4-11-17 by The Pitt News

The Pitt News

T h e i n d e p e n d e n t s t ude nt ne w spap e r of t he U niversity of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | april 11, 20 1 7 | V o l u m e 1 0 7 | I ssu e 1 5 7

Pitt names IT’S ON THE HOUSE senior vice chancellor for research John Hamilton and Ashwini Sivaganesh

The Pitt News Staff The University of Pittsburgh hired Rob A. Rutenbar Monday as the first senior vice chancellor for research, a new position that will oversee and integrate research at Pitt. The search for the job began in October 2016, when Pitt held four town halls to get input on hiring for the new job. During this process, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said the right candidate would be someone who can work effectively in bureaucracy and promote collaboration. Rutenbar, an entrepreneur who specializes in computer science, will manage the University’s Center for Research Computing, the Innovation Institute, the Office of Research and other departments with the goal of creating and implementing a “longterm plan for research infrastructure,” according to a press release. “[Rutenbar’s] experience as a researcher, innovator, collaborator and entrepreneur — both inside and outside of the University — make Rob uniquely qualified to support our faculty’s research and innovation efforts and to champion Pitt research on a local, national and global scale,” Gallagher said in the release Monday. Providing administrative support and economic partnerships will be major focuses for Rutenbar, according to the job description. He will report to Gallagher, who has focused heavily on research since becoming chancellor in 2014 — especially with recent endeavours to establish the Healthy Living and Innovation Institutes. See Chancellor on page 2

The University of Pittsburgh Habitat for Humanity club builds a “HabiShack” on the WPU lawn to bring awareness to the issue of widespread substandard housing. Meghan Sunners VISUAL EDITOR

MAKING MEMORIES

Pitt students paint 28 portraits for underprivilaged children through The Memory Project. Anandhini Narayanan For The Pitt News

Jill McDonnell surveyed a set of portrait pictures laid out on a Hillman Library table and picked her next art subject based on their name and favorite color — the only information provided with the picture. Using watercolor and acrylic paints, McDonnell and 27 other artists at Pitt painted personalized portraits of children they haven’t met, which will be delivered next week to the subjects — 4,000 miles away in Bolivia.

“I chose this particular portrait to paint because her favorite color is pink — and that’s how I made the background,” McDonnell, a junior molecular biology major, said. “I also sent a note in Spanish with the portrait.” Members of ARTificial –– a Pitt club McDonnell is involved in that focuses on providing outside the classroom art projects for students –– and other Pitt art students created these portraits for The Memory Project, a national nonprofit aimed at helping poor, abused or orphaned children feel valued by giving them a personalized portrait. The artwork is

created by artists at high schools, colleges and other organizations around the country. Each year, The Memory Project receives photos of disadvantaged children taken by various global charities and orphanages. The project then sends these pictures to schools or organizations that have artists interested in painting portraits for the children, only giving their first name, age, country they live in and favorite color. The project doesn’t reveal the organization that provided the photos to proSee Memory Project on page 2

News Memory Project, pg. 1

tect the children’s privacy. Each artist gets one photo, but each child gets two different portraits from two different artists. Cara Pizzorusso, a sophomore marketing major, became involved with the project in high school and wanted to continue contributing at Pitt. By partnering with ARTificial and promoting the project in the art school, Pizzorusso formed a group at Pitt interested in working with the project. “I thought it would be cool to bring to Pitt’s campus, not even as a club, but as a somewhat informal thing,” Pizzorusso said. Ben Schumaker — a 2003 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison — started The Memory Project in 2004 after he returned from volunteering in Guatemala. He noticed the children there had few special belongings and had no photos or videos to help remember their childhood. Ryan Egan, communications director at the project, said the experience can be “compassion-building and empathy-building” for artists who dedicate their time to the program. “It’s a connection formed that kind of transcends what we know in the human experience,” he said. Schumaker said high school students create 95 percent of the portraits as assignments for class, making college groups like ARTificial — that draw and paint as volunteers — less common. “The college students are almost always just hard working volunteers,” he said. “We really appreciate that they do this in their spare

Chancellor, pg. 1 Gallagher advocated for research commercialization in 2015, something Rutenbar will focus on in his new role. “It takes a lot to take an idea from the ‘concept-breakthrough’ stage to a product that can be sold into the marketplace,” Rutenbar said in an interview with the Pitt Chronicle. “It literally takes a village.” Rutenbar has worked in the computer science field for 40 years and currently heads the department of computer science

