3-19-18 by The Pitt News

The Pitt News The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | MArch 19, 2018 | Volume 108 | Issue 129

Dhirana dancers employ Pitt visual storytelling in competition engineering

unveils makerspace

Samuel Weber and Noah Manalo

for Indian student dance groups across the country to showcase their skills and compete for trophies since 2013 — first place gets a cash prize of $1,000. The event has raised more than $50,000 for the Birmingham Free Clinic since its creation — this year it brought in more than $10,000. Exhibition teams that performed in the show between the competing teams’ performances included Pitt Avaaz, a South Asian fusion a cappella team, The Songburghs, an a cappella group on campus, First Class Bhangra, an Indian folk dance team, and PantheRaas. Classical

The Pitt News Staff On the outside, 7800 Susquehanna Street looks like an old brick factory, with hazy entrance windows, a cracked walkway and faded paint. But recently, more than 100 people gathered at the Homewood location to celebrate the debut of the newest branch of the Swanson School of Engineering, a place dedicated to creation. The makerspace at the Manufacturing Assistance Center, or MAC, of the Swanson School opened Friday morning. The space is designed to serve as a center for small businesses and companies to develop their products more effectively by providing a base for private businesses. Pitt students and Homestead residents will also have access to new machine presses and software to further skills such as manufacturing and metalworking. Bopaya Bidanda, the chair of Pitt’s department of industrial engineering and the creator and director of the makerspace, first began developing the space last May. Bidanda said he saw an opportunity to promote both academics at Pitt and production in the Homewood neighborhood. “I wanted to help give back to the community and make it accessible, whether someone is in grade school or is a housewife,” Bidanda said. The makerspace is filled with rearrangeable tables and metalworking machines contrasting the laboratory-looking white interior. In the front of the room, a large projection screen is set up for any presentations that may be led. It includes a laser, 3D printing, woodworking and a soft-textiles areas as well. Classes at the center will be taught by faculty from the Swanson School as well as staff

See Dhirana on page 3

See Makerspace on page 4

Pitt’s First Class Bhangra dance group performs at Saturday evening’s Dhirana dance competition. Janine Faust | CONTRIBUTING EDITOR The two men — both former members of Pitt’s folk Indian dance team PantheRaas — joked that it was meant to Anand Mahalingam and Vineet Rakeep them from starving when Mahalinghu hosted a dance competition Saturday gam returned to the working world and night for two reasons — nostalgia and Raghu to grad school. GUMWP is not an hunger. Literal, physical hunger. actual charity, but the Birmingham Free Strutting around the stage of the SolClinic — a University clinic under the diers and Sailors auditorium, the two department of medicine offering mediPitt graduates hosting Dhirana — the cal services for no cost to uninsured peonational Indian classical dance compeple — does exist. It received all proceeds tition held on Pitt’s campus since 2013 from ticket sales and donations from the — begged the audience of approximately event by the end of the night, including 700 people to donate money to their fake the money gathered from the fake charity personal charity. donations. “We call it GUMWP — or, ‘Give Us Dhirana has served as an opportunity Money, We’re Poor,’” Mahalingam said.

Madeline Gavavtorta Staff Writer

News

Students ﬁnd furniture and more free and for sale

Sarah Shearer Contributing Editor Picking up the couch wasn’t supposed to be an all-day affair. Kathryn Kennedy and her boyfriend Andrew Rabeneck planned to quickly move it into Kennedy’s newly rented — and bare — apartment, order pizza and watch Star Wars from the comfort of her new couch. But they didn’t know what would lie ahead. Kennedy, a 2017 Pitt graduate, and Rabeneck, a senior and chemical engineering major at Pitt, picked up the long, tan couch from South Oakland and transported it in Rabeneck’s mom’s minivan. After nearly damaging the roof of the van and a failed attempt at getting the couch through the apartment building entrance on the hot, sticky July day in 2015, Kennedy and Rabeneck were ready to give up. They dumped the $20 couch in a nearby dumpster, called it a day and ate their takeout pizza while sitting on the apartment floor. They found the couch on Pitt’s Free & For Sale Facebook page — a concept that occupies a space in between yard sales and eBay. Free & For Sale pages at Pitt are a constant virtual market, with users buying and selling items at all hours of the day and night with people who are often strangers. Some students, such as Michelle Garcia, a first-year psychology major, have used Pitt’s site and only had positive experiences. Garcia has sold several pieces of clothing — including a jean dress a few weeks ago — as well as textbooks and a calculator. She said it’s a great system, especially for college students. “It’s more accessible [than brick-andmortar store shopping], especially in college if you can’t go out and you’re really

