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TABLE OF CONTENTS SGB President Maggie Kennedy & Pitt’s LGBT community ...............................................................................6 Pre-season preparation: ...........................................................................................................................................7 Get to Know Your Government: Introducing SGB........................................................................................................8 New grocery store comes to Oakland .................................................................................................................... 10 Column: Taco........................................................................................................................................................... 16 New hires in Pitt Athletics ...................................................................................................................................... 21 Volunteer organizations at Pitt ........................................................................................................................... 22 Columns: Schenley Quad and Lyke ........................................................................................................................ 24 Panther Pride: Journeys to the NFL ............................................................................................................. 26 SCOTUS decision ................................................................................................................................................ 31 Column: Pittsburgh culture’s many options ............................................................................................................. 33 Courses cut costs as OERs come to Pitt ........................................................................................................... 36 Lawrenceville Art Crawl.......................................................................................................................................... 38 Column: Summer classes ....................................................................................................................................... 40 A new path for champions .............................................................................................................................. 43 Taco Lovers Lose Their Minds........................................................................................................................... 44 Internship Prep Program ........................................................................................................................................47 Column: Stay single when it comes to Pitt dorms .............................................................................................. 48 Column: Pittsburgh restaurants need more student deals .......................................................................... 50 Free for Students: Art, Exercise, Buses and More! .............................................................................................52 Pitt Then & Now ..................................................................................................................................................... 56 Players with promise: Capel welcomes 3 top-100 athletes to Pitt............................................................................ 58 ‘Beauty and the Yeast Infection’ .......................................................................................................................... 62 Column: Don’t trivialize recreational clubs ................................................................................................................. 65 Poetry............................................................................................................................................................ 70 & 71 Pitt professor hosts book launch in Oakland ................................................................................................73 Pitt alums aim to simplify subletting..........................................................................................................................76 FutureACC Studio offers opportunities for Pitt students . ..............................................................................................79 Staff Picks: Coffee Shops & Pizza Party ................................................................................................... 81 & 92 Referees’ experience ............................................................................................................................................. 86 cover by christian snyder and shahum ajmal
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LINGERING LAUGHTER: PITT’S LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY TAKES ON THE COMEDY SCENE Sarah Connor Culture Editor When Andrew Dow isn’t making crowds of people laugh as the host of Pitt Tonight or performing onstage with the improv group Ruckus, he can be found spending his summer in his hometown of Abington, just 15 miles outside of Philadelphia. As he cozied up to his dog on a midMay evening, he and his mother teared up at an episode of the Netflix show “Queer Eye.” “I’m really lucky, my parents have always been supportive of me being gay,” the junior sociology and communications student said. Though he believes he is privileged to have come from an accepting family, Dow thinks coming to Pitt was a great opportunity to be a part of two thriving, but not-always-noticed groups on campus — the LGBTQ+ community and the comedy scene. Dow earned the opportunity to host Pitt Tonight for the beginning of the 2017-18 school year after an open audition, surprising himself with this success. Dow said he was not involved with