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Beer & Wine Edition On stands Friday time.” Sana Mahmood, president of Pitt’s ARTificial, was eager to get members of the club involved because The Memory Project’s goals reminded her of a visit she took to Pakistan. At her grandmother’s house, Mahmood, a

memories. This time, all the pictures The Memory Project sent to Pitt in February were of children from Bolivia. The artists at Pitt had six weeks to paint the portrait on some flat surface –– like paper or loose canvas–– that

Jill McDonnell painted Laura Andrea, a girl from Bolivia whose favorite color is pink. Courtesy of Jill McDonnell. biology, history of art and architecture and history in philosophy of science triple major, spent time with the daughter of a woman who helped around the house. To keep the young girl busy, Mahmood provided her with an adult coloring book and pencils, and she noticed how the little girl eagerly colored the intricate designs in the book. She realized the power of art to form connections and make

could be shipped easily. They used a variety of mediums, including more abstract methods like pixelating the portraits. McDonnell decided to avoid the abstract form — which is creating from the idea of something rather than reproducing an exact replica — when composing the painting of the child she chose. Her high school art classes didn’t work with The Memory Project

at the University of Illinois. Before taking the position at the University of Illinois in 2010, he worked for 25 years through an endowed professorship in Carnegie Mellon’s department of electrical and computer engineering. “Rob’s experiences and expertise in both the academic world and the private sector make him the perfect individual to fully integrate and expand upon Pitt’s University-level research and medical school endeavors,” Arthur S. Levine, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and the John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the

School of Medicine, said in the release. He is also a successful entrepreneur who founded two technology firms — Neolinear Inc. in 1998 and Voci Technologies, Inc. in 2006. Rutenbar also has 14 U.S. patent grants to his name, and technology giants including AT&T, Google, IBM, the National Science Foundation and the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance have funded some of his projects. In addition, Rutenbar has published eight books and 175 research articles. He earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Wayne State Uni-

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so she was eager to participate in the project at Pitt “I’m more of a realistic artist,” McDonnell said. “I’m too much of a perfectionist to let myself do expressionistic stuff.” After they are completed, the students mail the portraits and usually a group picture of all the artists from a region holding up their paintings, to Madison, Wisconsin, where The Memory Project is based. Staff members at The Memory Project deliver the portraits directly to the children and take videos and photos of their reactions to compile them into a video, Egan said. Egan and his wife Cheridyn will personally deliver the portraits to the children in Bolivia next week. “It helps bring the whole circle together,” Egan said, referring to the reaction video. “It not only shows the compassion of the artists [because of the time they commit to their project], but it also shows the excitement of the children upon receiving the portrait.” Each artist is required to pay a $15 fee for coordination and shipping of the portraits. Mahmood said the club plans to appeal to Student Government Board Allocations Committee for funding in the future. When traveling to another country and experiencing a new culture, Mahmood said, it’s easy to realize that people aren’t that different. The Memory Project helps to form this connection of “one humanity,” by studying the portrait of someone’s face, she said. “As much as you want to go abroad for a mission trip, it’s not always feasible and affordable,” Mahmood said. “So doing a little something like this is always better than nothing.” versity in 1978 and master’s degree in 1979 and doctorate in 1984 in computer, information and control engineering from the University of Michigan. Rutenbar has also received several accolades for his work in computer science — including Carnegie Mellon’s Stephen J. Jatras Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2002. “I am excited to be a part of the amazing intellectual and entrepreneurial ecosystem that has been transforming this city for the last quarter of a century,” Rutenbar said in the Pitt Chronicle article.

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April 11, 2017

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Media reaction to Syria strike jumps to conclusions It would have been hard to guess that the one thing to unite the media and President Donald Trump’s administration would be a military strike. Nevertheless, that seemed to be exactly what happened as the nation’s press responded to Trump’s order Thursday night to bomb Assad regime military targets at the Al Shayrat Military Airfield north of Damascus. Trump made the decision after reports emerged about the Syrian government using chemical weapons on its own people, as it has done several times before. And the way the media has appeared to reconcile itself to the president on this issue has the potential for even greater harm to the nation’s journalistic institutions than a president often hostile to reporters. Pundits at outlets like Fox News were predictably supportive of the Republican administration’s actions, with Jeanine Pirro of “Fox and Friends” praising Trump’s actions as “swift” and “decisive” Friday. But even a fair number of those journalists who typically find themselves in disagreement with the president were willing to switch sides to praise the Syrian airstrike. The word of the moment seemed to be “presidential.” “I think Donald Trump became president of the United States [Thursday night]”, CNN pundit and prominent Trump critic Fareed Zakaria said of the strike hours after it happened. Even more extreme, MSNBC news host Brian Williams quoted lines from a Leonard Cohen ballad to describe the president’s airstrike. “They are beautiful pictures of fearsome armaments,” Williams said in an