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Free & For Sale pages allow students to locally buy and sell used items. Via Free & For Sale Facebook busy and have people around you, and you’re able to go to them really quickly to buy new things at a cheaper price,” Garcia said. While that may be true for Garcia, not all users feel the same about Free & For Sale’s potential to change buying habits. Jeanne Batog, a first-year civil engineering graduate student at Pitt, doesn’t think Free & For Sale is doing anything to shift students away from traditional consumerism. “Generally, people that want new things will buy new things,” Batog said. “And if there wasn’t a buy-and-sell Facebook page, people would still be selling their things on Craigslist.” But there are some advantages to using the Facebook group rather than another selling site. Lynnea Lombardi, a Pitt junior and communication major, is

selling a Michael Kors satchel on the page and said she also has the bag posted on Poshmark, an online buying and selling marketplace. If Lombardi sells the bag on Poshmark, 20 percent of the profit will go to Poshmark. “I’m hoping that the item will sell on the Free & For Sale page, because it seems a lot simpler to just meet someone on campus than to have to ship it to someone in another part of the country, and I’ll get to keep all of the money,” Lombardi said. Both Lombardi and Batog are active on both Free & For Sale, which currently has 12,936 members and is a Facebook-borne concept, and Free & For Sale: Oakland — the smaller, student-controlled buying and selling Facebook group for Pitt students. The page Free & For Sale: Oakland, with more than 4,600 members, is some-

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thing of an online University heirloom, currently under the administration of four Facebook users. One of them is 2015 Pitt graduate Michael Spak. He said one of the most defining elements that separates his group from Facebook’s version is the stricter guidelines for what users can and can’t post in the group. “The group was started because there was another “Free & For Sale” page, but there was constantly spam on it as well as housing posts, etcetera,” Spak said. “The [Free & For Sale: Oakland] page was created as an alternative that could be monitored better.” Spak believes the page started in 2014, but doesn’t remember who passed the admin position down to him. He takes the administrator responsibility seriously, monitoring the page almost daily and See Free and for Saleon page 5

Dhirana, pg. 1 Indian dance team Pitt Nrityamala was the host team at the competition. Multicolored lights flashed on costumes of blue, green, orange and red as eight teams of eight to 14 college women came from across the country to tell stories of modern relevance through classical dance. Teams travelled from as close as Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and as far as the University of California, Berkeley. One of the teams, University of Maryland’s Moksha, choreographed a routine about a refugee child and his father. Garbed in bright blue and gold, they gracefully twirled about on stage and stomped their feet while telling how the father attempted to preserve his son’s innocence when their hometown was attacked. But the father dies, and there is nothing left to protect the son from the world’s disturbing reality. The dance earned the Maryland team first place at this year’s competition. Case Western Reserve University’s Nritya received the third-place trophy and University of California, Berkeley’s

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Boston University’s Dheem dance team won the Traditionality award at Saturday’s Dhirana dance competition. Janine Faust | CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Natya came in second. Boston University’s Dheem received the $1,000 Traditionality Award, given by the nonprofit Srinivasa Prasad International Foundation for the Performing Arts to the team whose dance contains the most traditional elements. Mahalingam and Raghu were involved in the creation of the event and

belonged to the group that runs it — Pitt Dhirana — before Mahalingam graduated in 2015 and Raghu became a doctorate student. “The first year that we did it we were like, ‘Uhh,’ like, we don’t know what this is going to be, a lot of people were lukewarm on it,” Mahalingam said. “We all looked at each other after that first year,

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we were just like, ‘Yo, that was awesome,’ and, ‘We kicked butt, why don’t we just do that again?’” Mahalingam said the event taps into social, traditional and charitable aspects through its connection to Indian roots, the showcasing of centuries-old dances and donations to the clinic. From the time he and Raghu were here, they said the competition had grown from having only 20 to 25 people on staff to this year having 108. The number of teams applying has also grown from nine to 20. Meera Tikku, a first-year communication major and Dhirana decorations committee member, said she found out about Pitt Dhirana through the student activities fair. She had danced before, but only in more Western styles such as tap and jazz. She said she only knew about Indian classical dance through “friends of friends” growing up, and those were more religious in nature. “It was cool to get to see it this way, because in the collegiate style of competition they tell it through a story, whereas in, if you’re not in collegiate competition, you tell it more through the stories See Dhirana on page 5

