Amelia Aceves, a sophomore geology major, was sitting in a study room on the fourth floor of Hillman Library Monday night wearing noisecanceling headphones, when Aceves suddenly saw people running.
“I didn’t hear anything, I just so happened to look up at the right moment, and everyone was just sprinting,” Aceves said. “I thought it was a fire drill at first, but then I realized there were no alarms, and then I saw police everywhere and they had their big rifles out and were yelling for everyone to get out, so I left my stuff and just ran.”
Pitt and City police responded to reports of an active shooter at Hillman Library around 11:15 p.m. on Monday, which ended up being a hoax. Hundreds of students evacuated the library, sprinting down Forbes Avenue, while others jumped off a side wall to get out quicker. This is the second report of an active shooter near campus that has turned out to be false in two weeks.
At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Chief James Loftus said City police received a call on an “untaped line” reporting a shooting at Hillman Library. He said this call had sounds of gunshots in the background. He said police then received two other calls from separate numbers also reporting the incident. They arrived at the library about five minutes after the initial call.
It took more than an hour after police evacuated the library for Pitt to send out an ENS alert, a decision that students criticized. Shortly after the incident, a petition started circulating demanding that Pitt hold Emergency Notification Service accountable to keep students safe. The petition, which has more than 3,000 signatures as of Tuesday night, wants Pitt to send out ENS alerts as the “threat is ongoing” and send frequent updates.
Clarisse Lin, a sophomore psychology major and the creator of the petition, said although she was not in Hillman during the incident, she felt “frustrated and helpless” getting information about the incident through social media instead of through ENS alerts, and wanted to take a stand.
“I think the thing that was most frustrating for most of us, was just the lack of communication from the University, and the fact that so many of my friends had to call their parents and just be like, ‘Hey, Mom and Dad, like I'm safe, but I have no idea what's going on because the University has not said anything.’”
Aceves didn’t find out until 35 minutes after
evacuating the library that it was a hoax shooter threat. They didn’t find out from an ENS alert though, but from the Pitt subreddit.
Loftus said about 12 minutes after police entered Hillman, they determined there was no active shooter. Loftus said Pitt Police was about to send an “all clear” ENS message, until they were dispatched to a potential active shooter incident at Mervis Hall. They determined that Mervis Hall was safe shortly after midnight.
Loftus said police decided to send an ENS message once they determined both Hillman and Mervis were safe, calling it “irresponsible” to send a message before knowing that the Mervis reports were false. They sent out a blank alert at 12:36 a.m. before sending out another one at 1:01 a.m. that clarified that the active shooter threat was “unfounded and false.”
“The scene was clearing at Hillman and we were getting ready to put out an emergency notification message — we didn’t do that, we held off on that message, it would have been quite frankly irresponsible to put out that message, not knowing what was going on at Mervis Hall at that time,” Loftus said. “That was my call, it's my responsibility. So we waited until Mervis was clear, and then the ENS message went out.”
Loftus said while he’s “proud” of Pitt Police’s response to the incident on the operational side, he “regrets” not sending an ENS alert out sooner.
“My regret and my responsibility is that we didn't get the ENS message out as quickly as I feel we could have or should have, and that rests with me,” Loftus said. “We want to stabilize the scene, we want to deal with the threat if there is a threat, identify if there was not a threat, and then we want to message folks because, frankly, when you think about it, and you don’t have to think about it too deeply, this is terror for everybody involved.”
Chancellor Patrick Gallagher sent out an email to the Pitt community Tuesday evening saying the University has started “a major review of the procedures, policies and tools that we use to respond to and address a disinformation attack.” This review will include reassessing the ENS system, revisiting its standard for sharing information, further educating the Pitt community on how to respond and aggressively pursuing who is responsible for the attacks.
Aceves said it seemed like police evacuated the fourth floor last, and that they funneled students “like sardines” through a door on the ground floor that a Pittsburgh police officer shot through to gain entrance to the building.
