Employment Guide 2019 (Part 1) by The Pitt News

THE PITT NEWS

EMPLOYMENT GUIDE

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GRAD SCHOOL GUIDE PG. 18

Eli Savage

contributing editor

volume 110 | issue 22

UP ALL NIGHT:

FIFTH AVENUE STARBUCKS AT 3 A.M. Brian Gentry

Senior Staff Writer A total of three people — two sitting together and one studying by themselves — are in the Fifth Avenue Starbucks. It’s an odd scene, given the usual hustle and bustle of a store that sometimes has lines that make you wait more than 10 minutes. Then again, not too many people are craving caffeine at 1:30 a.m. The Fifth Avenue Starbucks recently expanded its hours so that it is open all day — and night — Sunday through Thursday. It previously opened at 5:30 a.m. and closed at 10:30 p.m., meaning that the store is open an additional seven hours per day for coffee drinkers around the clock. The store is the first 24-hour Starbucks in Pittsburgh, according to the company’s location list. Large cities — as well as major airports across the country, such as Chicago O’Hare — have the highest concentration of

24-hour locations. According to Presley Roberts, a junior biology major who works at the Fifth Avenue Starbucks, the additional hours were seen as an opportunity to be the first to provide a constant coffee and study space for students on campus. “We don’t have any [24-hour Starbucks] in this area. Even the one on Atwood right across the street isn’t 24 hours,” Roberts said. “People were like, ‘Oh my gosh, it closes so early.’ So people would have to pack up all their stuff and move to the library.” Sophia Rebarchak, a junior chemical engineering major, works the 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift at the Starbucks store. She said that she enjoys the night shift because it’s much quieter than daytime shifts. “I think it’s fun,” Rebarchak said. “Everyone’s pretty cool, and it’s not as high volume as during the day.” To stay busy with such few customers

coming into the store, Rebarchak said she and her coworkers work on other tasks. “We have to do cleaning tasks, restocking, making sure everything’s prepped for the morning when it is busy, making cold brews and stuff like that,” Rebarchak said. The most commonly ordered drink at that hour? “People just kind of come in for black coffee,” Rebarchak said. And since it’s almost October — “pumpkin spice lattes.” Roberts said the store isn’t particularly busy during the night. She works later shifts than Rebarchak — either the 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. shift or the 11 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. shift. From midnight to 6 a.m., the store usually gets only one or two customers actually ordering coffee, but Roberts said she’s seen people use it as a reprieve from typical study spaces like Hillman Library. “There’s a lot of people studying and stuff, but not everyone’s necessarily getting coffee

in the middle of the night because they don’t need it yet,” Roberts said. For Roberts, a pre-med student, working the night and early morning shift gives her a glimpse at what her life will be like in 10 years. “It’s usually just people at 6 a.m. going to work at the hospitals,” Roberts said. “That’s pretty cool because that’s what I want to do, to be a doctor.” Roberts said that she enjoys the night shift because it’s given her an opportunity to get close with the other baristas — with little coffee to brew, she gets to spend a lot of time talking with her coworkers. But while her shift is relatively tame now, she thinks that once midterm season starts, more people will flock to the store for caffeine and study space. “I honestly think that in a few weeks when everyone starts coming, during the seSee Starbucks on page 3

SWANSON STUDENTS FLY THE CO-OP Benjamin Nigrosh Staff Writer

When Robin Thomas, a chemical engineering major and senior at Pitt, visited the co-op office, she wasn’t quite sure what she was getting herself into. “Even when you go into engineering, you aren’t really sure what it is,” Thomas said. The co-op program gives students in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering an opportunity to apply what they learn in the classroom to real engineering jobs. Through the co-op — short for cooperative education — students will complete three separate four-month-long rotations at a chosen employer, alternating terms Senior chemical engineering majors Tyler Weinstein, right, and Katie Broski at of work and school. By graduation, the student will have completed a full year of their co-op location. Photo courtesy of Tyler Weinstein

