2-15-23

PITT’S NEW MAJORETTE TEAM SHARES BLACK CULTURE THROUGH DANCE

Ben Pisano Staff Writer

Chelsea Adinuba, a sophomore double majoring in health science and information systems, felt that something was missing from her college experience. When someone broached the subject of a majorette team in a group chat

for Black Pitt students, Adinuba finally realized what was missing — dance.

Now, Adinuba is captain, president and choreographer of “The Royal Girls” — a newly formed majorette group that’s stealing the show at the Pitt women’s basketball home games.

Originating from cultural traditions of his -

torically Black colleges and universities, majorette incorporates West African, contemporary and hip-hop choreography into a style that coordinates with the music of the school’s marching band.

In addition to organizing tryouts and officially registering the club with the University,

Adinuba contacted Pitt’s marching band for their recorded set list to use as a basis for the team’s choreography.

“I got in contact with the right people,” Adinuba said. “I knew I had to get in contact with

See Majorettes on page 7

Romita Das | Senior Staff Photographer

‘NO GETTING RID OF IT’: STUDENTS VOICE MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT THE USE OF CHATGPT

Grant Kokenberger said the first time he interacted with ChatGPT he was just “playing around.” Since then, he said he’s used it in almost all of his classes.

“I've used it in biology, and it can pick out multiple-choice answers from groups of answers and questions,” Kokenberger, a firstyear biology major, said. “Chemistry it's not very good at, the math-based stuff it has a little trouble with, but if you put something in for English or grammar or something like that, it can help.”

The company OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November and, according to their website, it is a language model that “interacts in a conversational way.” With its ability to write entire essays, solve multiple choice questions and streamline research, students at Pitt and across the country have used it to assist with school work, though some worry about plagiarism and the implications the software has on critical thinking.

For Kokenberger, the software’s inaccuracies in chemistry and math problem sets mean he mostly uses it for help in his writing-based general education requirements. Though he doesn’t directly submit essays written by ChatGPT, he said it’s useful when formulating ideas.

“The first time I used it in school was to figure out some ideas for a paper that I was writing,” Kokenberger said. “I just kind of put

in the prompt and it kind of gave a general outline of some ideas that I could write about and I went from there.”

Pitt should not consider the use of ChatGPT plagiarism because it simply compiles and “streamlines” information that he said he could find online, according to Kokenberger.

Kokenberger said he’s already had a professor mention using counter-software to detect if an essay was written by ChatGPT. Howev -

er, he said he recalled reading about another open-access site to rewrite ChatGPT output to make it sound more natural.

“I mean, I know they have software to detect if you're using it, but then they just came out with more software to rewrite it,” Kokenberger said. “It's open AI, so it's an open access thing. You can download the code, like, they could ban it, but you’re still gonna have access to it.”

Kokenberger said he could understand why universities are incentivized to ban the software, but given its widespread use and ease of access, “there’s really no getting rid of it at this point.”

Callie Stoltz, a first-year political science major, said while she’s interested in the technology, she hasn’t used it for her classes because she’s worried a professor will cite her for plagiarism. Though she herself doesn’t consider it plagiarism, she said “the school probably does.”

“If other people use it, I don't really have an issue with that,” Stoltz said. “It's just for me personally, I don't want to get too caught using it. And I feel like it wouldn't write essays like the way I would want them to be written.”

Stoltz said students should make the distinction between major and non-major classes

when it comes to using ChatGPT. She said if she were to start using it, it would only be for fact-based multiple-choice assignments that don’t require “analytical essay writing,” as her major does.

“I think a lot of the American education system is set up to memorize, regurgitate, and then you forget after a multiple choice test,” Stoltz said. “You're just memorizing info and spitting it back, and then you forget it because you don't really need it.”

Additionally, Stoltz said beyond “generic” writing assignments, she’s worried about the accuracy of ChatGPT. For example, she said she has to pitch public art projects specific to Pittsburgh for her “Art in Public” class, a task she can’t imagine ChatGPT being able to accomplish.

“I don't think it would be useful for my classes,” Stoltz said. “Like if I had a really generic essay that I thought I could write, then I might use it and take ideas from it and then write my own essay, but I don't know. For me, it's just not worth it in the long run.”

Michelangelo Montelone, a Pitt alumnus who graduated in 2000 with an interdisciplinary degree in global culture and travel writing, writes for a Pitt athletics blog, Pitt POV. Last month he edited and published an article, written by ChatGPT, describing the success of Pitt’s basketball team with the dramatization of the movie “Gladiator.”