Makerspace, pg. 1 from the Pitt’s Innovation Institute’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence and experts in different fields. According to Bidanda, the makerspace is designed to help with production speed for small businesses, bringing single production to massproduction levels. The layout of the building allows for customization in the arrangement of tables, machines and other tools for developing an individual’s product. The new location is part of the 9,000-square-foot MAC, which features a full machine lab, classrooms, and other work spaces. Currently run by Bidanda and other Pitt faculty, his goal for the new makerspace is to eventually have students running the facility by next year as instructors and advisors on projects. “The makerspace is supposed to bring in the community and interest them in making their products,” he said. Along with the MAC, 7800 Susquehanna houses other organizations not connected to the University. Local trade programs, small companies and studios also work out of the warehouse. Vice Provost of Special Projects Larry Feick was in attendance at the opening, and said he sees this new makerspace as “having a very

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The University of Pittsburgh Manufacturing Assistance Center’s Makerspace held a grand opening to the public Friday morning. Anas Dighriri | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER positive impact in Pitt’s image and in the community.” He is involved in helping develop programs connected to the upcoming training hub at University of Pittsburgh at Titusville, and said this space will serve as a blueprint for projects at the training hub. “We’re committed to using this space to help lower-income families with making their own products and changing what is accessible to everyone,” Feick said.

Claire Guth, a marketing and outreach specialist for the MAC, said the makerspace aligns as well with the Plan For Pitt, an initiative aimed at furthering the University’s academic development and community outreach. “The makerspace has an immediate impact on the underserved. A lot of our students come right from Homewood or take the nearby bus line,” Guth said. Along with the makerspace, the MAC pro-

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vides three different training programs — Precision Manufacturing, Computer Numerical Controls (CNC) Operations and Programming, and Advanced CNC and Mastercam. Students spend eight weeks in the Precision Manufacturing program learning how to safely operate drills, mills, lathes, grinders and saws. In CNC Operations and Programming, students pick up more skills and are taught additional knowledge including the theory of G-Code machine-language programming. Students in Advanced CNC gain further skills and program verification. Guth also said only two modules occur at a time, and each module has a capacity of 12 students, so the MAC currently serves around 24 students at a time. One such student who has been making use of the smaller makerspace in Benedum Hall is Pitt senior mechanical engineering major Dani Broderick, who was also in attendance at the debut of the new makerspace. Broderick, who was an intern at the small space, said this new location will bring in new ideas to the MAC program. “The high-fidelity materials offered by the University can help with improving the quality and community reach compared to in Benedum,” Broderick said.

Free and for Sale, pg. 2 taking down posts related to subletting and other unapproved entities, as well as older posts. For this reason, it wasn’t possible to find Kennedy’s 2016 couch transaction. In contrast, Pitt’s Free & For Sale group comes from Facebook itself. The page, though, says a user named Sahil Amin — who is also an undergraduate researcher at Pitt — is and has been the page’s admin since 2012. The official Pitt group, with current membership at about 37,000 Facebook users, requires a Pitt email to join. While the group may be intended for Pitt students, Facebook’s “Pitt Community” page says the group has no affiliation with the University of Pittsburgh. Spak regulates his group to keep the Free & For Sale: Oakland page from turning into a buying and selling free-for-all. Spak also said if he doesn’t maintain and monitor the page, it Facebook may archive it, rendering it unusable. But for Batog, these boundary lines between pages don’t appear to have as

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much meaning. She believes the page is useful for anything users may want to buy or sell — including requests for parking spots she made on both the Free & For Sale page and Free & For Sale: Oakland page. She requested a parking spot on North Dithridge Street or in Schenley Farms on Feb. 1. While sitting at a lofty price of $6,484,056,784 — not a serious price she was actually willing to pay — the request didn’t yield successful results. Batog also said she’s been able to sell furniture on the page, but the page’s success ultimately depends on the user. “Sometimes I find it is frustrating that people don’t update their post with what has been bought and what is still for sale,” Batog said. “I think it’s a good system, but depends who is using it and how efficiently they are using it.” And unlike Amazon or other conventional buying methods, there’s no return policy. It’s like a yard sale — if the mirror turns out to look terrible on the wall, the buyer will have to figure out reselling it on their own. That, or take the easy way out and toss it in the dumpster.