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work experience. Pitt will hold a fall co-op fair Oct. 3 from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m at the William Pitt Union. According to Tyler Kimmel, the programming administrator at the Swanson School of Engineering co-op office, students who can’t make it to the fair can just come into the co-op office and meet with staff. The office has walk-in hours Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Benedum room 152. “Students work with us, but it is up to them where they want to apply,” Kimmel said. “We give them all of the resources, we help them all the way and then it’s up to them to apply.” The office reviews all students’ applications and helps them find companies See Swanson on page 4

Starbucks, pg. 2 mester and during finals … there might be more during the nighttime,” Roberts said. Rebarchak thinks the same. She said she’s ready for the influx of people. “Most nights during the school year when it is busy, like midterms and finals, we have to kick people at like 11,” Rebarchak said. “So there will be business for us overnight.” For some frequent customers, such as Rozie Fero, this is a game-changer. Fero, a sophomore information sciences and Chinese major, always orders her usual iced Caffe Americano or black coffee. “Every day I have class, I’m in there multiple times a day,” Fero, who works at the Starbucks at the corner of Forbes Avenue and Craig Street, said. Fero uses the space as not just study space, but also as an area to socialize and meet with friends. With the expanded hours, she’s excited to visit at odd hours of the night. “They’re really one of the first 24-hour coffee shops in Pittsburgh,” Fero said. “I think it’ll be a great opportunity for people who have late-night study habits, including The Fifth Avenue Starbucks on Pitt’s campus now open 24 hours Sunday through Thursday. Christy Wu staff myself, to just go get their coffee and still photographer have time to study peacefully.”

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Swanson, pg. 2 they may be interested in applying to, based on the fields of engineering they want to work in and the general area where they would like to work. The coop office also gives each student the opportunity of a mock interview to prepare for the real thing. For her co-op, Thomas was placed at Sherwin Williams, a paint company. She spent her first rotation in Garland, Texas, at an industrial coil plant and her second

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in a Sherwin Williams lab at the global technical center in Pittsburgh. Thomas was stationed in a coatings lab, working in a fume hood to create batches of the resins that will later coat things such as cans and bottles. “[The rotations] were drastically different,” Thomas said. “But they gave me two different sides of chemical engineering that I could go into after I graduate.” Thomas said that the wide range of experience that her co-op has provided her within the field of chemical engineer-

ing has allowed her to put more consideration into what she wants to do after graduation. “It’s important to do co-op because you better understand yourself when you work in a professional environment,” Thomas said. “You understand what you want to do, and you understand what you can bring to the table, all of your strengths and weaknesses. It’s difficult to do that when you’re just doing school.” Tyler Weinstein, another chemical engineering major and senior at Pitt, is also

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working at Sherwin Williams for his coop. He is currently on the second rotation of his co-op stationed in Rochester at the company’s coatings facility. There, Weinstein is working with contractors and facility personnel to improve the equipment in ways that will assist production. For his first rotation at Sherwin Williams, he was located in Dallas. There, he worked with a team to ensure that all of the facility’s equipment met environmental health and safety standards. On projects such as this one, Weinstein was able to use the technical education he received from the engineering school to solve real-world problems. “Swanson allows us to take the theoretical basics to the pieces of equipment we see here,” Weinstein said. “We are already exposed to it beforehand, but once we get here, we actually have the ability to see what it is like in real life.” But, he added, while the exposure does help, nothing prepares a student for the workforce better than working in the industry itself. “You really don’t know what an industrial manufacturing or chemical plant See Swanson on page 9

