to steal second as Ortega threw her out to end the inning. The Panthers took their first lead in the bottom of the third with a bit of two-out lightning. First, junior cleanup hitter Giorgiana Zeremenko laced See Softball on page 10

column

Raiders relocate to plunder Vegas’ pockets Bayard Miller

Assistant Sports Editor My dad became a Baltimore Colts fan when he was 5 years old because he liked the color blue. By the time he was in his 20s and living in Baltimore, he was a season ticket holder and a fanatic. But when the Colts left the city in 1984 — due to the State of Maryland refusing to pay for renovations to Memorial Stadium and Indianapolis building a stadium in the hopes of attracting a team — my dad was devastated. He didn’t watch an NFL game for five years after the team relocated and to this day he hates the Colts. In Oakland, California, Raiders fans are considered some of the sport’s most passionate

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followers, known for donning “Mad Max”-like costumes and cheering their team from the south end zone’s “Black Hole.” Now they find themselves in a similar situation as the team leaves its city behind for one reason — money. With a 31-1 vote, NFL owners approved the Raiders’ plan to relocate to Las Vegas and into a brand new, $1.9 billion stadium Monday afternoon. The lavish Vegas venue is a sure upgrade from the dilapidated Coliseum, and while leaving the East Bay wasn’t the only option for a new stadium for the team, it was the cheapest. Oakland city officials repeatedly stated they were unwilling to use public funds to finance a stadium that would be privately owned by the team. The city currently faces educational budget

cuts, so using taxpayer dollars to build a stadium for a team valued at $2.1 billion seems criminal. However, that’s just what the Raiders were expecting. In the mid-1990s, Oakland lured the Raiders back to the Bay Area after 13 years in Los Angeles by offering to issue $225 million in city bonds to help pay for stadium modernization efforts. The renovation added “Mount Davis,” an upper deck addition widely derided as ugly, and ultimately unused and tarp-covered by the team during games. The bond sale saddled Alameda County and Oakland with debt for decades, making local lawmakers unwilling to repeat the same mistake again. Their thriftiness with public money made Oakland unable to out-promise Las Vegas.

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The Raiders will move into their new stadium in 2020, but the pronoun “their” is used in an incredibly loose sense. Las Vegas will provide $750 million in public funds for construction when the team will give just $500 million. Defenders of public stadium financing, like that seen in Vegas, say professional sports franchises boost local economies, thanks to the jobs created and the fans of opposing teams brought in to watch games. However, this claim is undermined by economists like Roger Noll, who say these benefits don’t outweigh the costs. Noll, a former senior economist for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and a professor emeritus at Stanford, says NFL stadiums See Miller on page 10

Softball, pg. 9 a single to left-center field, then senior first baseman Kaitlin Manuel followed with an RBI triple off the wall. Ziegler crashed face-first into the wall in left-center trying to make the catch and had to leave the game. Taylor then delivered an RBI single up the middle to give Pitt a 3-1 advantage. Two more singles from sophomore second baseman Alexis Solak and first-year pinch hitter Alexee Haynes made it a 4-1 game, but Haynes got thrown out trying to stretch her single into a double to end the inning. Dawson allowed a pair of singles in the top of the fourth, but got out of the inning unscathed by inducing an inning-ending double play. The Nittany Lions then loaded the bases in the top of the fifth, but Dawson forced left fielder Tori Dubois to ground out softly to escape the jam. Despite facing the potential go-ahead run at the plate, Dawson never panicked. “I wasn’t worried, because my defense was playing a flawless game,” Dawson said. “I was not worried at all. I just wanted to get out of that inning.” Zeremenko walked to start the bottom of the fifth, then sophomore Marissa DeMatteo en-

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tered to pinch run for her. DeMatteo advanced to second on a passed ball, moved up to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch to give the Panthers a 5-1 lead. Gray reached first base on an error to lead off the bottom of the sixth, then Fredericks came in to pinch hit for first-year left fielder Hannah Edwards. Fredericks — who transferred to Pitt in the fall after driving in 25 runs and batting a teamleading .319 in her first year at Akron — fouled off six pitches to stay alive. Then, on the 11th pitch of the at bat, she launched a two-run homer over the right-center field wall to push Pitt’s lead to 7-1. The homer was the first of Fredericks’ college career, and even though it easily cleared the wall, she didn’t know if she got enough of it right away. “It felt really good off the bat, but I wasn’t really sure,” Fredericks said. “I just tried to work a good at bat, and it ended in a good result.” Dawson came back out for the top of the seventh and fired her fifth scoreless inning in a row to cap off the 7-1 victory. The Panthers will now travel to Tallahassee, Florida, for a three-game series against the top-ranked team in the nation, the Florida State Seminoles. The series opener is at 6 p.m. Friday, March 31.

Miller, pg. 9 are never worth the money for the cities who help build them because they are just not used enough. “NFL stadiums do not generate significant local economic growth, and the incremental tax revenue is not sufficient to cover any significant financial contribution by the city,” Noll said in a Stanford News article. Yet, cities, like Vegas, often use taxpayer funds to pay for a stadium that doesn’t pay for itself. The Steelers passed the bill for Heinz Field in 1998 off to the citizens whose support gives the team value — and gives the owners profit. Public funds accounted for $171 million of the stadium’s $280 million price tag. How much did the Steelers contribute? According to the Post-Gazette, they provided just $76.5 million for construction costs. The team — valued at $2.25 billion, with $272 million of that coming from stadium-related value — seems like an unnecessary recipient of municipal welfare. To make things worse, the Steelers get to keep the $57 million a year from selling the naming rights of the stadium they did not build and do not own. The city’s funding plan sparked controversy

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in 1998 as the City Council approved the deal despite polls indicating a lack of public support for a required tax raise. In the end, their objections were overruled and the stadium built on the taxpayers’ dime. Admittedly, the Steelers are a key source of civic pride and one of the most treasured institutions in the city. The team leaving the city would be a huge blow to the Pittsburgh psyche, so much so that even thinking about the possibility seems disrespectful. But when one thinks about the many needs of Allegheny County, such as vital infrastructure repairs, splurging on a billion dollar corporation just seems ridiculous. The Colts and Raiders both chose money over fan loyalty with their decisions to relocate. But these two teams are not alone in this sense — all privately owned sports franchises are run with the intention of turning a profit. If taking taxpayer dollars away from socially valuable programs is required to maximize profits, teams will not hesitate — not even the Steelers. Oakland didn’t make a mistake in refusing to hand over public funds to the Raiders. Instead, the city should be applauded for standing up to the team and refusing to give out millions in corporate welfare. Oakland has much more important things to spend its money on. And hey, the city still has the A’s.