Pitt Tonight before getting the role as the host. Since auditioning for the part on Pitt Tonight, Dow has pursued comedy outside of Pitt at his favorite venues, like Hambone’s in Lawrenceville and Papa D’s in South Oakland. Standing at 6-foot-3, Dow takes pride in defying stereotypes and uses his position as a stand-up comic to satirize social issues like masculinity. “I never want people to watch me and think ‘oh look at the cute gay boy,’” Dow said. “I am masculine, forward and a bit bro-y with my performances.” Common ways he approaches this “bro-y” method of comedy include being direct about romantic or sexual interests. “It’s so common for straight comedians to say something like, ‘Oh look at her chest!’ but I like to mess with my male audience. They’re not used to a 6-foot-3 man calling them out and ironically saying they have a nice ass,” he said. One of Dow’s peers, Simone Norden, commends Dow for this strong, but socially and comically effective approach. Norden, a junior
Pitt Tonight host Andrew Dow (left) poses with best friend Dominic Hendrickson after the final episode of the season. PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREW DOW
environmental studies major who identifies as erful because it hits you in such a visceral way,” she pansexual, is the president of Pitt’s improvisation- said. Norden said the socially aware side of Dow’s al comedy group, Ruckus. take on stand-up can cause self-reflection. “I think using irony — and I know Andrew uses a lot of irony in his comedy — is just so powSee Pitt Tonight on page 12
SGB PRESIDENT MAGGIE KENNEDY IS READY FOR THE YEAR AHEAD
Grant Burgman News Editor
Maggie Kennedy has hardly had a chance to relax since winning Pitt’s Student Government Board election in February. Kennedy, a senior political science and communication rhetoric double major at Pitt, has spent most of her time over the last three months meeting with University officials and Student Government Board members in preparation for her new regime in the fall. Former SGB President Max Kneis has been instrumental in helping Kennedy prepare for the upcoming year. “We met probably once a week, starting I guess at the beginning of March, like right after spring break through like the end of the year,” Kennedy said. ““I want to say we had like 200some interviews for the various positions that
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we have. So it was a really busy transition, but Max was definitely very helpful.” One of the most important things Kennedy is trying to improve on next year is student engagement with SGB. “I think for next year I really want to make sure that we increase collaboration across campus, like that’s a thing that we talk about every year,” Kennedy said. “But I think some of the ideas that our incoming board members have about that specifically will really help us do that.” Some of those ideas include boosting attendance of student organization leaders at SGB meetings and increasing awareness of the Panther Program of the Month — an award given by SGB to a Student Organization Resource Center-certified Pitt program that provides it with advertising on the student affairs screens and catering for the program’s next meeting. One of Kennedy’s more personal goals for
next year is to improve resources for the humanities at Pitt. She wants to look at how Pitt’s resources compare to other schools and reevaluate them based on what the research finds. “What I want to do is complete whatever benchmarking research is needed to compare what other universities have regarding [arts] practice facilities, dance practice facilities, things like that and try to figure out what we can do to better that situation at Pitt,” Kennedy said. “Specifically, I’ve had experiences with the practice rooms that haven’t always been the best … they’re not maintained super well.” To continue her focus on the humanities community at Pitt, Kennedy said she would like to implement a humanities research fair, similar to research fairs held for science, math and engineering students. “There isn’t a lot of overall University support for students doing research in humanities
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and sometimes it’s harder for those students to find research,” Kennedy said. “So, we want to see what we can do to try to establish a research fair based off of the same model that STEM departments do.” One of the most prominent issues of Kennedy’s campaign for SGB president in the spring was reforming sexual assault education on campus. Kennedy, who served as wellness chair last year and is a member of Students Engaging in Conversation about Consent and Sexuality, said she wants to implement a different way of addressing sexual assault by working to change the way sexual assault is addressed to first-year students. “I think we have a really strong emphasis on bystander intervention, which is important that we teach students, but that is a reactionary See Maggie Kennedy on page 12
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PRESEASON PREPARATION: VOLLEYBALL AND SOCCER TEAMS TRAIN IN THE OFFSEASON Dom Campbell Staff Writer The beginning of summer sounds like freedom for many Pitt students. But for student athletes, it is just the beginning of a long grind that will continue from now until the end of their season. For the women’s volleyball and men’s soccer teams, there are a few athletes who will stay on campus throughout the entire summer, while others will play elsewhere. These athletes will work on staying in shape and improving their techniques, while managing injuries they may have picked up last season. Coming back to the 2018-19 season with a strong roster is more important than ever for the volleyball team, which won its first ACC title in program history last year and reached the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row, where
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they lost to Penn State in the second round. Dan Fisher, the team’s head coach, isn’t happy about not being able to coach his team during the summer due to NCAA rules that prohibit mandatory summer practices. Still, he sees value in many of his players going abroad to play for their country or even just playing volleyball in general. “The training part’s great, but we really believe that learning how to compete is important too,” Fisher said. “Whether it’s playing internationally, whether it’s just even playing in a competitive open grass or sand tournament, I think that, for a young athlete, is really important.” While most of the players are away from Pitt, there are about five or so who are still working out during the weekday
Players of the Pitt men’s soccer team huddle together on the field during a game.