Sponsored Content

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point

counterpoint

Shruti Talekar staff illustrator

Raising minimum Pay them fairly wage won’t help students

Want student workers? Grace McGinness Staff Writer

Ohio State University announced Aug. 30 its plan to increase its staff minimum wage to $15 per hour next year. This could potentially affect more than 4,800 jobs and will include any students who work in staff positions, but positions labeled as student jobs will be excluded from this wage increase. Ohio State did not give an explanation as to why it left out its student employees from the pay raise, but student workers are just as deserving of consideration for their work. They should be paid more for what they contribute to their university. Student job is a vague term that could be used to include every job from a dishwasher in the dining halls to research assistant in a biochemical lab. There is a discrepancy in the skill set required for those positions. But a considerable amount of employment offers for student workers ask for some kind of prior experience. At research-focused schools such as Pitt, many employment opportunities are for a lab assistant, which requires at least some completed coursework in the field. While course work is not employment experience, these positions are still asking for some kind of experience, and that experience should be accounted for in the wage. These positions aren’t looking for unqualified people who they can mold to fit the job’s demands. University employers want to take advantage of the pool of university-educated students that already exist inside their buildings, and students want to work on campus as well — making it a mutually beneficial relationship. But students have already cultivated a valuable skill set even if they are only partway through their education, and this experience deserves pay above minimum wage when it is applied to what amounts to entry-level employment. If universities determine that entry-level jobs deserve $15 an hour, then they should offer the same increase in pay for the positions that require prior experience. Even a cashier job at Panera offers a starting wage of $9 to stay competitive in the pool of working students. It should be a red flag that a chain fast food restaurant values people’s work more than universities

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do of their own students. Universities offering $8 per hour may find themselves unable to compete with outside businesses offering more just down the block. In addition, some universities like Pitt have a restriction against student employees working more than 20 hours per week. At the rate of minimum wage, the most a student can make is $640 a month before tax. In South Oakland, $500 is considered decent rent — which leaves not much left on a monthly basis. The problem already exists, and ignoring it is not a proper nor responsible solution. Aside from the delusion that these student positions require completely unskilled labor, the assumption that students are only working for pocket change is also misguided. Other minimum wage jobs tend to employ adolescents who are still dependent on their parents’ income for their labor force. While students consist mainly of young adults, it is inappropriate to assume that every student still has the support of income besides their own. Nearly a quarter of students report being entirely responsible for paying their college education. Legally, students are adults and since many support themselves financially, they should be paid like adults. A common concern about pay increases is how this change would affect tuition. Some say that if tuition were raised, then whatever is gained by the pay increase becomes null because the student will just have to pay back the university what they just earned. Even if that money would go back to the university, raising the minimum wage would dramatically help students save money from interest accumulated on loans. If students can mitigate the amount of loans they need to take out now, the amount of money they would owe later will lower exponentially. The University of Pittsburgh has made a promise to each of its students to provide resources for enriching the mind and self, but students cannot take advantage of them if they are struggling to make ends meet. It is time to acknowledge the work that students do for the University. It is time that students got a raise. You can reach Grace McGinness by emailing her at gem53@pitt.edu. Or you can find her on Twitter here.

Michael Clifford For The Pitt News

Unprepared to lose the supposed political dogfight between employee and employer, the “Fight for $15” movement has been mobilizing across the nation, arguing for a minimum wage floor of $15 per hour at the federal, state and local levels — with a few cases ending in success. One policy this movement advocates for is to change university policy for student employees so that those workers receive a “living wage,” and to eliminate exemptions that allow part-time student workers to earn less than the mandated minimum. The minimum wage is a politically contentious issue, and a number of different opinions occupy the discussion. Many economists are skeptical of these types of directives, and believe that a high minimum wage actually generates unemployment for low-skilled workers. For a variety of reasons, this simple supply-and-demand model of the labor market might not explain everything, but the pro-minimum wage activists are increasingly arguing, based on misunderstandings, that it explains very little or nothing. The burden of proof is in their court to demonstrate why this policy will prove beneficial, and until that happens, there is no room for the consideration of potentially destructive changes. The range of services colleges already offer to students is extensive — including opportunities to find internships and do research that, paid or not, improve resumés and reach far beyond the process of merely getting a degree. Students are not owed paid work by their school, and treating paid work as if that too was a service, would be a moneylosing measure that could cost the rest