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almost dreamy tone of footage of the missiles’ launch as he presented news of the strike Thursday night. “I am tempted to quote the great Leonard Cohen, ‘I am guided by the beauty of our weapons.’” Williams’s reaction to the bombing was unquestionably absurd — but the only real difference between his reaction and that of the rest of the media was how obvious the absurdity was. Trump’s action in bombing Syrian government targets was presidential only in the sense that presidents before him have also bombed Middle Eastern countries. The decision to make the strike appears fairly arbitrary itself — Trump himself repeatedly voiced opposition to military intervention in Syria during last year’s presidential campaign. And the rush among national TV journalists to praise Trump’s military action doesn’t reflect a genuine reaction to the facts of the story, so much as happiness that any decision was made at all. The reaction feels like it’s just the media’s attempt to jump on a lucrative story — and that’s cause for serious concern. In a Facebook post Friday, veteran journalist and former CBS anchor Dan Rather deplored the reaction among the likes of Zakaria and Williams as “concerning.” “War must never be considered a public relations operation,” Rather said. “It is not a way for an administration to gain a narrative.” A media reaction that instantly labels a military strike as “presidential” falls into precisely this trap. If media outlets are unwilling to use a critical eye in reporting on a story of as much importance as Thursday night’s bombing in Syria, they might as well not report the story at all.

CONFLICT KITCHEN LEAVES LEGACY OF TOLERANCE Christian Snyder Columnist

Pittsburgh was always filled with mysterious things to do as I was growing up. Places such as the Mattress Factory and the Carnegie Science Center have more widespread notoriety, but my personal favorite was “Waffle Shop: A Reality Show.” The brainchild of Jon Rubin, an art professor at Carnegie Mellon University, the project was something between a restaurant and performance art. With your waffles, you also had the chance to be a guest on a live-streamed talk show. Rubin didn’t stop there with his experimental restaurants. He and Dawn Weleski opened what we now know as a staple of Oakland culture — Conflict Kitchen. And now that the renowned Oakland eatery announced that it will permanently close May 31, it’s worth taking a look back at how much the restaurant contributed to the community — if only to make an attempt to replace some of what it did.

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Conflict Kitchen wasn’t always at its familiar Schenley Plaza location. After opening a window-shop location in East Liberty and serving Afghan and Iranian cuisine in 2012, it relocated to Oakland a mere four years ago in 2013, according to the restaurant’s website. After settling into its Schenley Plaza location, Conflict Kitchen began serving Palestinian food in 2014 as its menu’s first iteration. Shawarma, baqlawa, baba ghanoush — some of my favorite kinds of food — all showed up on the menu. But the Pittsburgh community wasn’t always as excited as I was. Jewish service organization B’nai B’rith International expressed “dismay and deep concern” about the restaurant’s lunchtime discussions about the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Heinz Endowment calling the program “anti-Israel propaganda.” Conflict Kitchen was then forced to close due to repeated death threats in November of 2014. But Rubin and Weleski never gave up and merely responded with grace. “Perhaps it is hard for some people to hear that Palestinians are not happy with Israeli policies or the actions of some of its citizens, but to cast their viewpoints as simply anti-Israel is to reinforce the simplest, most polarizing and dehumanizing reading of their lives and perpetuate the silencing of their voices.” Both prior to and after their temporary closure, the restaurant and its owners always exhibited this determination to eradicate anti-foreign sentiment. For example, one of Conflict Kitchen’s first See Snyder on page 5

Snyder, pg. 4

see it next. Conflict Kitchen will be closing May 31 to pursue other opportunities, leaving burning questions for its customers. Many feel as if they’ve been slighted and will notice the restaurant’s absence in today’s political climate. “We appreciate all of the support we’ve received in the weeks after we announced the