See Offseason on page 13
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PHOTO COURTESY OF PITT ATHLETICS
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Maggie Kennedy (left), next year’s SGB president, poses for a photo with her fellow Horizon slate members, including board members Rajaab Nadeem, Jessa Chong and Corey Stillman (right) . PHOTO COURTESY OF HORIZON
GET TO KNOW YOUR GOVERNMENT: INTRODUCING SGB Madeline Gavatorta
a board of nine elected board members each year, including one president and Staff Writer Most students can’t speak one-on-one eight board members. The president is with administration to discuss issues decided in an annual campus-wide elecmost important to them or muster up tion while the board members campaign enough support from the student body in a separate election for their positions. to get administration’s attention. This is The board member who receives the where the Student Government Board comes in to help. From pressuring Pennsylvania’s elected officials to pass a state budget to garnering up administrative backing to reduce textbooks costs, last year’s board showed what student representatives can do when they band together. The Student Government Board — or, SGB — is the student government at Pitt that aims to “promote the concerns, interests, needs, and welfare of the student Corey Stilllman body of the University of Pittsburgh,” SGB Board Member according to its website. SGB is led by
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“[Diversity] is educational, it will teach you just as much as you learn in the classroom.”
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most votes in the SGB election automatically becomes the executive vice president while the president then appoints two of the remaining board members as vice presidents — one of whom will also serve as chief of finance and the other as chief of cabinet. SGB has direct power over allocating a portion of the student activity fund, which comes from the $80 student activity fee per semester, to student organizations and club sports. SGB can also pass bills editing their own code and procedures. Indirectly, SGB can pass resolutions urging University or government officials to take action in a certain direction at their public meetings every Tuesday at 8:45 p.m. in Nordy’s Place, located on the ground floor of the William Pitt Union. Apart from the board, SGB is made
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up of three standing — or permanent — committees, including the Election Committee, the Judicial Committee and the Allocations Committee. The Cabinet of Committees is a separate body that oversees a number of others including the Wellness Committee, the Academic Affairs Committee, the Community and Governmental Relations Committee and the Facilities, Technology and Transportation Committee. The executive vice president also is the speaker of SGB’s lower legislative body, The assembly, made up of one representative from each of the 15 student-affairs-affiliated organizations at Pitt. The assembly presents an opportunity for student leaders to have an open dialogue with SGB the first and third Wednesday of each month at 8 p.m. See SGB on page 9
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SGB, pg. 8 SGB also runs a First Year Council, to which first-semester students can apply to be a part of during their second semester. Selected students, “who demonstrate early potential for campus leadership,” will help the board by researching for ongoing projects. After the spring elections concluded — with Maggie Kennedy as next year’s SGB president — the Board started planning for the upcoming year. Here are some of next year’s new SGB members and what they have in store for their terms. Executive Vice President Jahari Mercer Mercer is a senior industrial engineering major and was the president for the Pitt Students for Social Justice last year. He was also the Pitt National Society of Black Engineers corporate liaison chair and ran for an SGB board position on the Neighbors slate. He campaigned on expanding student’s ability to use their meal plans, adding diversity and inclusion to the new student orientation and helping departments find ways to help their students de-stress. “My biggest goals for the upcoming semester include to give students more freedom with their meal plan so that they can have more options of what to eat with their swipes, continue to stress and promote the need for diversity and inclusion on campus and to make SGB an organization that students feel comfortable communicating with and can use as a resource here on campus,” Mercer said. Vice President and Chief of Finance Cory Stillman Stillman is a junior film studies major who was the allocations chair last year. He is involved with WPTS Radio and is a member of the Beta Theta Phi fraternity. He ran as and SGB board candidate on the Horizon slate. He campaigned on helping students better understand the allocations process, allowing non-sport competitive clubs to get more funding in return for their fundraising successes, an initiative to expand the Office of Career Development and Placement Assistance for creative arts students and creating an onSee SGB on page 15