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of the university or the students — a lesson demonstrated at the state and local levels where the “Fight for $15” movement’s ideas have won out. The Seattle City Council legislated just such an increase in 2014, raising the floor for large employers to $15 by 2018 and commissioning economists at the University of Washington to study the ordinance’s effects. The report, released in June 2017, initially concluded that the law in its early stages had the exact opposite effect of its intentions, actually lowering incomes for low-wage workers by $125 per month as a result of employers cutting their hours. A later report released in October 2018 by the same authors also found even more unintended consequences, such as a steady decline in the hiring of employees with few skills and, in stark contrast to the rosy picture painted by those who supported the ordinance, even workers who had been forced to take up additional work outside the city in order to make up for the lost income. This is precisely the opposite outcome of what pro-minimum wage activists want — that is, a world where everyone can support themselves on just one income from one job. Further empirical evidence continues to cast doubt on the notion of costless wage hikes. A survey of New York City restaurants taken earlier this year found that 90% have raised menu prices, 77% have reduced employee hours and 36% eliminated positions in response to wage increases that have already taken place. Contradicting those endorsing them, some studies have found that even in moderation, pay floors can be, and have been, harmful. With that knowledge, just as policy See Clifford on page 16

column

IN DEFENSE OF AN OUT-OF-FIELD INTERNSHIP

Julia Kreutzer

Senior Staff Columnist It’s no secret that internships are a vital aspect of career preparation. According to research from NACE Center, students who participate in multiple internships fare better in the search for jobs or graduate school opportunities in the six months after graduation. Clearly, the experience of holding an internship is pivotal to the development of business skills in preparing for the workforce. While landing an internship can be challenging, students typically know where to start looking. If you want to work in public relations, you intern at a PR firm. If you want to be a journalist, you intern at a newspaper. If you want to be an engineer, you do whatever an engineer does. Though experiences like these are invaluable, an often-overlooked asset to building a resumé is an out-of-field internship. While seemingly irrelevant, internships in fields that don’t relate much to your intended career can add variety to your skill set, allow you to cultivate other interests and help you become a wellrounded, multifaceted candidate down the line. This summer, I worked an administrative internship at a music philanthropy in Philadelphia. While one could argue it did nothing to tangibly prepare me for a career as a writer, this opportunity gave me irreplaceable experience in communication and professionalism. Every morning, I took the train into Center City, walked to the office, settled in and got to work. Most of my days were made of completing more mundane tasks like making Excel spreadsheets or finalizing follow-up forms. But I also got experience planning and attending board

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meetings, picking up on what tasks needed to be accomplished and how I could assist in completing them and interacting with highly accomplished professionals. Working in a field that required consistent interaction with others allowed me to expand on “people skills,” like communicating professionally and actively listening, in ways that sitting at a computer and churning out articles could not. A recent Cengage study found that employers highly valued “soft skills” when considering who to hire — 74% indicated they looked for effective listening skills, 70% advocated for attention to detail and 69% required effective communication. The same study also found that about a third of employers felt colleges and universities did not adequately prepare students for the workplace. Being incredibly well versed in the concepts related to your major is important, but it will only take you so far if you can’t match that experience with adequate people skills. If your intended career is not directly related to fostering soft skills or has few entry level positions, looking elsewhere can offer these experiences all while getting you accustomed to the workplace. Even after the hiring stage, companies are placing greater emphasis on employees’ abilities to perform in real-world scenarios. According to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Human Capital Trends report, the purpose of a human resources leader has changed from “chief talent executive” to “chief employee experience officer.” Companies are no longer solely focused on your ability to repeat facts or accomplish tasks. They want a well-rounded employee to contribute to the overall experience in the workplace. Internships that can help foster these skills See Kreutzer on page 10