Jordan Mondell LAYOUT EDITOR like when students from The Ellis School — a local private school — visited to talk about Afghanistan and Iran or when it hosted live Skype exchanges with Afghan filmmakers. And now, nobody’s quite sure where we’ll

restaurant’s closure,” Weleski said of plans for the future, adding that she doesn’t view the closure as limiting their impact. “We see this transition as an opportunity to extend the reach of Conflict Kitchen both

locally and nationally, and we are currently seeking new partnerships to make this happen.” Conflict Kitchen can’t have expected to close its Schenley Plaza location without a reaction from the community — the restaurant’s positive, inclusive attitude has put it on the map for a reason. Through its challenging conversations and delicious food, the restaurant has become a staple of Oakland and Pitt culture. It’s hard to think of a better location for such an important cultural restaurant. Hopefully, something similar takes its place. But until then, if you’re feeling like Primanti Brothers is a little too Pittsburgh for your taste, you could walk over to Las Palmas on Atwood Street to find some delicious, authentic street tacos. If tacos aren’t your style, head to the Strip District to visit Salem’s Market and Grill, an excellent spot for Mediterranean food. And while you eat, keep a close eye out for Conflict Kitchen’s reemergence — we should be anxiously awaiting the next project, and can only hope that it’s as important and impactful as the things it’s already done. Christian primarily writes on social justice and campus issues for The Pitt News. Write to him at cjs197@pitt.edu.

The Pitt news crossword 4/11/17

acts in the Schenley Plaza location was to ask Iranians around the world to write a speech they wished then-President Barack Obama would give in order to demonstrate the desires of Iranians, rather than what Americans perceive them to be. Another time, the restaurant asked 875 customers to find Afghanistan on a map while eating cuisine from that country, mapping the results to show how geographic ineptitude can lead to misguided opinions. The backlash over their Palestinian iteration was far-reaching, even leading the Heinz Endowment to disavow a grant made in 2013. Left short on funding, Rubin made a radical decision to keep pushing the boundaries of what was possible in Schenley Plaza — he donated the entirety of a $15,000 award that he personally received toward the Palestinian iteration of Conflict Kitchen. But it’s not just the restaurant’s location that makes Conflict Kitchen so central to our community. Conflict Kitchen has always existed outside of their physical structure. Whether it was it’s thought-provoking billboard in East Liberty that at one point merely read “Come on. We can do better than this,” or when it operated from families’ homes during a transi-

tion period in May 2013, it’s made sure to remain visible in the city and at the forefront of the fight against inequality. The restaurant has even moved to affect racism at its roots by involving themselves with students, both in Pittsburgh and around the world. The restaurant has provided cultural outreach programs at their restaurant,

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April 11, 2017

Culture

Upcoming: Pittsburgh’s budding comic scene Thursday

Julia Zhu STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

VEGGING OUT TO HEAVY METAL VIBES Taylor Pecarchik For The Pitt News

Sometimes you just can’t choose between listening to heavy metal and finding some vegan-friendly eats — and, at Onion Maiden, you don’t have to. At the new restaurant, named for the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden — best known for the songs “Run to the Hills” and “Hallowed Be Thy Name” — you can gaze at a framed cover of an Iron Maiden album hanging on the wall while munching on an “Eddie.” An Eddie is Onion Maiden’s very own vegan version of the Twinkie, named after Iron Maiden’s mascot Eddie the Head. Sitting just 10 minutes south of Pitt in the Allentown neighborhood, Onion Maiden is a punk rock and heavy metal-inspired restaurant that Diana “Dingo” Ngo, Elyse Hoffman and Brooks Criswell own. The restaurant has been offering Asian-American vegan comfort food since it opened in March — but the restaurant caters to everyone, not just vegans. Whether you’re munching on the “Munster Mash” — sharp cashew cheese plate and pear lemongrass chutney — or the “Kale Satan” — cashew cheese and sautéed kale — each dish is named after the punk rock and heavy metal music that inspires the owners. The restaurant lies on a street corner,

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a blue-and-yellow building with a modest sign. When you walk in, the first thing visible is a lit up logo of a large onion printed on the back wall. The restaurant is adorned with punk rock or heavy metal posters and album covers, and various cacti which hang from the ceiling and sit on the windowsills. There are 10 tables and the entire restaurant seats about 36 people. Dinner at Onion Maiden is busy, but you can get seated right away at Saturday brunch.

“

ness partners went vegetarian to begin with was because a lot of the bands that they listen to are focused on food politics and animal rights. “The biggest reason that I was into food was because I just learned from reading the lyrics and looking through CD books and stuff, and that influenced the decision to go vegetarian and eventually we’d go vegan,” Criswell said. While the three friends always thought

Food has to taste good.