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PRODUCE AT PITT: NEW GROCERY STORE COMES TO OAKLAND Remy Samuels
Satff Writer As Pitt transitions into the fall semester, students can finally stop mourning the loss of 7-Eleven and welcome the new grocery store that is coming to Forbes Avenue. Although Slurpees will no longer be available, fresh fruits and vegetables will soon enter the Oakland scene. Jim Earle, Pitt’s assistant vice chancellor for business, said the grocery is currently in its final design phase and will start construction in June. They plan on opening the store in September after student move-in ends — and Earle assured that unlike a convenience store like 7-Eleven, this will really be a grocery store. “We’re really focused on bringing students freshness,” Earle said. “So there’ll be fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, meat [and] fresh fish. The idea is that you’ll be able to do your grocery shopping here in Oakland and not have to take a bus or Uber to Shadyside, which is really why this was created.” Oakland residents used to have an IGA grocery store on Forbes Avenue near The Exchange and Supercuts — but when the grocery closed in April 2017, shopping became harder. “When the IGA went out of business, we heard from a lot of students that grocery shopping was really difficult and that it would really help to have a grocery store in Oakland,” he said. Some may even consider Oakland to be a “food desert” — defined as an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. But Judith Dodd, an assistant professor in the department of sports medicine and nutrition, argues that Oakland doesn’t technically qualify as a food desert, considering the proximity of stores like Rite Aid and CVS, which sell limited groceries. “This is not the traditional food desert,” Dodd said. “Yes, it fits the description, but there are resources available within walking and easy bus transportation. Think about
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[sic] what if you lived above Interstate 80 and you didn’t have a car. That’s a food desert.” Earle said the grocery will also offer a deli section with fresh meats as well as a bakery section, which will replace the Oakland Bakery that is currently on Fifth Avenue. “We have been stressing that we want it to be very fresh — something that students will just want to stop by after class and pick up chicken for the grill or steaks or whatever it might be,” he said. “Fresh fruit for their dorm rooms, vegetables … they’ll be able to get them right here and take it back to where they live.” Dodd raised the issue of student access to proper storage and refrigeration. Although fresh fruits and vegetables are a much healthier alternative to heating up pre-packaged meals from Market-to-Go, having only a small fridge and microwave may not suffice for keeping the fresh produce safe and secure. “One of my concerns is that we want [this grocery] but what do we do with a whole head of lettuce or a whole zucchini if you’re living in an apartment or a room and have only a single burner and a tiny refrigerator and no freezer,” Dodd said. “I’m not so sure it’s going to make any great impact unless people are [in need] of those things.” With the new grocery in place, Earle said Market-to-Go will still be open 24 hours as a replacement to 7-Eleven and the new grocery will have a broad range of daytime hours. The addition of a grocery store is a welcome change for some students. Katie Gannon, a sophomore English Literature major, said a grocery store with fresh produce will be a nice addition. “You go down to Market-to-Go all the time, but the fruits aren’t necessarily fresh and you can’t get things that you can kind of make,” Gannon said. Gannon did say it’s important that the grocery store be affordable since its clientele
The Market on Forbes IGA closed last April after nine years of serving the Oakland community. While students appreciated the convenience and location of one of the few food markets in Oakland, competition with bigger grocery stores made it difficult for IGA to stay open. TPN FILE PHOTO
will be mostly college students. “Even if you can’t necessarily afford things you might find at a grocery store, if they’re fairly priced produce, that would be really beneficial for students especially when budgets are tight,” Gannon said. Earle said the grocery will accept both Panther Funds and cash, and that the University is committed to being competitive with Giant Eagle and Trader Joe’s. Because
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the store is something that affects all students, Earle said he believes the grocery will be a tremendous addition to campus. “Both on- and off-campus students will shop here and be able to get items they want and need,” Earle said. “Part of our strategic plan for Pitt is building strong communities and I think this helps in that regard as well. Making it easy and accessible for our students to get fresh food is a huge win.”