“I don't really have time to write as much as I'd like to, and the basketball team won their third game in a row by one point, and I'm like, you know, let me just see what ChatGPT can do,” Montelone said. “Like [the article] is really general and it has no specifics, but it does sort of capture the essence of what I was trying to do.”

Montelone said based on the ChatGPT written article, he’s not worried about being replaced as a writer anytime soon. The comments left by readers of the article definitively stated that the article was “nowhere near the quality of the work” Pitt POV usually produces.

“Is it potentially a terrifying portend for the future?” Montelone said. “Maybe, but, like, right now, it's not there. It's not even close to what a finely crafted researched and opinionated article can be, and so my personal opinion is that ChatGPT has a long way to go.”

James Paul Staff Writer

The logo for OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, appears on a mobile phone in New York, Tuesday, Jan. 31. AP Photo/Richard Drew

COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENTS FEEL

‘DISCOURAGED’ ABOUT THE TECH JOB MARKET

quarter of this fiscal year, and Amazon announced it will lay off more than 18,000 employees within the next few months.

Panagiotis Moisiadis, a junior computer science major, will work as a software development engineer intern at Amazon Web Services, whose parent company is Amazon, this summer. He

said he is glad he started the application process in July because he does not believe that Amazon hired as many interns for this summer as for the previous summer.

After Amazon cut 10,000 jobs in November, Moisiadis said he felt nervous about the possibility of AWS rescinding his internship offer. However, Moisiadis said he felt more reassured after spending time reading information on various online communities, including the Amazon intern and the new grad discord.

fident.”

Moisiadis said he thinks the tech industry layoffs were probably bound to happen.

“Some people just doubled in size over covid because their growth was insane,” Moisiadis said. “That growth just didn't continue past COVID. I guess layoffs were kind of inevitable, but at the same time, not every company has done layoffs.”

According to Grier, technology is needed in all industries. While layoffs have mostly affected big tech, Grier said all fields need cybersecurity employees and software developers, so he hopes layoffs will balance out with technological growth in other industries.

Elizabeth Primrose Senior Staff Writer

Will Knipe, a senior computer science and math major, previously worked as a software engineering intern at Lockheed Martin, Kognition and the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Despite having plenty of work experience, Knipe said he is “discouraged” about the current state of the technology market.

“I feel really unlucky to be graduating at the height of a tech recession, especially looking back at how high-paying tech jobs were basically handed to new grads in the past,” Knipe said. “It now feels like the process is mostly out of my control, and that you need hundreds of applications and a lot of luck to find a job in the current market.”

Knipe applied to different tech companies last fall, but said he did not find a position. He now plans to start graduate studies for computer science this fall if he gets into Pitt’s graduate school.

Tech companies have laid off more than 100,000 employees in 2023 alone. These layoffs include a 12,000 person cut from Google’s parent company, Alphabet, which was announced in January, and Dell’s 6,650 person cut announced in early February. In 2022, tech companies laid off more than 150,000 employees according to Forbes, including Meta’s layoff of 11,000 employees.

Computer science students, such as Knipe, feel uneasy about the job market in the tech

industry due to these increased layoffs.

Knipe said he first heard about the layoffs in the tech industry when he started applying and interviewing at different tech companies in the fall.

“The layoffs made me worried because they could mean that the hiring market would be flooded with lots of talent, making it harder to land a new-grad position successfully,” Knipe said. “I am a little bit discouraged about the current state of the tech market, but I am hopeful that it will soon return to normal.”

Jamir Grier, president of Pitt’s Computer Science Club, interned at Google Cloud in the summer of 2022, but did not receive a return offer to intern there this summer. According to Grier, he will intern at PNC this summer as a software engineering intern.

Despite securing an internship for the summer, Grier said he is concerned about the job security in the tech industry.

“The layoffs are quite sad to hear in terms of how they were performed with no notice or specificity,” Grier, a junior computer science major, said. “But, in certain ways, I understand that a lot of companies have emboldened themself with unrealistic and maybe even unethical pursuits for technology that has incurred a cost that they are now seeking to offset.”

Major tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon are seemingly following the layoff trend as Microsoft announced it will lay off 10,000 employees by the end of the third

“I was pretty nervous around December and January about rescinding offers, because I know it happened at other companies,” Moisiadis said. “But, now I'm a little bit more con -

“I try to avoid concerns too far in the future, but I trust that my skills and previous experience will put me in a competitive position in my post-graduation job market,” Grier said. “Right now, I just need to graduate.”