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Pitt grads make noise in the music industry Emma Maurice Senior Staff Writer

Fewer than three months after graduating from Pitt, Cole Boillat packed everything up, got in his car and drove across the country to his new home in Los Angeles — all in the pursuit of producing music. With his mother’s approval, best friend by his side and a day job waiting for him in LA, the 2018 alum was ready to turn his interest in music production into a career. At 6 years old, Boillat began playing the piano. In middle school, he began writing music and learning to play different instruments. In high school, he began writing pop music, singing, producing and mixing. Yet music remained only a side hobby for Boillat. It wasn’t until college when Boillat began pursuing his dual degree in neuroscience and music composition with the plan of matriculating into medical school that he started to ask himself — ‘What if?’ “It had always kind of been music on the

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side,” Boillat said. “That sort of hit me and I really thought about the fact that I’ve never actually fully gone out and done music.” Unable to leave his passion unexplored, Boillat decided it was time to put his plans for medical school on hold and fully immerse himself in the best location possible to meet creatives and pursue producing music — LA. But when it comes to being a producer, Bolliat said, it can be challenging gaining attention since it’s all happening behind the scenes. To combat this, Boillat relies on networking and looking for that next opportunity to meet someone new. “It’s really about not being afraid to go and talk to people and not being afraid to open doors that are potentially there,” said Boillat. “You’re going to get, probably shut down a lot, and that’s totally okay because it just takes a couple doors to open — a couple things to go right.” Those couple of doors opening is exactly what helped 2019 Pitt grad James Gavaghan break See Grad Music on page 11 Cole Boillat poses with his plant, Jonathan. Photo courtesy of Cole Boillat

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Swanson, pg. 4 looks like until you actually step into one and see just how much goes on in every single process that makes some of the simplest things in the world,” Weinstein said. Ben Koo, a mechanical engineering major and senior at the University of Pittsburgh, has completed two co-op rotations at Ansys Incorporated, located in Canonsburg. Koo helped the company create engineering simulations for clients, helping them test the efficiency and usability of various tools. “Through my experience here, my programming interests have only become stronger,” Koo said. “I have begun to consider a career in the software industry more seriously.” Since beginning his co-op rotations, Koo has decided to add a computer science minor to his degree at Pitt. But technical skills are not the only thing that he is happy to have learned on his rotations. “In addition to technical knowledge, it has definitely helped me improve my communication and teamwork skills in

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a professional engineering environment and better understand how a corporation operates from an employee’s perspective,” Koo said. If the opportunity arises, Koo said, he would happily accept a full-time position at the company. The co-op program has a 96% placement rate for students that apply for the opportunity. And according to data collected by the program during Pitt’s 2017-18 academic year, 61% of students that participated in Swanson’s co-op were offered full-time

positions from their employer. Koo, Weinstein and Thomas have not completed all of their co-op rotations and are still unsure of their post-graduation plans. But that’s not something Thomas is worried about after participating in the co-op program, she said. “Even if I don’t [get a job offer], it still makes me a better candidate when I graduate,” Thomas said. “Now I’ll have a year’s worth of actual engineering experience, where as some other engineering students might not have had that opportunity at other schools.”

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Kreutzer, pg. 7

Miranda Zito staff illustrator

will make you increasingly marketable later down the line. While internships that offer new experiences can be instrumental in gaining real world experience, it seems that only infield internships are being advocated for. At the Dietrich School, students majoring in architectural studies, urban studies and environmental studies, media and professional communications, administration of justice or public service, or obtaining a nonprofit management certificate from the College of General Studies need an internship to graduate. It’s not that these internships aren’t important — people building bridges should definitely have experience building bridges. We’re overlooking the steps in between the classroom and the workplace. Getting an in-field internship is great, but internships that force you out of your comfort zone and allow you to grow in other ways can be equally impactful on your career. They add diversity to your resumé, allow