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Maggie Kennedy, pg. 6 approach and students don’t necessarily always find themselves in a situation where they see something’s gone wrong and they’re able to stand up and save the day and everything is OK,” Kennedy said. Instead, Kennedy wants to focus on changing the culture around sexual conversations and behaviors to try to prevent sexual assault in the first place. “I don’t necessarily think that can be fixed in a year. But I think if we increase the conversation in first-year orientation about healthy relationships and signs of having a healthy relationship … that will help students be more prepared and understand basically what’s right and what’s wrong,” she said. Pitt hosts events every year during sexual assault awareness month in April, and Kennedy wants to increase programming throughout the year. “What I’d like to do is see if we can have more pop-up programming and awareness events throughout the year and not just in April,” she said. “If you only have programming for this topic during that last month [of school], it’s not quite as effective as it could be.”
Kennedy is currently studying abroad in France, and she won’t be back in Pittsburgh until August. But that won’t stop her and other members of SGB from starting to work on programs and initiatives for the fall. “In the fall SGB typically does a wellness and safety fair in September and our big mental health awareness month in October, so some of that planning does need to start over the summer,” Kennedy said. “Any board members, committee chairs as well, anybody is welcome to work on a project that they know they’re going to be working on next year.” Looking forward to next year, Kennedy reflected on what she learned last year to prepare her for her new position as SGB president during the 2018-19 school year. As wellness chair, she said she had to attend meetings with members of University administration for discussions on sexual assault, mental health and other initiatives. Those meetings, she said, taught her to be confident that she belongs in the room making big decisions. “I think sometimes I was intimidated by the adults in the room and I learned by the end of the year that it’s really important that when we are in those meetings [we] speak up and we share the student perspective, because that’s the reason we were elected and that’s
Maggie Kennedy is Pitt’s SGB President for the 2018-19 school year. One of her top goals is to focus on increasing student engagement with SGB. PHOTO COURTESY OF MAGGIE KENNEDY
the reason we were chosen for that position,” Kennedy said. “If we don’t say anything then they might
not ask,” she said. “So recognizing and trying to be more confident in those positions is something huge that I learned this year.”
Pitt Tonight, pg. 6 “It causes so much cognitive dissonance. If Andrew says ‘I’m gay,’ but then in his jokes start going into this bro-y, kind of misogynistic tone, these straight men look and him and they’re so confused,” Norden said. “You just freak them out and then they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, maybe I do need to chill.’” Dow said that some of his inspiration for this style of comedy rooted in LGBTQ+ awareness comes from his experience with Ruckus, which he has performed with for two years now. Ruckus features about 25 students of all genders and performs shows on campus, mostly in G-24 of the Cathedral of Learning, as well as in comedy clubs all over Pittsburgh. “Ruckus is always going to hold a special place in my heart. It introduced me to so many queer people and so many funny people who inspire me everyday,” Dow said. “In high school, I did theater and was able to meet some gay friends through that and at Pitt, I’ve been able to make so many new queer friends through being involved with Ruckus.” Dow met his closest friend, Dominic Hendrickson, who also identifies as a gay man, through Ruckus when he joined as a first year. The two cite
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For the last episode of Pitt Tonight for the 2017-18 school year, host Andrew Dow invited best friend Dominic Henrickson to be his guest. PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREW DOW
Ruckus as an integral part of their college experience and have been inseparable since they started performing together. “I think that being gay and in comedy has really boosted my confidence since coming to college,” Hendrickson said. “I think, more importantly, being a gay voice in comedy and having so many queer people in Ruckus creates an diverse open environment for to experience different outlets of
comedy because, let’s face it, comedy in mass media is run by straight men,” he added. For Hendrickson, Dow and Norden, being involved in comedy helped them add friends to their support system, which Hendrickson said is a vital part of coming to college as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. “I think the most important thing for me being gay at college is my support system. Yes, we live
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in a progressive city, but there is always going to a ton of hate toward the LGBT community so having people who love you regardless is so important,” he said. Luckily for Dow, he was able to find his support system within his passion. “I love to make people laugh, that’s all I want to do,” he said. “The feeling of making people laugh is absolutely euphoric.”