Editor’s Note: Jamir Grier worked at The Pitt News as a videographer.

Jamir Grier, a junior computer science major and president of Pitt’s computer science club. Pamela Smith | Visual Editor

LIBRARY CONNECTS STUDENTS WITH JEWISH JOURNALISM

printing facility in New York, made prints for the exhibit using the metal plates.

The Jewish Daily Forward, an independent Jewish newspaper, has connected Jewish individuals for 125 years, according to Eve Wider, liaison to the Jewish studies program at Pitt Greensburg.

“My own family was in New York at the time when these prints were being done and I knew my grandparents would read the paper,” Wider said. “It’s a very exciting thing to see this [exhibit] and think about that time in the city.”

Now, artifacts from the influential newspaper are available to Pitt students through “PRESSED: Images from the Jewish Daily Forward,” an exhibit running through April in the newly renovated first floor of Hillman Library. The exhibit, organized by the Forward in collaboration with the Museum at Eldridge Street, aims to connect Jewish and non-Jewish individuals with the past, Wider said.

Last year, Wider emailed Chana Pollack, archivist of the Forward, about a current issue of the newspaper, opening a conversation about the Forward and its history. When Wider learned of Hillman Library’s new printing presses, she connected Pollack with Pitt main campus in hopes of bringing “PRESSED” to Hillman.

“I think it’s important to learn the history of our country and the different immigrant communities that came. You can see in the Forward that originally it was all in Yiddish, and then gradually as the second generation came they didn't read Yiddish,” Wider said. “They were trying to follow the children of the people who originally came to stay relevant and connected.”

According to Pollack, the bulk of the Forward’s archival collection contains more than 40,000 community-generated gelatin-silver images. Although most newspapers would melt down their metal, photo-engraved press plates to reuse or sell them off, the Forward kept its creations. Rob Wilson, master printer at Browne & Co., the oldest

Pollack said it was important to display the prints and their original plates to the public.

“We decided it was important to identify and rehouse them. The images and the way they're almost in negative … It was so evocative to me. It’s just very moving,” Pollack said. “Sometimes it looked very shadowy or very ghost-like. It rever-

ies program, where Rachel Kranson, director of Jewish studies, is integrating the exhibit into her “Jews and the City” class to create a hands-on learning experience.

“Rachel, for her class ‘Jews and the City,’ is working to bring students to the Text & conText Lab in Hillman Library,” Wider said. “We were able to purchase the type in Hebrew, and students in the class will be able to do some printing, learning the techniques similar to those used in the Forward.”

Pollack already understood the connection between Pittsburgh and the Forward through her research into Bess Topolski, an influential journalist and the prior face of the Forward Pittsburgh office. As Pollack communicated with Kranson and learned about her research into the history of early Jewish media, they thought “PRESSED” and Pitt were the perfect match. Wider agrees.

berated the voices and sounds of machinery that are part of the history of the Forward.”

Through a partnership with the Museum at Eldridge Street, located in New York City, the Forward established the exhibit of press plates now housed in Hillman Library.

Nancy Johnson, curator of the Museum at Eldridge Street, said she’s always on the lookout for exhibits that resonate with the space within the museum. Through a partnership with Pollack, she learned about the breadth of topics that the Forward covered and early congregants of the Eldridge Street synagogue were reading and thinking about.

“Our idea was to look at the kind of subjects a Jewish newspaper would look at. There are photos from Africa, Israel and the neighborhood itself,” Johnson said. “Social activism was a huge deal to the Forward editors. And then there were things like sports that showed that the immigrants who read the newspaper were becoming American in their pastimes.”

The exhibit also received support from the University Library System and Pitt’s Jewish stud-

“I think Rachel is really wonderful as a professor and is trying really hard to make things relevant and fun and tactile and connect students with history in the present,” Wider said. “It’s a really neat thing to bring the exhibit and bring this hands-on component.”

In collaboration with Heinz History Center, Pitt is also planning on an addition to “PRESSED” connecting the Forward directly to Pittsburgh, according to Wider. This addition, available in the coming weeks, will include photos of the Pittsburgh office, Pittsburgh-specific articles and even the work of students in Dr. Kranson’s “Jews and the City” course.

Pollack said she is glad to see “PRESSED” find its place at Pitt.

“I think, back in the day, the Forward was distributed and had offices in major metropolitan areas, including PIttsburgh. It’s very moving for me to see the show go to one of its homes,” Pollack said. “It’s true — we say the show travels, but it’s not so much traveling as it is visiting its home.”