“And every time we passed a landing with the glass that we could see in, we could just see police completely covering the floor and just these barren floors,” Aceves said. “So it kind of dawned on us as we were going down that we're the last ones out and that everyone was completely evacuated by the time that they got up to tell us to leave.”
In Hillman, Loftus said three exits were locked and chained. Two of them, he said, are exits that have been locked since Dec. 17 due to construction. Loftus said students did a “good job” going to other exits after encountering some locked exits.
“We're looking at systems and we're looking at people to see what led us down in this,” Loftus said. “Was this a technical problem or was this a training problem, it may have been, was it a practical problem, we don't know — we're working our way through that.”
Pitt spokesperson Jared Stonesifer declined to comment about whether the University will keep these doors unlocked in the future.
Mikayla Bernhard, a junior computer engineering major, was studying for finals with her roommate on the second floor of Hillman when police swarmed the floor telling people to run. Bernhard said she smelled gunpowder as she fled to Sennott Square, where she then frantically searched social media for answers.
“We knew absolutely nothing,” Bernhard said. “We were just seeing all the police officers running down, and still people walking around like nothing was wrong. It was crazy, you could tell no one knew what was going on, because everyone was just everywhere.”
Bernhard said she wished the University would have “said at least something” during the incident on Monday night.
“I absolutely wish they would have at least told us something, even just something along the lines of there's an emergency, avoid Hillman, or like avoid the area, like get inside the buildings are on lockdown,” Bernhard said. We didn't need all the information, just some kind of notification.”
Loftus acknowledged that Pitt police don’t have to wait until an incident is cleared before sending out an ENS message, and they are currently “working on some interim messaging.” Loftus pledged to send out this type of messaging in the future.
“Maybe there's something that we could have done at some point to say, ‘Hey, we have an unconfirmed report of an active shooter, in such and such area, please avoid the area, stay clear of the area or something like that,’” Loftus said. “And that's my pledge, is we will do things like that in
the future, if we are put in that circumstance.”
While comments circulated online that neighboring universities received alerts before Pitt, Loftus said Carnegie Mellon University didn’t issue an alert and he couldn’t comment on Duquesne.
When asked if the University will start requiring people to swipe their Pitt ID before entering a University building, like they did during the pandemic, Loftus said they aren’t considering it currently but might in the future. He added that police aren’t currently considering implementing active shooter drills, but there will be a heightened police presence on campus in the coming weeks.
Zachary Shafer, a sophomore physics and astronomy major who was in the first floor of Hillman, said he ended up being a “source” for students passing by who “had no idea that anything was wrong.”
“While I was outside of Hillman, I see people sobbing and trying to scroll Reddit threads to try and figure out what was going on, just so they have something to tell their parents, and I think that's unacceptable,” Shafer said.
Shafer said what was even more “horrendous” was that he evacuated Hillman, waited in Towers, returned back to Hillman to pick up his stuff and then returned home — all before Pitt sent out the ENS alert.
Aceves, Bernhard and Shafer each said they wouldn’t return to Hillman anytime soon.
Shafer said while he believes the police who responded to the incident did a good job, he said the University’s lack of communication was “abysmal.” He referenced the Tuesday morning email from Ted Fritz, the vice chancellor for public safety and emergency management, which acknowledged that the messages were both “delayed and flawed.” Shafer called it a “flimsy apology.”
“I know many students who didn’t attend class because they were shaken up,” Shafer said. “Personally, I couldn’t fall asleep till 3:30 in the morning, and the fact that they gave us a flimsy response was unacceptable and they should have stepped up taking responsibility, showing that they care about their students, showing that they're willing to take action to change what went wrong last night, and I don't think that they did any of that.”
The University Center for Teaching and Learning encouraged professors to be “flexible and responsive to students,” including by avoiding administering tests and considering canceling class. Stonesifer declined to comment about why the University didn’t cancel all classes Tuesday.