Dhirana pg. 3 of God,” Tikku said. The inspiration for the creation of Dhirana goes back to 2011, according to Guru Shrimathi Shobhitha Ravi, one of the seven judges present at this year’s competition and a former Pitt student and founder of Dhirana. Pitt Nrityamala won Laasya, a national competition for classical Indian dance that year. This meant Pitt had to host the 2012 Laasya. Some members of Nrityamala decided to start a competition held at the University every year after the performances at Laasya were well received on campus. They decided on the name Dhirana, after a musical syllable that is universal in Indian classical dance. This year’s codirectors were Insiya Attarwala, a senior athletic training major, and Priyanga Selvakumar, a senior neuroscience major. “Being part of Dhirana and just being a part of this community, I already felt closer to my roots, even just like back home in California. I am far from home and sometimes getting homesick,

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but these people are my family now and I connect with them on a level I couldn’t say for a lot of other people,” Attarwala said. Raghu said he decided to host because of the connection to India Dhirana gives back to those living in the United States. “Our parents are from India, so growing up in America, it’s kind of hard to get that connection. We were lucky to have a big Indian community in Pittsburgh, but this is one of the best ways to maintain that connection back to our roots,” Raghu said. The UMD Moksha team had been coming to Dhirana since its inception and has placed for the past five years. Mathavi Sankar, a UMD Moksha co-captain, said the team has earned gold since 2016, which is an improvement from getting bronze from 2013 to 2015. “We just love [the] support [Dhirana] gets from the entire Pitt community and the University itself,” Sankar said. “We have a competition at our university, and we get support, of course, but the vibe is just completely different here. It’s so motivated by the entire community.”

Opinions

column

PA liquor laws leave students, citizens to dry

from the editorial board

Pitt’s grad union lawsuit wastes time, tuition If insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result, then administrators at Pitt must not agree with that definition. Pitt graduate students engaged in unionization efforts said last week that the school’s administration will challenge a petition to hold an election to decide whether or not to unionize. According to a Facebook post from the group, the University plans to argue that grad students aren’t employees and thus don’t have the right to unionize to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. But that argument isn’t original. Administrators at Penn State used an uncannily similar strategy and argument in an attempt to block an election for a union in State College. And the PLRB announced just last month that Penn State’s argument was insufficient reason to block an election. “Graduate assistants receive compensation from the University in the form of a stipend, tuition remission, and health care benefits,” the Board’s decision read. “These facts from the record are clear evidence of an employeremploye[e] relationship.” It appears that the decision in the Penn State case leaves little room for ambiguity. Provided grad students work for their schools either as teaching assistants or in research or administrative roles — as most do — they function as employees and should be allowed to vote on unionization. Pitt should recognize it is unwise to retread history on this issue. What’s especially striking about

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Pitt’s last-ditch attempt to avoid a vote is how little faith the school seems to have in its own argument’s power to convince in the context of an election. If Pitt truly treats its graduate student workers well and a union organization would actually strain the relationship between the two, it would be a much smarter move to convince voters to decide against unionization in the election. Pitt’s choosing to relitigate a lost cause makes it look like the school is interested in little more than buying time. The fact that the funding for the school’s strategic stakeout is likely coming directly from tuition money doesn’t help the school’s case, either. While a Pitt spokesperson refused to comment on the status of legal expenses from its anti-union venture, the update on Facebook from the grad student union organizers noted Pitt’s counsel in the newest case was the same law firm recruited in Penn State’s scrap with student unionizers. It’s disheartening that the school is willing to pay legal fees in a seemingly redundant case but unwilling to provide its grad student workers with higher compensation. And a lack of transparency about its motives for relitigating the employee status makes it more obvious that grad students have good reason to want a union. While it’s unlikely Pitt’s case with the PLRB will lead to anything but a reaffirmation of its last decision, greater support for a union after the most recent controversy would only be natural — and it would be hard to blame them.

Neena Hagen Columnist It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and you’re struggling to maneuver around the sticky, crowded dance floor in a stranger’s cramped basement. Someone bumps into you, causing you to almost spill the beer in your right hand. But you don’t care — these kinds of party scenes in college are common. And despite the immediate obstacles, you’re still having the time of your life. Throwing these blowout St. Patrick’s Day parties isn’t easy. If you’re the host, buying the necessary alcohol under Pennsylvania’s current liquor laws remains a difficulty — and so does inviting college-age guests without getting busted by the police. You may have had to endure hour-long wait times at the only liquor store near campus, the Fine Wine & Good Spirits on Atwood Street. As you finally make your way toward the exit, you breathe a sigh of relief — you feel like you just got out of jail. If you’re a party attendee under 21, you risk paying hundreds of dollars in fines if the police catch you with a blood alcohol level more than 0.02. But why is there such a lack of liquor purveyors near campus, and why must underage drinkers shell out their entire wallet for a victimless legal violation? These are exactly the kinds of questions Pitt’s Students for Liberty raised at their club meeting in Lawrence Hall Wednesday night. To start the event, Ben Sheppard, president of the club, delivered a presentation describing Pennsylvania’s current liquor laws — many of them seemingly absurd. In Pennsylvania, most hard liquors can’t be sold outside state-owned wine and spirit stores — something many of our neighboring states allow. Arcane regulations forbid grocery stores from selling customers more than 192