”

Brooks Criswell, Co-Owner of Onion Maiden

Music from bands including Bad Brains, Highlords, Graves at Sea and, of course, Iron Maiden plays, but not so loud that you can’t hear the person sitting across from you. By the cash register sits a small glass case with an assortment of vegan donuts and pastries. Before opening the restaurant, owners Ngo, 32, and Hoffman, 31, were just two friends who liked to cook vegan food. Ngo met Criswell, 32, in high school, when the bands they were in played together. Now, Criswell and Ngo are engaged, and Hoffman is a close friend of the couple. Criswell said the reason he and his busi-

about doing something with food, it didn’t come into fruition until February 2015, when they offered their hot “dawgs,” nachos and dirt cake at a local punk show put on by Hoffman’s husband at The New Bohemian church in North Side. “We got great responses,” Criswell said. “We kind of just kept rolling and things just kind of progressed very naturally.” Onion Maiden made appearances in 2015 and 2016 at Pittsburgh food festivals, such as PGH Brewtal Beer Fest, Pittsburgh Vegan Festival and Pittsburgh VegFest. The Onion Maiden crew met and connected with

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other food vendors all over Pittsburgh, many of whom became close friends. Anna Shaw, a senior psychology and gender, sexuality and women’s studies major and a vegan herself, first saw Onion Maiden at a punk rock show, when the owners served four dishes at a small table. Shaw said every time she saw Onion Maiden after that, she was sure to get the food. It was always a mystery to Onion Maiden’s fans when and where it would pop up next. “It was like, everyone was always talking about them, and you never knew when they were going to show up, so they really built up popularity. And everyone was so excited for the restaurant to finally open,” Shaw said. Onion Maiden eventually served pop-up brunches at Allentown’s Black Forge Coffee House and Lawrenceville’s Belvedere’s Ultra Dive. Their friends who own Lili Cafe in Polish Hill wanted in on Onion Maiden, too, and so they served Sunday night dinners and supplied most of Lili Cafe’s pastries. Last summer, Onion Maiden bought its first food truck — with no intentions of opening a restaurant. A week later, the truck wasn’t put together yet, and the owners received a call from their friend Bek Hlavach, owner of Allentown’s Sweet Peaches. Hlavach See Onion Maiden on page 10

Li Yi STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

RECORDS ON THE RISE An increasing number of young adults — including Pitt students — are embracing the cool factor of vinyls and starting their own collections. by Emma Maurice

assette tapes, eight-tracks and Walkmans may be things of the past, but not vinyl. In the last decade, records have been making a considerable comeback. A large factor to the recent vinyl resurgence? Young adults. Although digital music streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora and Tidal have become increasingly prominent over the past few years, vinyl sales have been on the rise since nearly disappearing in the early 2000s. Vinyl LP/EP sales rose 32 percent in 2015 to $416 million, generating more revenue than ad-supported streaming services, which grew 31 percent to only $385 million, according to Pitchfork. Jerry Weber, owner of Jerry’s Records in Squirrel Hill for more than 33 years, said the trend — beginning in about 2012 — of teenagers and young adults buying vinyl is what’s continuing to allow his business to thrive after so many years. Weber sits behind the cash register, pricing newly arrived used records — most of them from people who came to the shop to sell their records — while classic rock vinyl plays over the speakers in the background. “Older people in their 50s and 60s built this business,” Weber said. “And now they don’t buy records anymore. It has flip-flopped to people buying records ages 15 to 35 — that’s the biggest flip-flop ever.” Now, adults in their 50s to 70s don’t prioritize buying vinyl like young adults do. Weber said it’s common for adults to have more expenses to pay — bills, gas or children to pay for and take care of — that younger people generally don’t have to worry about. Therefore the younger generation generally has more time and money to dedicate toward collecting and buying vinyl, especially with steep prices for new records from modern bands, such as Future Islands, Real Estate and Alt-J. Records at Jerry’s often go for about $7 per used vinyl, while newly released vinyl is sold for $20 to $30, on average, according to Weber.