Mondays: $1.00 welldrinks8-10pm
Tuesdays: $1.00 ICLight pints
Wednesdays: Trivia onTap
Thursdays: $3.50 EscapeGoat vodka seltzers
Fridays: $6 triple rum and cokes
Saturdays: $7 LongIsland/LongBeaches
Alexandra Ross
Assistant News Editor
Transgender scholar Deirdre McCloskey has dropped out of an on-campus debate against conservative political commentator Michael Knowles about “transgenderism and womanhood” next week, and the organizers of the debate have not yet found her replacement.
McCloskey said she had “no idea” who Knowles was when she agreed to the debate, and after learning more about him and his beliefs, she decided to withdraw from the event.
“[Knowles] is interested in stirring up hatred and violence towards people who do not fit his extremely conservative Catholic beliefs, belief[s] quite contrary to those of for example Pope Francis,” McCloskey said. “His beliefs are not even good Biblical criticism or theology. I decided not to participate in giving him a platform. … It is sad that the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, once a force for liberty, decided to sponsor Mr. Knowles.”
After hearing of McCloskey’s withdrawal
from the debate, Knowles posted on Twitter that perhaps McCloskey had “learned that I'm not the loose cannon that the liberal media have dishonestly portrayed,” and that “my opposition to transgenderism derives, not from hatred, but from love of the truth, in this case regarding epistemology and anthropology.”
“I’m happy to take a victory by default,” Knowles tweeted. “But it’s telling that even a distinguished scholar with three Harvard degrees and half a dozen honorary doctorates cannot defend transgenderism. Of course: the ideology is indefensible.”
Pitt’s College Republicans club, sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, was set to host McCloskey and Knowles on April 18 for an on-campus debate. The debate, among other events hosting “anti-trans” speakers, inspired significant backlash at Pitt as transgender students said the events made them feel “unwelcome” and “in danger” on campus.
ISI President John Burtka said ISI selected Knowles and McCloskey to participate in the
Through distinct African rhythms, colorful harmonies and energetic solos, Pitt’s Afropop Ensemble is introducing students to new sounds from Africa and the African diaspora.
The course is the newest out of Pitt’s music ensembles, founded by the first director Mathew Tembo in 2018.
Samuel Boateng, the ensemble’s current director and a doctoral candidate, said the ensemble’s styles include the genre Afrobeat, pioneered by Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, the Ghanaian genre of highlife and reggae.
“What we do is introduce students to the music and also the history and social side of the music of Africa and the African diaspora,” Boateng said.
The class meets once a week, with the ensemble performing once a semester. The current ensemble consists of six students 一 two guitarists, one bassist, two keyboard players and one drummer. Boateng performs alongside the students, filling in with whatever instruments they need.
Boateng and students arrange the songs themselves, fitting the song to their tastes and specific instrumentation. Currently, they are rehearsing popular African tunes such as “Water No Get Enemy” by Fela Kuti alongside original compositions by Boateng such as “Another Day.”
“We have a playlist of songs we listen to and I select some samples from there that we play and practice in class then [play] for the concert,” Boateng said. “So some of the songs are covers, but we arrange them in a way that suits what we want to do and what I want students to get out of a song.”
Boateng said after he started teaching Afropop last semester, he took new approaches to his instruction.
“Some students are not too familiar with these songs,” Boateng said. “For example, there are certain drum patterns that are very different from playing rock and roll, or even reggae, that are perhaps more needed in Afrobeat or highlife.”
Boateng added that exposing students to this music is a rewarding process.
“It’s my privilege to introduce them to that world and to basically hold their hands as we walk through those worlds and imbibe those things,” Boateng said.
Along with teaching general musicianship, the class also informs students about African and African diasporic culture and history. Ben Barson, who directed the ensemble last year, said cultural education was a core component of the class.