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ounces of beer per transaction, forcing beer drinkers to go in and out and in the store again if they want to buy more than two sixpacks at once. What followed was a discussion with club members and other meeting attendees — mostly Libertarians and Republicans. But unlike in many political events on campus, there was noticeably little disagreement between attendees who typically hold differing views on social policy. All discussion participants came to an unanimous consensus — Pennsylvania’s liquor laws are outdated, impractical and a danger to those they aim to protect. Despite the bureaucracy of current state law, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has made tremendous strides towards eradicating unnecessary regulation. Wolf signed Act 39 into law in 2016, which lowers prices on alcohol at state-owned stores, allows grocery stores to sell wine in limited quantities and restaurants to sell wine and six-packs to go. And with Act 166, Wolf allowed distributors to ship alcoholic beverages right to people’s doorsteps — another step in the right direction. But while these changes represent some of the biggest changes since the state’s liquor laws were written in the 1930s, they’re still not nearly sufficient. Current laws still aim to limit the average citizen’s access to alcohol. On the surface, this seems like the right solution to alcohol-related problems on college campuses, where bingedrinking rates remain at 40 percent and more than 1,800 students in the nation die every year from heavy consumption, according to the National Institute on Abuse and Alcoholism. But the solution to binge-drinking culture on campuses is not to do away with alcohol altogether, but to inculcate a culture of controlled drinking. According to a classic 1967 See Hagen on page 7

Hagen, pg. 6 study from Stanford University, students are actually more inclined to drink when immersed in a culture that encourages sobriety. “Drinking in social situations governed by abstinence norms is often an expression of aggression against normative authority,” the study reads. The reality is that students would actually benefit from ready access to alcohol to curb their rebellious, bingeing tendencies. But the government has set up our current laws to create the exact opposite situation. Only Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores are legally allowed to sell spirits — and with only 600 of those stores in the country, it seems Oakland is actually lucky to have one. Licensing regulations in Pennsylvania also put a hard cap on producers, restricting any wine distributor in the state from producing more than 200,000 gallons a year. For spirits distilleries, that number is a suffocating 100,000. And imports from out-of-state can only make up so much of the gap. But it’s not just Pennsylvania-specific laws that are the problem. No matter how limited the supply of alcohol is, enforcing a drinking age of 21 nationwide only encourages teen-

Pitt’s Students for Liberty club president Ben Sheppard delivers a presentation featuring potential changes that could be made to Pennsylvania’s liquor laws. Neena Hagen | COLUMNIST agers to drink. Harsh penalties for underage consumption only make matters worse. Those under 21 are forced to drink in private if they want to drink at all, and if an accident occurs they’re far from help. Because they’re afraid of getting in trouble, they’re also scared to call the police. Lowering the drinking age would work wonders to prevent students from engaging in

high-risk drinking activities and consequently reduce alcohol-related deaths. Still, even if more lax liquor laws help lower alcohol-induced deaths and rates of binge drinking, the result of new legislation isn’t truly what matters. No one, regardless of political bent, wants an irresponsible bingedrinker to prevent them from having the legal

ability to drink — especially if they’re drinking responsibly. According to Ron Swanson, a government employee in the popular TV show, “Parks and Recreation,” American laws should exist solely to secure individual liberties — not to protect people from making rash decisions. “The whole point of this country is if you want to eat garbage, balloon up to 600 pounds and die of a heart attack at 43, you are free to do so,” he says in an episode. “To me, that’s beautiful.” It really is beautiful — and fair. Even though Swanson is a fictional character, his logic remains sound. Reckless individuals who abuse their freedoms should not prevent the general populace — mostly responsible people — from being afforded those freedoms. Likewise, binge-drinkers should not be the reason why the average law-abiding citizen, no matter their age, can’t have a beer without risking legal penalties. So for the sake of freedom — and the convenience and safety of average citizens — please, Pennsylvania, fix your liquor laws. Ben Sheppard was a columnist at The Pitt News. Neena primarily writes about politics and local issues for The Pitt News. Write to Neena at nnh7@pitt.edu.