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you to explore other interests and can teach technical skills. Additionally, in this economic climate, opportunities for paid internships are fewer and farther between. When offered an internship, in any field, students have more incentive to commit to them. For many, a paid internship in a field outside of their major may be the only option that offers experience in a workplace and financial compensation. We often view internships as a structured, necessary step in securing employment after graduation. And they can be. But there is merit to believing that maybe the English major working as an office intern for a philanthropic network can take away some invaluable skills. The engineering student who loves stage management can thrive working as an intern in a field they love, but won’t pursue long term. At the end of the day, experience is experience, and we should be willing and able to learn from it all.

Grad Music, pg. 8 into the music industry. Before landing his current job as a sales assistant for Sony Music Entertainment in New York City, Gavaghan gained national and international experience through numerous internships in the music industry, ranging in locations from Pittsburgh to New York City to London. “After I started working in music … it was something that I didn’t want to leave,” Gavaghan said. “Everyone has a different path to getting into the music industry — there’s no right or wrong way to do it.” Although he grew up in Chicago, a city with a strong music scene, Gavaghan didn’t realize until his sophomore year that working in the business side of the music industry was even a possibility. It wasn’t until Gavaghan started meeting people with similar aspirations at Pitt that employment in the business side of the music industry became a serious pursuit — and Pitt functioned as the breeding ground for that. Despite his wide range of experience prior to full-time employment, Gavaghan said he is still figuring out the ins and outs of this fast-paced industry, all while navigating greater responsibilities and certain levels of trust — something not quite experienced during internships.

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“Working full-time, you want to feel like you’re making an impact in the company,” he said. “I have people relying on me on a much larger scale.” While Gavaghan knew to expect that working in the music industry would bring on significant responsibilities, truly experiencing a full-time work environment wasn’t exactly something he could prepare for, but rather something that he knew he had to fully immerse himself in to learn. “It wasn’t something I could necessarily prepare myself for. I did everything I could leading up to it, interning at music industry to music industry,” Gavaghan said. “But it’s still something I’m adjusting to and learning as I go along.” The same complexities of working full-time in the music industry puzzled Pitt alum Zach Linn before landing his job as executive assistant for Island Records in New York City. During his last two years at Pitt, the 2018 grad held a job as a college and lifestyle marketing representative for Universal Music Group, but never actually worked for a label before. “Fast-paced, evolving, it’s just constantly changing, but also rewarding,” Linn said. Linn said he enjoys the spontaneity of working at a record label, as no two days are alike. Each day yields a variety of new experiences and allows him to constantly work with new people.

“Because there’s always new artist on the rise, the way that you market them and the way that you work with them is always changing,” Linn said. As a division of UMG, Island Records is significantly smaller than most major labels, which is one reason why the label is different in a way that works well for Linn. This tight-knit working environment, Linn said, allowed him to be around an incredible group of people who can all bond over a shared passion of music. “I’m surrounded by people who all, from the deepest core, love music,” Linn said. “A lot of people around me are performers, are musicians themselves, producers, DJs, promoters — everyone has an interest in music outside of their ‘9to-5’ job.” Gaining that same shared passion of music is what helped Kristine Marshall, a 2000 Pitt alum, fall in love with the live concert business during her time at Pitt. Originally from a small town in New Jersey, Marshall became newly passionate about going to shows when she came to Pittsburgh — especially because of the wider access to see live music. After graduating, Marshall moved to New York City, found a job working as an assistant at talent agency International Creative Management and ultimately worked her way up from

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there to her current job as a talent agent in the concerts department. Having that passion of music both inside and outside of the workplace is what Marshall believes really helps in trying to break into the music industry. “Be passionate about music and the live concert experience and see as much as you can,” Marshall said, “including shows that may not necessarily float your boat — because you’ll be that much more well-rounded, and you never know if you’ll have to work with that artist one day.” Although Marshall began working fulltime in the music industry 18 years ago, the importance of interning, volunteering — but ultimately networking and using those experiences to meet as many new people as possible — still holds true today. Whether it’s networking inside of the workplace or networking out and about at shows, every interaction helps to build a network of contacts. “Once you get that coveted industry job it’s a lot of hard work, so truly go above and beyond expectations, keep building that network, and know it may be a long and sometimes not-so-glamorous road ahead,” Marshall said, “but if you’re passionate, dedicated and savvy enough, it will pay off.”