“We read extensively from African writers on
highlife, on Afropop, on the different styles that we were performing,” Barson said. “And we also interviewed and invited and worked directly with musicians of the African diaspora, both in continental Africa and in different parts of the world and made sure to invite them and, at least in one of our concerts, perform with them.”
Barson said he drew ideas from his mentor, saxophonist and scholar Fred Ho, who developed a “Three Cs” maxim for respectfully playing non-Western music in the West.
“The class always had a really strong component of these ‘Three Cs,’ of credit, compensation and committed solidarity that was trying to move beyond this narrow
collaborative on the composition end and the arranging end.”
Both Dukkipati and Boateng said one of Afropop’s goals is to allow students the freedom they may not have in their traditional classes where there are more strict rules when composing and playing music.
“Afropop is unique in the sense that once you’re there, you’re not expected to be bound by all of these rules, because in real life a lot of these rules really don’t matter,” Boateng said. “The class tries to let students be musicians rather than be people who are just memorizing rules, and I think that sets it apart for sure.”
Dukkipati said playing in the Afropop ensemble has helped him in other musical endeavors as well, from his music history courses to playing in the Jazz Ensemble.
“In jazz band, it gives me the freedom to sometimes push outside of what the chart is telling me to do,” Dukkipati said. “So instead of doing just a boring straight eights comping pattern, occasionally I can be like, ‘Hey, I learned this thing in Afropop, can I do this instead?’ Sometimes he says no, because it doesn’t fit. But when he says yes, everyone gets excited.”
model of just performing music from another culture without context and without any cultural appreciation component,” Barson said.
This cultural appreciation is not contained within the classroom. It also takes place in the form of collaboration with community outreach groups such as the Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh Co-op.
Ashwin Dukkipati, a senior music composition and economics major, played in the ensemble last semester. He initially joined the Afropop ensemble to get more practice and meet new people.
“I had never played guitar in front of a crowd until we played our Afropop concert last semester,” Dukkipati said. “So that was really cool to go from zero to 60 like that. Also just to meet new people, to find more musicians in the area with similar interests and to push what I know to its limits and learn new stuff.”
Dukkipati is also a member of Pitt’s Jazz Ensemble. He said compared to the jazz ensemble, Afropop allowed for more collaboration and musical freedom.
“I think they both worked for the genres they were working with. The big band is a lot more people,” Dukkipati said. “It’s a lot more parts. We had written out sheets, you had to sight read a lot of times and it was a lot stricter. Whereas with Afropop, it was a little more
Another characteristic that sets the Afropop ensemble apart is its smaller size. According to Boateng, the class’ small size and high level of collaboration leads to an increased sense of community among members.
“You have to ask someone to perhaps turn their volume down. You have to ask someone what chord they are playing,” Boateng said. “You have to ask someone, can they repeat that. So there’s always this dialogue between students available and that’s one way of building community that you may not necessarily find in traditional classes.”
The ensemble performed this Monday in Bellefield Hall, sharing African and African diasporic music to an audience. Boateng said the concerts are another rewarding aspect of the ensemble.
“Just the opportunity to perform on campus, live, in a big hall, something that’s being streamed online, it gives students the ability to express this gift beyond just the classroom or just with their friends. It’s actually an ability to share their music with other people,” Boateng said.
Dukkipati said he plans to return to the ensemble next semester, and his experience playing continues to impact his relationship with music.
“Now Afropop definitely is part of the way I look at music. I’m not going to be unlearning that anytime soon,” Dukkipati said.
Last May, I traveled to Amsterdam, Netherlands, for a study abroad course about sustainable cities. There, I learned that Amsterdam is a pinnacle of sustainable urban planning, incorporating elements like controlled urban sprawl, green spaces and walkability to create a compact city that promotes people-centered development and well-being.
I learned that these traits extend to many other European cities too — such as Copenhagen, Denmark, and Zurich, Switzerland — that impose climate-positive policies that focus on human needs and not the wants of industry.