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March 19, 2018

Sports PANTHERS TAP OUT EARLY swimming and diving seniors IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS sent off at championships

Senior Dom Forys ﬁnished his career as a Pitt wrestler during this weekend’s NCAA Wrestling Championships. Chiara Rigaud | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Stephen Cuddy Staff Writer The NCAA Wrestling Championships took place this past weekend at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. Pitt was represented by senior Dom Forys, redshirt sophomore Taleb Rahmani and redshirt seniors Nick Zanetta and Ryan Solomon. Forys and Rahmani provided the only highlights of the Panthers’ tournament, winning each of their first round matchups before falling on the second day of competition. Zanetta and Solomon each fared worse, meeting a quick end with losses in their first round matches. Day 1 Both Forys and Rahmani advanced out of the first round via pins on the first day of the tournament. Solomon and Zanetta both dropped their first round matches against top-seeded opponents. Solomon fell to reigning champion, Olympic gold medalist and top seed Kyle Snyder from Ohio State. Zanetta lost to No. 3 Yianni Diakomihalis of

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Cornell. Zanetta was unable to mount a comeback after falling behind early. The match ended in Zanetta losing a major decision 10-1. Like Zanetta, Solomon fell behind early and was not able to catch the top-seeded Snyder. Forys was matched against Corey Keener from Penn State for the second year in a row, meeting in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. Forys pinned Keener in 4:57 this time out. Rahmani entered the final frame on top, but was still losing by a score of 3-2. He pinned No. 16 Mike D’Angelo of Princeton at the 5:53 mark, moving him on to the second round. Day 2 The results were switched on the second day with Solomon and Zanetta winning while Forys and Rahmani both fell to topranked opponents. Forys was matched against No. 6 Scott Parker from Lehigh. Forys already faced

Senior swimmer Lina Rathsack ﬁnished 23rd in the 200-yard breaststroke preliminary with a time of 1:00.17. Courtesy of Pitt Athletics

Stephen Cuddy Staff Writer

The Pitt swimming and diving team said goodbye to some of its most accomplished female divers in program history at the NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships in Columbus, Ohio, this past weekend. The Panthers had four athletes compete across seven events, with two earning top-25 finishes. It was first trip to the championships for firstyear diver Lydia Rosenthall, while seniors Lina Rathsack, Amanda Richey and Meme Sharp all made their third and final trips. Richey and Rathsack both failed to advance on the first day of qualifiers. Like last year, Richey finished 29th in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:41.41. Rathsack took 62nd in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:01.44. Katie Ledecky from Stanford — who became an international star at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro — won the 500-yard freestyle prelims and finals. Her time in the preSee Wrestling on page 10 lim was 4:29.73, and in the final was 4:26.57.

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Junior Ella Eastin from Stanford set an NCAA record in the 200-yard individual medley final with a time of 1:50.67. Her time in the prelim was 1:53.74, just 0.26 seconds off of the leader. Rathsack swam the 200-yard breaststroke prelim with a time of 1:00.17 — good enough for 23rd place in the competition. This is the second top-25 finish of her career. Her other top-25 finish came at last year’s NCAAs when she finished 13th in the 100-meter breaststroke. The leader, Olympian Lilly King from Indiana, had a time of 57.35 in the prelim and an NCAA-record time of 56.25 in the final. Rathsack finished 38th in the 200-yard breaststroke with a prelim time of 2:11.56. This was also the final swim of her Pitt career. King also won this event with a prelim time of 2:05.49, and a final time of 2:02.60. In the final swim of her Pitt athletic career, Richey finished 20th in the 1,650-yard freestyle — her best finish with one of her top times, 16:06.24. It was Ledecky who also claimed this See Swimming on page 10

Pitt track leads the way in disappointing weekend

Michael Nitti

Staff Writer It was an up-and-down weekend for Pitt athletics, as some Panthers were at the hands of crushing defeat, while others found themselves above all the rest. Although baseball and women’s tennis struggled and gymnastics came up just short, softball and track and field both found success in North Carolina. Baseball The Panthers got swept in a three-game set against North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Pitt was blown out 15-3 in the first game, 4-0 in the second game and 13-2 in the third game. Despite the low offensive output as a team, first-year outfielder Ron Washington Jr. went 4-for-11 with a home run and two runs batted in. Redshirt junior third baseman Liam Sabino also contributed, going 3-for-10 with a double, a stolen base and two walks. The Panthers find themselves at 11-7 overall, but just 1-5 in the ACC. Pitt will travel to University Park to take on Penn State Wednesday, March 21, with first pitch at 6:30 p.m. Softball The softball team came away winning two out

Junior Kensleigh Owens tied for third on vault with a 9.850 during this weekend’s 196.600-196.050 loss to North Carolina. Thomas Yang | VISUAL EDITOR of three against North Carolina, losing the first game 8-4 before winning the next two games 6-3 and 10-2. Senior catcher Giorgiana Zeremenko dominated the Tar Heels’ pitching staff, going 7-for-10 with three home runs and six runs batted in over the three-game series. Senior pitcher Kayla Harris picked up both of the Panthers’ wins, throwing a complete game on Saturday and three shutout innings of relief on Sunday. Pitt sits at 15-11-1 over-

all and 4-2 in the ACC. The Panthers will host Saint Francis University Wednesday, March 21, at 4 p.m. at Vartabedian Field. Gymnastics The Pitt gymnastics team suffered a narrow defeat against North Carolina by a score of 196.600-196.050. The Panthers placed in the top five 10 times with eight different athletes, including junior Kensleigh Owens and first-year Haley