Trinity Foster Staff Writer

The exhibit “PRESSED: Images from the Jewish Daily Forward,” on the first floor of Hillman Library. Romita Das | Senior Staff Photographer

THE MAD MEX CLOSURE SHOWS THAT YOU OLDS HAVE WORMS IN YOUR BRAINS

If you’ve walked past the newly defunct Mad Mex in Oakland, you’ve probably seen the candles, flowers and love letters that mourning students left on the outdoor bar. After 30 years of operation, the restaurant suddenly closed its doors on Jan. 31. Many Pitt folk, current students and alumni alike, are heartbroken that their sanctuary of Big Azz Margaritas is gone for good.

In my perusal of online articles via Facebook, I’ve seen a wide range of responses to the news. Depression. Denial. Celebration, even. And who am I to tell another person how to grieve?

In their post, Mad Mex cites “ongoing staffing and operational challenges” as the reason for the shutdown. And said short staffing really ignited some hostility among the Gen X and Boomer Mad Mex lovers.

One comment on WPXI-TV’s Facebook post regarding the closure said, “Keep voting Democrat morons and we have a year to go with this idiot in the WH.”

On WTAE-TV’s Facebook post a comment said, “All those college kids and no one wants to work … boy times in Oakland have changed.” Another read, “All those kids in Oakland and no one wants to work to have spending money for college lazy.”

I’m really tired of the needless hostility that Boomer and Gen X reactionaries have for the culture of my generation, as it is not only misinformed, but it indicates that our populus is becoming further polarized and unwilling to exercise compassion.

Let’s look at the whole “no one wants to work liberal indoctrination lazy entitled kids Joe Kamala communism blah blah yada yada” bit. It’s just not true. It might’ve been true in 2020 when we had no vaccine and a massive spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths at the end of the year and into 2021. It might’ve been true at the peak of Omicron in late 2021 and early 2022, too. But the community level of COVID-19 cases in Allegheny County is currently low, and we’re easing into a world that is operating at full capacity despite COVID-19’s smaller yet continued presence.

The unemployment rate in the US is at 3.4% as of January 2023. That’s the lowest national unemployment rate since May 1969.

And just for good measure, let’s zoom in on Pennsylvania. At the beginning of 2022, the unemployment rate was at 5.4%, and by November 2022, it was at 4%. As of late January, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate dropped even further to 3.9%. So, “no one wants to work these days” isn’t true anymore — we are very much back to work.

Why is the keyboard militia up in arms about the supposed laziness and entitlement of today’s college students? Is it pointed to Starbucks’s unionizing locations? Or maybe Coffee Tree Roasters’ unionizing locations?

Newsflash — unions have been around for quite some time. People have been demanding better conditions on the job in the United States since the birth of the nation. It’s a cornerstone of our working class’s history, but this Facebook revisionist history posits that little-b*tch-itis suddenly contaminated Pitt’s water and turned our saltof-the-earth Gen Z progeny into bratty princesses.

In 2015, the employment rate among college students was at 43%, and in 2020, it was at 40%. But, say it with me, class, what happened in 2020? Right! Everyone went home for a year because a pandemic happened! There is no reliable, confound-free evidence that points to a decrease in motivation and increase in entitlement among college students.

None of these flippant blanket statements about the insufferable toxicity and full-of-sh*t-ness of my peers hold up if you actually get to know college students. My friends and peers are smart as hell and incredibly hardworking. Some of them are working full-time while they take classes to pay their own rent. Lots of them have University jobs, which, by the way, can pay as little as $7.75 per hour. They have double majors. They have full-time internships during the school year and beyond. Many are the first in their family to go to college.

It’s harder than ever to be a college student. When I was going into seventh grade, my class sat in an auditorium and listened to our principal speak. He essentially said to us that we are going to age into a global economy where we’re competing with professionals all over the world, so we need to buck up and become marketable. We were 12.

The pressure to over-over-achieve that my generation experiences has manifested in a do-everythingall-the-time mentality. To become marketable and to achieve upward mobility, students are piling on student groups, leadership positions, double majors, double minors, internships, volunteering and fast-tracked masters programs. So yeah, some students don’t have the time to work because they’re concerned about securing employment so they can, you know, buy a house and start

a family and eventually retire, something that is much harder to achieve now. And many others do all of this plus a job.