Through this experience, I also learned that American cities differ drastically from the sustainabilitycentric cities in Europe in their approaches to urban planning. American cities are concrete jungles, whereas Dutch cities prioritize aesthetic greenery that improve one’s quality of life.
The vast differences between American and Dutch cities can be boiled down to one central element — their priorities. American cities prioritize economics, whereas Dutch cities prioritize people. In order to address issues of well-being and social inequity, America needs to follow in Amsterdam’s and other European cities’ footsteps by prioritizing people over industry.
One central aspect of people-centered development is the idea of “placemaking.” This is a relatively new term in urban planning, but an age-old idea in which cities contain public spaces where people can connect to each other and the surrounding city. When designing city streets, for example, the Dutch employ a concept dubbed “woonerf,” which translates to “living street.” This approach to street planning uses strategies such as traffic calming devices, physical barriers and low speed limits to force drivers to safely share street space with pedestrians and cyclists.
In the process, woonerf turns streets into places. Streets are lined with thick sidewalks, and room is often made for restaurants, stores and other businesses to engage with passersby. And when people choose to walk, bike or take public transit instead of driving, they drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously improving their physical health. And while American cities such as New York City and Chicago are beginning to use the idea of placemaking to install engaging public spaces, they still struggle with walkability and equal access to public space. Our infrastructure is designed for automobiles, prioritizing efficiency over engagement.
By designing city structures through a human lens, urban planners can create buildings and streets that aren’t just distinct and aesthetic but also accessible and comfortable for human use. Placemaking encourages citizens to spend time in public space and loiter, thus supporting local businesses, physical wellness and community engagement. After all, a city without public
space is like a home without a living room — there is no sense of belonging.
Walkability is another critical element of city planning, both in terms of street structure and physical distance. Studies find that American cities are far less walkable than their international counterparts, for streets have high speed limits, few bike lanes — with even fewer street barriers — and unevenly dispersed transit stops. American cities also employ strict zoning laws that severely limit mixed-land use as well, creating distance between residential housing and necessities like schools, grocery stores and other shops and businesses. In this manner, cities expand outwards rather than densify inwards, requiring the use of private automobiles.
Improving walkability often entails making a city increasingly compact in size. A “compact city” refers to an urban model with high-density and mixed-use developments, placing homes, stores and services within walking distance with each other. Walkability cultivates emotional and mental wellness, as people are encouraged to spend more time wandering the city streets, engage with green spaces and find it easier to travel to the homes of friends and family.
In an ideal city, the layout should be compact in that citizens should be within walking distance of all necessities — the grocery store, pharmacist and public transit. Walkability decreases the presence of food deserts — areas in which people have limited access to a variety of healthy and affordable food, often as a result of physical distance. Food deserts are a major issue in the U.S., with more than 13.5 million people lacking access to healthy foods. This inaccessibility can lead to higher risks of diet-related conditions, such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.
By employing people-centered development through strategies like placemaking and walkability, urban planning further promotes equity and social justice. When planners prioritize human over economic needs, they see urban planning through a city-dweller’s lens. Through their planning, they may broaden access to social amenities while ensuring that they are universally inclusive. Such elements include the thorough dispersal of grocery stores to prevent food deserts, accessibility to public transportation and development of green spaces.
Furthermore, urban planning that prioritizes people often prioritizes sustainability as a result. Green spaces, for example, are a vital element of a city. Incorporating nature into urban settings can enhance the quality of
life by contributing to placemaking, promoting sustainable lifestyles, supporting community engagement and improving the overall well-being of urban residents.
The World Health Organization even recommends that all urban residents live within 300 meters of a green space. Green spaces reduce environmental health risks associated with urban living, such as air and noise pollution, while simultaneously promoting mental and physical well-being.