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store. Bohn’s father opened his Millvale store, The Attic, in 1980. “If the record companies weren’t pushing CDs in the early 2000s, records would have never went out — but the record companies didn’t want to give you that option,” Bohn said. Although vinyl sales are at an all-time high since 1988, CD sales are rapidly declining, but Johnson said he is absolutely sure they will never go away. Unless a new physical format comes out to replace CDs, he thinks they will always be viable to sell because older music has now become exceptionally cheap on CD. “Downloads have had a big effect on the music industry, but people still like to own something that they can look at, and, on that piece of music, read about who plays on what, who wrote the songs — people like getting all that information. That’s not always what you get with the downloads,” Johnson said. In the midst of the youth movement toward vinyl, Weber has seen a more specific trend: an increasing number of young women buying records, particularly with girls in college and in their 20s. “It used to be that a girl would come in walking behind her guy and carrying the records for him — women didn’t buy a lot of records, even going back 10 to 20 years ago,” Weber said. Greygor models this trend and said nostalgia, as well as the process of browsing her albums and Senior Kayla Greygor started collecting vinyls as a senior in high school. choosing which one she wants to listen to, are the Kyleen Considine STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER major appeals of vinyl. “You are able to watch the record spin while shareability of vinyls. Not having her parents’ col- record companies did not want to give people the you’re listening to it and have to physically flip the lection at school prompted her to curate records option to buy either vinyl or CD. According to record over to hear the rest of the songs on the Jim Johnson, who does sales and marketing for other side,” Greygor said. “You’re not just shufof her own. Her collection grew massively over the four the music distributor Alliance Entertainment in fling your iPod.” Connor Murray, Pitt first-year marketing years since she started, expanding the most dur- Florida, the record companies wanted the public ing this past year from shopping at different stores to adapt and spend their money on the new CD major and founder of the record label Crafted around Pittsburgh. She has both new and used vi- music format at that time, a phenomenon Fred Sounds, said buying records is very appealing to him because he is able to have music that is tanginyl from the bands No Doubt, The Zombies and Bohn Jr. witnessed as well. While some fathers were passing on individ- ble. Murray chooses to spend his money on vinyl Quasimoto. “I started my own record collection sepa- ual records, Bohn’s dad gave him an entire record See Records on page 10 Weber said many of the younger generation’s parents grew up listening to classic rock, which they then introduced to their kids. Hearing that music on vinyl made the younger generation want to get their own record players and start collecting — which meant frequenting record stores. Kayla Greygor, a senior communication and philosophy double major, said her parents were a big part of how she started to collect vinyl after they introduced it to her. Greygor, the promotions director at WPTS, soon found she was hooked on vinyl independently from her parents — primarily because of the interactive nature and

rate from my parents’ in my senior year of high school. I liked the idea of being able to pass records around. It’s totally different and more special to me, rather than just listening to the new stuff on Spotify,” Greygor said. With technology advancing so rapidly, Greygor — along with many other young adults — is trying to cling to the past through vinyl. “This comeback is making teens realize that we now have the ability to collect vinyl, take polaroid pictures, etc., like our parents did, but now it’s actually cool and trendy,” Greygor said. With the emergence of CDs in the early 1990s,

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Sports

Justice Kithcart transferring to Old Diminion University Online Photos by Stephen Caruso ASSISTANT VISUAL EDITOR

FROM PITT TO THE PROS: SPRATLING SPRINTS TO STARDOM Ryan Zimba

Staff Writer Brycen Spratling sports Nike shoes, sweatpants and a short-sleeve black-and-blue shirt while warming up for his workout. He slowly trots around the track, bouncing to the beat of the music in his earbuds. An unknowing observer might assume he’s just there for a routine jog. But once he takes off, a shift occurs. Spratling transforms into one of the world’s fastest men, still training alongside the team and coaches who gave him a chance when no one else would. Spratling was one of Pitt’s most decorated athletes from 2011 to 2014, breaking multiple school records on his way to becoming a 10-time All-American. After graduation, he and Pitt head coach Alonzo Webb agreed he has the speed to succeed at the professional level — and Spratling decided to keep training under Webb while pursuing his dream of becoming a professional runner. “I just ended up sticking around and still coached by Coach Webb, still doing the same workouts I’m familiar with,” Spratling, 25, said. “I feel like he got me to the point to where I’m at now, so [I] might as well not change anything.” Less than a year after graduating from Pitt, he broke the world record in the 500-meter dash in February 2015. Then, he was part of the team that set a