Brechwald, who tied for third place on the vault with a 9.850. Brechwald also finished third on the floor with a 9.875. Concluding the regular season with a 6-14 overall record and a 3-3 record in the ACC, the Panthers will compete in the EAGL Championship meet next Saturday, March 24, at 2 p.m. in Towson, Maryland. Track and Field At the 49er Classic in Charlotte, North Carolina, 12 Panthers had top-10 finishes on the first day, as senior Quadaisha Newkirk finished second overall in the 400m, recording a 59.41. In the field events, first-year Greg Lauray finished third in the high jump at 2.05m, while fellow firstyear Noah Walker finished third in javelin with a throw measuring 69.98m. A relay team of sophomore Genaya Johnson, senior Desiree Garland, sophomore Taylor Middleton and first-year Jaylyn Aminu finished first out of 32 teams in the women’s 4x100 with a 46.67 on the second day of competition. On the men’s side, the team of sophomore Dante Watson, first-year Ade Jones-Roundtree, junior Ken Brosier and first-year Lonzell Feagin won the See Weekend Sports on page 10

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Wrestling, pg. 8

Swimming, pg. 8

Weekend Sports, pg. 9

event with a time of 15:07.57. Both Sharp and Rosenthall competed in the 1-meter springboard competition. Rosenthall placed 33rd with a score of 262.85 after six dives in the 1-meter springboard in her NCAA championships debut, while Sharp took 45th in the 1-meter with a score of 248.50. She was 91.25 points behind leader Sarah Bacon, a sophomore from Minnesota. Bacon went on to win the final with a score of 343.50. Rosenthall’s final event was the 3-meter springboard. She placed 45th with a 240.35 following her six-dive set, and was 144.25 off of the prelim leader. Sharp, Rathsack and Richey all capped off their illustrious careers on Saturday. Sharp finished her distinguished career a three-time NCAA qualifier, an ACC individual champion, an All-American and as Pitt’s school-record holder in all three diving disciplines. Richey holds two top-30 finishes and school records in the 500-yard freestyle, 1,650-yard freestyle and 400-yard individual medley. Rathsack qualified for the NCAA Championships in three events in three consecutive seasons and ended her career with top-25 finish.

men’s 4x400m relay at 3:10.50. The Panthers will compete at the CMU Invitational next weekend at Gesling Stadium here in Pittsburgh. Women’s Tennis The Panthers fell to No. 16 Wake Forest 5-2 on Saturday, as they now stand at 6-6 overall and remain winless in the ACC at 0-5. Juniors Luisa Varon and Natsumi Okamoto captured Pitt’s only wins against the Demon Deacons, as Varon defeated sophomore Chandler Carter 6-4, 6-3, and Okamoto took down sophomore Alexis Franco 6-4, 6-3. With their victories, Varon and Okamoto now possess records this spring of 5-5 and 8-3, respectively. On the doubles’ side, the Panthers couldn’t find success, failing to pick up any wins. Okamoto and junior Clara Lucas lost to Franco and first-year Eliza Omirou 6-1, while junior Gabriela Rezende and first-year Claudia Bartolome lost to Wake Forest’s redshirt sophomore Mary Caroline Meredith and junior Anna Ulyashchenko 6-1. The women’s tennis team heads to Blacksburg, Virginia, Friday to take on Virginia Tech at 3 p.m.

The Pitt news crossword 3/19/18

Parker in the regular season in a match that he won 7-6, but the result was flipped on Friday. Forys never led in the match and eventually lost in a major decision 7-5. Zanetta turned in a dominant performance, beating Lock Haven’s Kyle Shoop by 10-1, a major decision. Zanetta proved too much for Shoop, leading throughout the entire match. Rahmani lost a very close match to No. 1 Hayden Hidlay of NC State, 4-2, in a rematch from the ACC championship. The score was 2-2 heading into the final period, but Hidlay took over the rest of the match, not allowing Rahmani to score another pin. Solomon finished the day for the Panthers, pinning Central Michigan’s Matt Stencel in 3:51 for the 16th and final pin of his career. Day 3 Zanetta was the only Panther to claim victory on the third day of competition. Forys and Rahmani both fell to opponents ranked in the top five while Solomon lost to an unranked opponent. Forys struck first in his consolation