In addition, walkable cities work to control urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is the rapid expansion of a city into neighboring cities and towns, often with low-density housing, single-use zoning and increased dependency on private automobiles. This process can displace minority groups and cause gentrification, further distancing low-income individuals from necessities like grocer-
D E L I V E R Y D R I V E R S
– M u s t h a v e v a l i d P A D r i v e r s
L i c e n s e ( C D L N O T R E Q U I R E D )
– D e l i v e r y t o l o c a l b a r s , r e s t a u r a n t s , h o t e l s , c l u b s , s t o r e s , e t c
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ies and pharmacies. Urban sprawl also has a tendency to consume viable farmland, depleting food sources as well as natural ecosystems.
While urban planning may sometimes need to forgo expansive economic growth, these two need not be mutually exclusive. Walkability is great for local economies, for residents spend more money at local businesses and travel to stores more frequently. Infrastructure is also less costly to build and maintain as people do not need to travel as far or drive automobiles.
I’m not saying we should demolish and rebuild most major U.S. cities. Rather, we should approach current urban planning activities with social needs in mind. Pitt, for one, needs to stop taking away our limited green spaces for the sake of unnecessary housing or industrial growth.
Placemaking, walkability, equity and sustainability should be the pillars upon which we expand and structure our cities. By prioritizing these elements of urban planning, we can improve the well-being of city residents across the country.
Sarah Liez writes primarily about gender issues and social phenomena. Write to her at sjl88@pitt.edu.
C A S H I E R S
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– B u i l d i n g o r d e r s , l o a d i n g t r u c k s
P l e a s e a p p l y i n p e r s o n : 3 1 3 N C r a i g S t r e e t P i t t s b u r g h , P A 1 5 2 1 3
M o n d a y – S a t u r d a y
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V e r y f l e x i b l e s c h e d u l i n g
O F F I C E H E L P – D a y l i g h t h o u r s – A n s w e r i n g p h o n e s , t a k i n g o r d e r s , c r e a t i n g i n v o i c e s , f i l i n g , e t c .
The portal played a massive role in the Panthers’ success this past season, with their entire starting lineup consisting of transfer players for the majority of the season.
Capel will have his work cut out for him once again this offseason, as Nelly Cummings, Jamarius Burton, Greg Elliott and Nike Sibande are all out of eligibility. That’s a combined 45.1 points per game that needs replacing. That’s tough to do.
Coming off their best season in a decade, momentum is on Pitt’s side and Capel is sure to use that to his advantage. Headlined by a pair of four-star guards — Jaland Lowe and Carlton Carrington — the Panthers bring in the No. 26 recruiting class in the country, which will help fill the void left by the departures — but there are still holes to fill.
Capel has four open scholarships to work with after sophomore forward Nate Santos entered the transfer portal last week.
Here are some realistic targets who could join next year’s roster.
Zack Austin (High Point)
Austin is high on the Panthers’ wish list this offseason. The Panthers contacted Austin before they contacted any other player in the portal and had him on an official visit last weekend. It’s easy to see why Austin is a priority for Pitt’s staff.
Austin is 6-foot-7 and one of the most athletic players in the portal. Austin would enter the starting lineup seamlessly at the small forward spot next to senior forward Blake Hinson. His versatility defensively would allow him to switch on to both bigger and smaller players. Austin averaged two blocks and a steal per game in each of his first two seasons.
Outside of Austin, Pitt is clearly targeting scoring guards — some of which are not great defensively. Aus-
debate because they are “prominent and articulate voices on the subject of transgenderism.”
“We felt that the participants would go beyond a surface level discussion of the topic and offer students an opportunity to understand the deeper philosophical, political and religious dimensions of the issue,” Burtka said. “I am sorry that Deirdre chose to withdraw from what will be a civil and constructive event.”
McCloskey’s exit from the event has left ISI to search for her replacement with less than a week to spare. While a replacement has not yet been found, Burtka said he is “confident
tin would bring a much needed defensive presence on the perimeter — instantly becoming the Panthers best on ball defender. But he also has a growing offensive game.