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world record in the Distance Medley Relay with a time of 9:15.50 less than two weeks later in March 2015. But Spratling’s journey to greatness was long and complicated. In fact, it almost didn’t happen at all. Growing up in Monroe, New York, a suburb of Rochester, Spratling focused on traditional team sports. He played football and basketball for Webster Schroeder High School in New York, as well as AAU basketball — the highest level of travel-team ball — in the spring. But the AAU’s age restrictions — which, according to Spratling, stated no one over the age of 17 could play — prevented him from competing as a senior. With no basketball, an 18-year-old Spratling with no track experience switched from sneakers to spikes. He had always been one of the faster kids on his football and basketball teams, so he thought it would be a good fit. The sport was difficult for him at first. His times weren’t as good as he would’ve liked, and he discovered success wouldn’t come easily. But as the season went along and Spratling saw his times drop, the intrigue of seeing how fast he could run got him hooked. By the end of the year, Spratling was the sectional, county and state champion in the 400-meter dash — but he only had one college scholarship offer, from See Brycen Spratling on page 9

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Brycen Spratling, pg. 8 Eastern Michigan University of the MidAmerican Conference. With no other options, he joined the Eagles and became a two-time MAC champion in the 400-meter dash as a true freshman. Despite the success, he didn’t think Eastern Michigan fit him athletically or academically, and decided to transfer after his first year. This time, the process was completely different — Spratling said he could’ve went anywhere he wanted. But even with all the opportunities, Spratling had yet to hear from Webb and the Panthers, most likely because of his late start in the sport, Webb said. At first, Spratling planned to transfer to Penn State, but Eastern Michigan blocked his release to the Nittany Lions along with a few other programs. With Penn State out of the question, he chose to look at other schools in the area — he wanted to be somewhat close to home — and his coaches recommended he take a look at Pitt. With no offer from the Panthers, Spratling decided to call Webb himself. After seeing Spratling’s accomplishments at Eastern Michigan, Webb said he would be happy to have him join the team. He and Webb immediately built a strong relationship when Spratling started in the 2011-12 indoor track season. Part of the reason the two got along so well was Webb’s willingness to coach his athletes both on and off the track. For example, when Spratling was moving into his new apartment in Oakland, Webb was there to help him in the process. Spratling made his presence felt right away, winning the 500-meter Big East title in his first year and setting an NCAA record with a time of 1:00.63. It didn’t take

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long for Webb to realize how lucky he was to bring on an athlete of Spratling’s caliber. “I don’t know how good our program would’ve been in the time that he would’ve been here if he wasn’t,” Webb said. “We would have still been good, but I think he made us a great program during the three years he was here.” Spratling’s favorite experience wouldn’t come until his last semester at Pitt, when he and his teammates won the 4x400 meter relay at the 2014 Penn Relays — the first time the Panthers had won the race

tion of Athletics Federations World Relays meet in the Bahamas. “That’s very rare to have somebody who’s going to break a world record in anything,” Webb said. “When you think about it, how many people are in this world, and you’re the best, that’s impressive.” After reaching the pinnacle of collegiate sprinting, Spratling now sets his sights on professional and international competitions. He’s competed with the U.S. national team several times, barely missing the cut for the 2016 Rio Summer

“He’s both a mentor and competitor for us, and he’s someone that we all look up to.”

- DESMOND PALMER, TEAMMATE

in 75 years. After graduating from Pitt, he continued to impress. As a professional runner, Spratling has traveled to places like the Bahamas, Canada and Belgium to compete on the international stage. First, Spratling broke a 28-year-old world record in the 500-meters with a time of 1:00.06 at the 2015 Millrose Games. Less than two weeks later, Spratling broke another world record — this time as a member of the U.S. Distance Medley Relay team — at the International Associa-

Olympics. Interacting with the current Pitt team, he serves as a guide and inspiration for the younger athletes, including star senior sprinter Desmond Palmer. Palmer, who recently broke Spratling’s 600-meter school record in his first time trying the event, said Spratling has been a big influence on the team. “He’s someone that pushes us in practice. He tells us about the ins and outs of track and how to perform well at really big meets,” Palmer said. “He’s both a mentor

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and competitor for us and he’s someone that we all look up to.” Current first-year Panther sprinter Jabari Michael-Khensu watched Spratling break the 500m world record from his Maryland home while he was still in high school. When Michael-Khensu visited Pitt shortly after, he was shocked to realize Spratling still trained with the team. “It was exciting my first time meeting him,” Michael-Khensu said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the 500m world record holder,’ but now he’s kind of just a regular old guy that we train with.” When Michael-Khensu finished right behind Spratling in one of his first time trials, the veteran runner texted him afterwards to talk about the young athlete’s mindset. “[He] was like, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing, don’t let any of the negative things people say about you get to you. You’re on the right track, look at what you did at practice today,’” Michael-Khensu said. Throughout his time at Pitt, Spratling only had one major regret — letting the success get to his head early on. He said he if he had tried harder in the beginning of his career, he might’ve achieved even more. “On the track, I wished I would have taken it more serious early,” Spratling said. “I wish I would have tried a lot harder and do a lot of the little things that I skipped out on because success came so quick, and I just got comfortable with what I was doing.” Looking forward, he says he still has a lot to prove and is ready to avenge his Olympic shortcoming in 2020. “I’ll definitely be back,” Spratling said. “I’m going to amp up my training a little bit and just try to get better every day.”