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AGREE TO DISAGREE:

SHOULD STUDENT ATHLETES BE PAID?

Trent Leonard and Sean Tierney The Pitt News Staff

On the topic of employment, two of our staff members debated the issue of paying student athletes. Opinions differed on scholarships and salary systems, but both agreed on the unfairness of a particular NCAA rule. College athletes are already compensated fairly through athletic scholarships. Sean Tierney: Disagree. This is the argument against paying players that I hear most often. While I understand the idea and sentiment of this argument, in my own mind it just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Schools are allowed to decide who pays to come to their school and who doesn’t. Across the board, they have determined that top athletes are people they want to have at their school, and so they award them scholarships to attract them and attend schools they wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise. They do the exact same thing with students who are exemplary and others who need financial support. But these students can then go and get a job working for their school that will pay them for their labor on top of their scholarship. Student athletes, on the other hand, often devote more time to their sport than these students do to their jobs and make way more money for the school and NCAA — yet get zero dollars. A scholarship is not a free pass for the NCAA to use athletes as free labor. It’s not that way for regular students, so why would it be so for student athletes? Maybe it’s because these athletes can be cash cows that schools and the NCAA wants to unjustly milk them for all they’ve got, and that’s not okay, especially when many of these players desperately need some form of income for themselves and their families. Trent Leonard: Agree. Let’s look at Pitt, for example, where full-time in-state tuition is $18,628 for the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Even ignoring housing and other costs, that’s a bare minimum of $74,512 that a student athlete doesn’t have to pay during their college career. That’s a $74,512 head start on their peers who often graduate with copious amounts of debt. A full athletic scholarship is nothing to scoff at.

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Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor (2) watches the confetti swirl around him Sugar Bowl at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. Fred Squillante/Columbus Dispatch/MCT I get that being a student athlete is challenging. It’s not easy having to juggle hours of practice along with hours of schoolwork. But an annual “salary” of at least $18,628 is perfectly fair compensation for the work and entertainment that most student athletes contribute. The only exceptions are athletes who become so famous that their commercial worth far exceeds the value of their scholarship (think Zion Williamson) or the walk-ons who put in the same practice time as their teammates without getting compensation. There should be a system in place that pays a salary to college athletes. ST: Agree. The simple, straightforward answer to this question of paying athletes is yes. No matter how complicated it may be to figure out how this is done, it should be done. In the 2017 fiscal year, the NCAA reported revenue of $1.1 billion, and $0 went to any of the roughly 460,000 athletes upon which the organization is built.

How this should be done is complicated. One starting point is to be honest about which NCAA sports are profitable and which are not — a distinction that should be made at the team level and indiscriminate of sport, gender or division. It’s an unfortunate reality, but most college sports are a money drain. They’re essentially being funded by football and basketball teams. If a team is not profitable, the athletes should not make a profit. So, the pool of athletes up for pay shrinks significantly, likely containing only football and basketball players from the top divisions. From there, I think that the money should be treated similar to scholarships. Each team can be given an equal amount of money from the NCAA and forced to allocate a certain percent of their own profits from that sport to a fund, with a hard cap for each team within a given sport. From that fund, coaches can distribute the money as they see fit among players, just like they distribute scholarships. TL: Disagree. I just don’t think there’s