Austin has made 129 threes across his first two college seasons, shooting at a respectable 33% clip from three in his career. He averaged 14 points per game in
Girard is testing the waters of the NBA Draft, but all signs are pointing to a return for a fifth year at the collegiate level. The New York native is coming off a careerbest season, averaging 16.4 points a game. Girard shot 38% from three or better in each of the past two seasons.
Girard struggled as the initiator of Syracuse’s offense, but when he moved off the ball last season, he became
Leggett is a fit for the Panthers in the starting lineup or coming off the bench. If the Panthers do end up landing Girard, for example, Leggett could thrive in a similar role that Sibande played this past season — a spark plug off the bench.
Leggett checked in at No. 7 in scoring in the Atlantic 10, leading the Rams with 16.4 points per game. Leggett shot the ball well from two while being tasked with having to do so much for one of the worst offenses in the entire country. In his first year, Leggett shot 42% from three on low volume.
Being surrounded with better talent will help Leggett. There’s a lot of room to grow and he still has two years of eligibility remaining.
Puff Johnson (North Carolina)
When Johnson entered the portal, it seemed like a given that Pitt would have interest. He obviously has Pittsburgh ties, as his brother Cam played at Pitt before transferring to UNC. He also played high school basketball at Moon High School and is from western Pennsylvania.
each of his first two seasons and showed an impressive ability to not only get to the rim, but finish when he’s there. With two years of eligibility remaining, Austin is a player who Pitt can build around.
Joe Girard (Syracuse)
While Austin is Pitt’s No. 1 target at forward, Girard feels like the priority at the shooting guard spot. He’s a polarizing player among Syracuse fans, but he would fill a lot of needs for the Panthers. Girard hosted Capel for an in-home visit last month.
unlocked, leading to better efficiency. Girard would play in a similar role at Pitt. He could play as the primary ball handler when needed as well.
Girard checks a lot of boxes for Pitt offensively, and adding him to a lineup that already features Hinson would create plenty of spacing.
Ishmael Leggett (Rhode Island)
Some of the players who the Panthers contacted will fall through after the roster begins to take shape — but Leggett is not one of those players. That’s because
Johnson played a limited role at North Carolina. He came off the bench in all but two games and averaged 16 minutes a game last season. Out of high school, Johnson’s shooting ability is why he was such a highly touted recruit, but he is shooting just 25% from deep in his three-year career.
Johnson’s shooting percentage is on a pretty small sample size though, and a change of scenery could help. Pitt is in the market for wing defenders, but Johnson is a project and the fit on the roster with junior forward Will Jeffress is redundant. Both players are valuable because of their defense, but neither have been good shooters up to this point.
There’s a lot of untapped potential with Johnson, but Pitt has prioritized other wings so far this offseason.
we will do so shortly.”
“We look forward to hosting a civil debate on this important topic at Pitt next week,” Burtka said. “We applaud the university administration for their commitment to free speech and open inquiry and look forward to providing a welcoming environment where students can learn and express their deeply held beliefs on gender and womanhood.”
Burtka confirmed that ISI reached out to Charlotte Clymer — a transgender writer, activist and communications consultant — Monday afternoon and offered her $10,000 to argue the “pro-trans/pro-government-decid -
ing-trans-rights side” of the debate.
According to email screenshots Clymer posted to Twitter, she declined to participate for reasons including that “the humanity of my community — our right to exist — should not be a topic of debate” and Knowles’ “history of engaging in exceedingly bad faith.”
Though she decided not to debate Knowles, McCloskey noted that she has participated in debates on transgender issues in the past, for example with British professor of philosophy Kathleen Stock in June 2022.
“Kathleen is well informed and seeks the truth, though mostly mistaken on trans issues,
as I said in our debate,” McCloskey said. “Mr. Knowles, I discovered, is even more mistaken, but utterly uninterested in finding the truth.”
Even as she condemned Knowles, McCloskey also said she was “dismayed” by Pitt students’ “anti-free-speech” demands for University administration to cancel the event.