Onion Maiden, pg. 6 was moving on to a different project, and offered for Onion Maiden to take over Sweet Peaches’ location. The facility had already been used as a catering service, the kitchen was in place, the structure was set and the place was ready to go. “It was kind of like an offer we couldn’t refuse,” Criswell said. With the restaurant now open, Onion Maiden features Asian and American plant-based comfort foods, with menu items varying from hot dogs and tater tots to kimchi and jackfruit tacos. At Onion Maiden, the Asian influence on its menu comes from Ngo’s southeast Asian and Chinese roots. B52, another vegan restaurant in Pittsburgh, features American and Middle Eastern cuisine for the same reason: it strikes a chord with the owners. “[Restaurant owners] are doing things that are more personal expressions of the food that they eat that they have a cultural attachment to,” Omar Abuhejleh, owner of B52, said. In addition to drawing on the owners’

roots, it’s one of Onion Maiden’s goals to smash the stereotypes associated with vegan food. Criswell said Onion Maiden’s menu is meant to reach everybody to show that vegan cuisine can have variety and doesn’t always have to mean settling for a salad. Eating a vegan diet daily, Shaw said Onion Maiden specifically is making a lot of foods she never gets to eat, like donuts, deviled eggs and cheese. Onion Maiden’s vegan deviled eggs taste just like what Shaw remembers eggs tasted like. “I hadn’t had a donut in [years], and they’re making donuts,” Shaw said. “I think vegans get super excited when there’s a new vegan place because we can finally eat things that we can’t usually get.” The word “vegan” can be polarizing, according to Criswell, because some people immediately write off a restaurant if it’s vegan. For that reason, the word “vegan” only appears in one place on the restaurant’s menu — at the very bottom. Randy Cinski, owner of Randita’s Vegan Organic Cafe in Aspinwall, said she thinks there’s a misconception that vegan food is all rabbit food.

However, the idea is that it’s not vegan food that makes a restaurant successful — it’s tasty food. Cinski said she has customers that aren’t vegan at all, and they just come because they love the food. “Food has to taste good. I don’t care what you’re pushing or what you’re selling, but if it doesn’t taste good then you’re never going to make it,” Cinski said. Onion Maiden is focusing on the quality of food that it’s serving, rather than categorizing it. The restaurant isn’t about catering to a certain crowd, but rather uniting all people the only way they know how — through music and food. “Our goal from the beginning was not really to say ‘Oh, we’re vegan and you have to be vegan to eat this,”’ Criswell said. “Our goal was just to make food that happens to be vegan.” More than anything, Criswell and his business partners want Onion Maiden to reflect their roots and passions — which includes both music and veganism. “That’s always been a huge part of our lives — music,” Criswell said. “We just felt like combining the two things that we really love doing was really natural.”

Records, pg. 7 because he physically wants the music — he doesn’t just want to listen to it on Spotify. As the founder of a record label, which he started because of his own interest in making music, Murray is starting relationships with many local artists, and he aims to support these artists through vinyl sales. “A lot of record sales go to the bands, so buying those vinyls is a big help for them. Also, I feel like you definitely get a better engagement with the artists themselves when you buy the record. Almost all music can be accessed online nowadays, so buying it in person in physical format means you care, which is rad,” Murray said. But the trend isn’t just limited to walk-ins at record stores across the city. Promotions such as Record Store Day, an annual event held on the last Saturday in April, highlight all types of music on vinyl, helping to spur millennials’ love for vinyl. A multitude of rare records are made for this international event with a different list of releases for each country. “Vinyl is huge across all age groups,” Johnson said. “But with popular events like Record Store Day and many younger, hip bands releasing their music on records, it has really allowed vinyl to take off once again.”

The Pitt News SuDoku 4/11/17 courtesy of dailysudoku.com

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April 11, 2017