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any feasible way of paying college athletes that wouldn’t cause more problems than it solves. There’s too many questions to ask. Do you pay the star quarterback the same as the baseball team’s backup catcher? What about the athletic programs that don’t bring in a major profit? How long until the money starts to run dry? How could you ensure that the wealthiest programs wouldn’t just offer more money or that financial corruption wouldn’t run rampant? The whole prospect just seems messy, and I shudder envisioning a future where Pitt’s best running back misses a whole season while holding out due to a contract dispute. College athletes should be able to profit off their own name and likeness. ST: Agree. This is the most frustrating part of the NCAA’s “amateur athlete” policy. The NCAA prohibits any and all athletes from using their image as college athletes to make money in any way. This means no merSee Athlete Pay on page 14

Athlete Pay, pg. 13 chandise sales, endorsement deals or paid appearances. Just imagine any of the ways an average person would go about making money for themselves, and it’s most likely prohibited for NCAA athletes. It is a blatant violation of these athletes’ rights and freedoms to profit off themselves, all while the NCAA makes about a billion dollars a year off of them. One story that illustrates the ridiculousness of this policy that of Donald De

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La Haye, who was a kicker on the University of Central Florida football team in 2017. De La Haye also had a very successful YouTube channel where he chronicled his day-to-day life as a student athlete with videos about school, football and life. Due to YouTube’s ad revenu qe, he made some money from this secondary passion. But in August of 2017, the NCAA demanded that De La Haye de-monetize his channel because he was making money off his football career. De La Haye decided not to give in. His scholarship was revoked and he was forced to leave the UCF football

team. TL: Agree. This is one we can all agree on. Pretty much everyone agrees that this rule is stupid, except for the NCAA. If an athlete wants to sell his autograph, he should be able to do so. If Nike approaches a student athlete and wants to give them an endorsement deal, they should be able to take it. That should be common sense. These are personal transactions completely outside the NCAA’s jurisdiction — and yet, somehow, the NCAA has forbidden its athletes from profiting off of their own

September 12, 2019

name. Remember when Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor sold some of his former sports gear to get a discounted tattoo? It was hyped up as a massive scandal, with the media reacting as though he’d killed someone. He was suspended five games by the NCAA. In a perfect world, scenarios like that would be perfectly acceptable for student athletes. If you become so good at your craft that people outside the NCAA want to give you money, the NCAA should have no say in whether or not you can take it.

pittnews.com

September 12, 2019

Clifford, pg. 6 makers everywhere should have pause in the face of uncertainty, so too should the understanding be that no employer is free from these constraints, even universities. Conceivably, there is the possibility that, because public and state-related universities do not operate on the same profit-seeking principles as private businesses, they will not be as affected by large wage hikes. The school could also be expected to just eat the cost, but early evidence on these experiments at schools suggests that this is not what they are prepared to do. The University of Washington, which would pay $25 million to support a $15 wage, notes the necessity of cutting costs in administration or downsizing certain departments through attrition, killing job opportunities for the very students targeted or even other staff that had nothing to do with the policy. Conclusive evidence one way or another will be difficult to come by for several years, while these ideas are still in infancy. On that basis, it is wise for any schools considering hikes to their wage floors to remain cautious and to be aware that any cost-reducing or revenue-increasing measures — even including the possibility of further tuition hikes — are likely to prove unpopular. Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner even indicated last year that student employment at Pitt would probably have to be cut by around half in order to pay a hypothetical $15 floor, which is more than some regular staff earn. The host of “living wage” arguments are weakly founded. Work, often parttime, for university students is temporary and about gaining employment to help with tuition — not fulfilling one’s dreams or building a life on a single income. Accomplishing those goals is what college is supposed to do. Without sufficient evidence or precedent to credibly claim that high minimum wages do not harm workers, the “Fight for $15” crowd’s latest assertions and campaigns for radical change should be taken with a grain of salt, as they create far more questions than they answer.

pittnews.com

September 12, 2019