“Both are wrong, the hate-mongering Mr. Knowles and the speech-suppressing signatories of the petition,” McCloskey said. “The result would be not a rational debate but a fascist rally.”
Around 11:15 p.m. on Monday night, several members of our editorial board sat in The Pitt News office for what was supposed to be a typical production night. However, we were suddenly surprised to hear blaring sirens coming from outside, and when we peered out the office windows, we watched dozens of police cars surround Hillman Library while students ran out of the building.
From our office located on the fourth floor of the William Pitt Union, we watched hundreds of students bolt out of the library, some even jumping off of the side of the ramp out of fear. Police officers rushed inside with assault rifles to respond to alleged reports of an active shooter. At one point we even opened the window slightly to hear more of what was going on, but after hearing several loud sounds — which we presumed to be gunshots — we immediately shut the windows, turned off all the lights in the office, locked the door and crouched to continue to peer out the window.
This hoax happened not even two weeks after the hoax shooter at Central Catholic High School, and in a time when mass shootings are an unfortunate norm in the United States. While the incident was luckily a false alarm, the fear that students felt was very much real. Students in Hillman didn’t know that it was a hoax until after they evacuated the building.
As students watching things unfold, we were confused about what was happening, and then scared for our peers in Hillman. But, as student journalists, our second instinct was to find out what was going on and update the campus community with the information we had as soon as possible. We immediately tuned into the police scanner, started calling sources at the University to find out if there genuinely was an active shooter and texted friends to see if anyone was in the library.
The University didn’t provide any updates until more than an hour after the police first arrived at the library, in which it informed students that the calls reporting an active shooter were “unfounded and false.” The fact that students, who genuinely feared for their lives, had to wait so long for Pitt to send a single emergency alert is unacceptable.
ENS alerts are supposed to inform students of emergency situations on campus, but the only alert students received last night was ridiculously delayed. In an email the following morning, Ted Fritz, the vice chancellor for public safety and emergency management, said ENS alerts are “minimal and accurate and designed to give brief instruction on what you can do to keep yourself safe.” That is not what we witnessed Monday night.
Students didn’t hear from the University that there was a potential threat on campus or to stay away from the library — they only were informed after the threat was confirmed false. In fact, for many
students, our social media posts and coverage were the first way they even found out that something was happening at all. This shows a clear lack of communication on the University’s part and a glaring problem with its ENS system.
While we understand that it's crucial to provide students with accurate information and not alarm them too much, students were already frightened, and the fact that Pitt was not sending even an emergency notice to avoid Hillman is extremely disappointing. Many students have criticized the University and even started a
petition for its lack of communication, and many more have even called into question what Pitt’s ENS alerts would have looked like had the incident been real.
Both Fritz and Chancellor Patrick Gallagher noted that the University is reassessing ENS and sharing information with the campus community since, according to Gallagher, it has proven “insufficient.” These assessments must be done quickly in case something like this, hoax or not, ever happens again.
As a student newspaper we will continue to update our campus community of events that happen on cam-
pus and do our best to share information we gather. But Pitt should have updated students way before we did. We ourselves are students, who feared for the lives of our friends and peers, and heard from Pittsburgh Public Safety before we heard from our own school.
While the fact that we even had a hoax call to begin with is problematic in itself and speaks to greater issues in American society, it's even more disheartening that Pitt failed to communicate with students who experienced genuine fear. Pitt must do better for the safety and well-being of its students.
Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis
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34 Not so hot
36 Prop for a classic magic trick
39 Junior
8 Plan for the future, in a way
9 Recess
10 Happy cry on a fishing boat
11 Building site code?
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46 Groundbreaking technology?
48 Digs
12 Dose of reality, perhaps
13 “Is that all?”
14 Southeast Asian spicy noodle soup
21 Front 23 Application error, perhaps 24 Informal language that includes many abbreviations
27 “Then what happened!?”
29 Colonial protector?
Adrian Johnson ©2022