match against No. 5 John Erneste from Missouri with a takedown, but he was eventually pinned at the 3:58 mark. Forys lost his lead and was never able to come back. Zanetta earned a victory over No. 11 Luke Karam from Lehigh — his second victory over Karam this year — by a score of 3-2 in Saturday’s competition. Zanetta was trailing 2-1 until he used a third-round reverse to score two points and retake the lead in the final frame. Zanetta then had another match after his victory and he lost in a decision to No. 5 Kevin Jack of NC State in a rematch of the ACC championship. In his consolation match, Solomon lost to Thomas Haines from Lock Haven in a 10-6 decision. He jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but quickly saw it eviscerated and was never able to retake control of the match. Rahmani faced returning NCAA finalist No. 2 Joey Lavallee of Missouri in his consolation match and fell behind early. He was never able to decrease the deficit and eventually lost 6-4 by decision. Zanetta, Forys and Solomon all completed their careers for the Panthers this weekend. In their time at Pitt, Forys posted 89 wins, Solomon had 73 and Zanetta had 71.

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March 19, 2018

I N D E X

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3BR house on Niagara Street $1000/mo +all utilities. Recently renovated with new windows, wiring, cable installed in all rooms. No pets. On Pitt shuttle route. Near Pittsburgh Playhouse. Call 412-303-4716.

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Apartments for rent. 2, 3, and 4 bedroom apartments available. Some available on Dawson street, Atwood street, and Mckee Place. Newly remodeled. Some have laundry on site. Minutes from the University. For more info please call Mike at 412-849-8694 Before signing a lease, be aware that no more than 3 unrelated people can share a single unit. Check property’s compliance with codes. Call City’s Permits, Licensing & Inspections. 412-255-2175.

STUDENT HOUSING. Updated 4, 5 & 6 Bedroom Houses w/ multiple baths. Dishwasher, laundry, some w/ air conditioning and/or parking. August availability. 412-445-6117. Studio & 1 Bedrooms Available Fall 2018. Heat included. 412-261-4620. Ward & S. Bouquet Streets - Studio, 1, 2 & 3BR apartments. Free parking. Move in May 1 or Aug. 1, 2018. Call 412-361-2695

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Rental Other HIGHLAND PARK APARTMENTS; 1 BEDROOM Victorian, Gas included $885. 2 BEDROOM Mediterranean style $885. 3 BEDROOM Victorian, Gas included $1295. Leave name and number on voicemail 412-255-3333 or email Ted.Harchick@ gmail.com Newly renovated, fully furnished 4 & 5 BR, 2 -1/2 BA houses for students. Located near Pitt Dental School and Carlow University. Utilities are included in the rent. Laundry services available in the house. Rent $600-$695. Contact Chris at 412-656-5693. Avail-

March 19, 2018

Research Studies Participants Wanted for Paid Psychology Research Participants wanted for an alcohol research study at Carnegie Mellon University To be eligible for this study, you must: •Be 21-25 yrs. old and own a smartphone •Drink alcohol at least weekly •Be able to show valid photo ID •Be willing to consume alcohol

Note: Unfortunately, our lab is not wheelchair accessible.

Other

Babysitter needed for Spring semester part time and full time for Summer. Close to campus. Contact tbeltz@gmail.com Helper needed for basic maitenance work on Central Oakland rentals. Part time, flexible hours. $15/ hr. David Manthei. 412.688.0533

Employment Other Join KEYS Service Corps, AmeriCorps. Mentor, tutor, and inspire Pittsburgh area youth. Summer and fall positions with bi-weekly stipend and education award. Full and part-time. Possible internship credit. Call 412-350-2739. www.keysservicecorps.org

You may earn up to $365 for your participation in this multi-session study. For more information, call The Behavioral Health Research Lab (412-268-3029)

Employment Other Seasonal Marketing Assistant Shadyside property management firm established in 1960 needs two Seasonal Marketing Assistants to work with Excel, Word and the internet from approximately NOW to August; four days/week from 9am-6pm. Saturday and/or Sunday hours a must; some flexibility in days and hours will be considered; most hours will be solitary on the computer with no phone work; 40 words per minute and strong computer skills required; no experience needed & we will train you at our Shadyside office; free parking. $13/hour plus generous season end bonus. Mozart Management 412-682-7003. thane@mozartrents. com

TAKING APPLICATIONS FOR SUMMER, Ice company close to campus. Some weekend work available. Production/ driving/maintenance positions available. Good pay, part-time/ full time. Contact Mastro Ice Company 412-681-4423. mastroice@aol.com

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