It deeply troubles me that elder folk collect these outof-context soundbites from the news about these awful, lazy kids and spew them onto the internet without knowing the truth. I doubt any of them have even spo-

ken to a college-aged person within the past year — otherwise, they’d likely see things differently. Their vitriol points to not only the political polarization of a postTrump populus, but of a culture whose eyes are glued to a TV screen, not to each other. If these embittered Gen Xers and Boomers got to actually know young people these days, they’d know that we have an exceptional work ethic, but we don’t put up with mistreatment or disrespect. Their chagrin towards our desire for human and corporate decency is really terrifying — it’s almost as if they want us to suffer the way they did.

To my Facebook comment section grumblers — you’ve lost the plot. Find your compassion and seek to understand rather than seeking to be understood. Willfully looking for the worst in an entire generation will do nothing but further poison our culture. And get off your ass, log off of Facebook and work.

Paige Wasserman (she/her) writes about the arts, pop culture, campus culture and things that make her want to scream. You can reach her at PLW15@pitt.edu.

Paige Wasserman Senior Staff Columnist

Annika Esseku | Staff Illustrator

FROM PRESCHOOL TO PITT —

LIFELONG FRIENDS AMELIA HAYWOOD AND LILLY COMELLO SHARE REMARKABLE LACROSSE JOURNEY

Richie Smiechowski Sports Editor

For two grueling weeks, right at the start of their academic careers, Amelia Haywood and Lilly Comello couldn’t afford the luxury of being normal first-year students.

While their peers went out and explored Oakland, getting their feet wet in everything college has to offer, Haywood and Comello went to their Pitt lacrosse tryouts in the morning, then came home every evening stressed, exhausted and unsure if they would be invited back to practice the next day.

“Honestly, those two weeks where we were trying out was probably one of the most stressful times of my life,” Haywood said. “Just having to play every day and knowing every day could have been our last. At any point they could have been like, this isn’t working.”

Through the unknowns of starting college, joining a new team and playing lacrosse at a higher level than they thought they were capable of, the two first-year walk-ons had each other's backs — and it’s been that way for Haywood and Comello for nearly 15 years.

The pair met when they were just three years old attending a very small private school in Maryland called

St. John the Evangelist. According to Haywood, their class size was around 20 kids, meaning her and Comello naturally built a close bond.

“We all got to know each other so well,” Haywood said. “Me and Lilly were super close all through eighth grade … we both got along really well from the start.”

As the years passed, the two naturally found them-

selves going on the same path, becoming closer in school while also playing similar sports outside of the classroom. Haywood started playing lacrosse when she was around 5 years old, while Comello picked up the sport three years later.

“In third grade I started playing for a club team in my area called MC Elite,” Comello said. “Amelia was actually on a different team but our teams always ended up playing each other at tournaments. Once we got to high school we obviously got to play for the same team.”

For years, Haywood and Comello went to the same school while playing for separate club teams, but after they both decided on going to St. John's College High School, they became teammates for the first time.

They quickly made an impression on their high school head coach, with both Haywood and Comello making varsity in their first seasons. Despite their success, both players had their doubts about playing in college, especially because they missed an entire season due to the pandemic.

“Throughout high school, I was never really sure if I wanted to play in college,” Haywood said. “I’ve always said I loved playing lacrosse, but part of me was like I want to choose a school based on academics and stuff. If lacrosse follows, then that’s amazing.”

Just by happenstance, both Haywood and Comello had Pitt on their list of potential colleges. Both players had different reasons for ultimately choosing Pitt — their reasons ranged from proximity to Maryland to the school’s specific programs — but their interest in potentially playing for the newly founded lacrosse program started with sideline small talk.

“I was actually talking to Amelia — we had a game for high school where we were on the sidelines,” Comello said. “I was like you know Pitt just started their first season for lacrosse. Ever since I decided I was going to go to Pitt I knew the option was there to play lacrosse.”

Following their senior season, Haywood and Comello’s high school head coach sent out a feeler to Pitt

head coach Emily Boissonneault asking about potential walk-on opportunities. She replied with an invitation to the team’s summer camp as the first step and the girls impressed, prompting Boissonneault to further evaluate their skills during the season.

Their final test before they could join the team started immediately — Haywood and Comello would practice with the team for two weeks, effectively serving as their “tryout” for the team. According to Boissonneault, the concept of taking on walk-ons was new to her, despite many of the program's original players coming up from the club team.

“I haven’t been a part of a lot of programs that have had tryouts, so I was a little unfamiliar with the whole experience,” Boissonneault said. “We’re lucky that Pitt I guess has that reputation academically. That’s really helped us find players like [Haywood and Comello].”

Just like their days in preschool, elementary school and high school, Haywood and Comello leaned on each other for support. Their familiarity with each other and knowing that they were both going through the exact same thing made the process that much easier.

“I think I told Amelia like a million times, I was like, ‘there’s no way I could have done this without you,’” Comello said. “Don’t get me wrong, everyone on the team, the coaches, the staff, they’re so supportive and they’re so nice … but it was just really nice to have someone who was living the same way I was, who was going through the exact same wake up calls in the morning, or even small things like walking to practice.”

Even from a distance, Boissonneault noticed just how important the girls were to one another throughout the preseason.

“It’s not easy to show up to any team practice, especially one that you’re trying out for and everyone else is already on the team,” Boissonneault said. “Being able to go home together and debrief together and support one another, I think that helps bring a lot of confidence and that was something we noticed from day one.”

Following their two week trial, Boissonneault and the rest of the team knew that Haywood and Comello were perfect fits, and just days after the trial period, they became the first two walk-ons in Pitt lacrosse history.

With their season just getting started, the two firstyears might not see much in-game action this year — they even accept that their time on the team will always have some elements of stress, especially with future recruits and transfers.

But for now, Haywood and Comello realize their story is a special one — and they’re only further building their already extensive lifetime of memories together in the process.

“It’s not just nice to have someone here who’s not that far from home, but to have someone here who I can share stories with,” Comello said. “Like oh, remember when this happened — it’s stuff like that where I’m really thankful to have someone here that I grew up with.”

Pitt lacrosse players on the sidelines of their game against Duquesne on Feb. 11. Nate Yonamine | Senior Staff Photographer

Majorettes, pg. 1

the band, I had to get in contact with people in marketing, I had to get in contact with people to register the club. So I just asked the band and they sent me their files for this school year for the music, and we just went from there.”

According to sophomore anthropology major Ashia Lovelace, majorettes are distinct from cheerleaders or other dance teams because of their connection to Black cultural expression.

“It is a group of Black women doing what they do best,” Lovelace said. “Just triumphing in life. We put a little bit of sass in it. We really get the crowd going at the basketball games. We just really bring that energy that Pitt needs.”

The team currently has nine members, all with varying levels of dancing experience. One member, sophomore biology major Eniola Ayo-Gbenjo, said she had some formal training with her high school’s dance company. Conversely, first-year accounting major Lily Ayuk had no dance experience prior to joining The Royal Girls. For Ayuk, joining a majorette team allowed her to connect with her culture — an opportunity she seldom found growing up in Russia.

“I personally don't have any dance experience,” Ayuk said. “I never danced or cheered in high school. What attracted me [to the team] was I wanted to do something that made me tap into my culture a little bit. Since I grew up in Europe, I was never around people of color. I felt like this was something that could get me out there and get me comfortable [at Pitt].”

The team also weighed in on the wider conversation regarding the dissemination of HBCU cultural traditions to predominantly white institutions. Mimi Incoom, a first-year undecided major, recalled a news story of a majorette team formed at the University of Southern California, citing it as a reason why she felt a majorette team was also possible at Pitt.

“The Cardinal Divas” — USC’s first majorette team — went viral in September for a video of the team dancing in the stands of a USC Trojan football game. While the team received widespread support for their performance, others voiced their displeasure at what was deemed appropriation of HBCU culture.

“I think a lot of people have the wrong idea when you bring a majorette team, a historically Black dance team, to a white school,” Ayuk said. “But as a person of color who grew up around white people, it feels really inclusive. I've tried to join the cheer team. I've tried to join the other dance teams, but I felt out of place because I wasn’t around people who look like me.”

In addition to dancing at the women’s basketball games, The Royal Girls will perform at the annual Controlled Chaos spring showcase in March. The team will hold tryouts for their

fall roster at the end of the spring semester and at the beginning of the fall semester.

While Adinuba cited a multitude of reasons for starting the team, she said that her primary motivation was inspiring other students to follow their passions.

“If they have a dream in their heart, they can do that,” Adinuba said. “They don't have to wait for anybody else's permission. Once you find the right people, and you have that team and you have that vision, no one can really stop you.”

Editor’s Note: Chelsea Adinuba briefly worked as a writer at The Pitt News.

The Royal Girls majorette group in the Petersen Events Center.

Romita Das | Senior Staff Photographer

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