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mornings. If their schedules aren’t too crowded in the afternoon, they practice in the Fitzgerald Field House or even go to Highland Park to play in the sand courts there. The majority of the team will be on campus after the first six weeks of summer for the team’s second six-week training session — and even though Fisher isn’t allowed to coach until the actual preseason begins August 10, rising redshirt junior Stephanie Williams doesn’t see this as a barrier to success. “I think he’s made a culture where we care a lot all the time,” the outside hitter said. “Even though he’s not there and can’t correct us or yell at us, I think all of us will hold each other accountable … we just want to show him that we’ve actually gotten better and taken his advice.” For those six weeks the majority of the team is there, they focus on six-on-six drills — a fast-paced, game-like environment that helps players improve speed, technique and communication, along with traditional exercise like weight lifting. Fisher said he has trained the players to mimic this in their workouts throughout the year. “We’re trying to be quick twitch and in really good anaerobic shape. We do plyos, we do olympic lifting, we do circuit training,” Fisher said. “We do movements that kind of mimic the movements we do on the volleyball court as much as we can.” While focusing on hammering technique and avoiding bad habits during the summer, the biggest challenge for the team is to remain focused on improving every day and not lower intensity throughout the summer, according to rising redshirt senior Angela Seman. “I think in the summer sometimes it’s a little easy to slack and say, ‘I’ll just do more tomorrow,’” Seman said. “But I think this group of girls that we have, they’re really determined to taking care of business this summer and really working and that every day counts and pushing ourselves to be better than we’ve ever been coming into preseason.” Like the women’s volleyball team, men’s soccer isn’t allowed to practice with a coach until August 10. To get experience on their own, most
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members of the team will go back home to play with their Premier Developmental League team — a minor-league complement to Major League Soccer — or back to their home country if they are an international player. Some players also stay on campus to take classes as well, meaning they are here for almost the entire summer. Team captain, rising senior Javi Perez, said he doesn’t like having time off between seasons. After spending a majority of his life playing for Valencia CF in Spain, one of the best youth soccer academies in the country, Perez says that the time without head coach Jay Vidovich stunts team growth. “You’re not able to grow as a player because you got less time with your coaches, you got all these restrictions that hurt you from getting better,” Perez said. Even though there aren’t a great number of players that stay on campus throughout the whole summer, the ones that stay usually train every weekday. Vidovich and strength and conditioning coach Tyler Carpenter coordinated optional runs and training Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the team cools down and recovers with yoga Wednesdays and Fridays. Vidovich and Carpenter emphasize recovery and avoiding injuries in summer training, especially since they play on turf, which has been shown to have caused more injuries than grass does. Three players, including Perez, had complications with knee injuries and had ACL surgeries last year. “We set up a running program for them to a see if we can keep up with improving their numbers in terms of their speeds, their distances, their ability to repeat sprints at high levels, those types of things,” Vidovich said. The players who are still on campus, like Perez and rising sophomore Edward Kizza, are focused on getting in shape before spending more time on the pitch with the soccer ball. “Once we start getting into summer … we can focus more on ball work and stuff, passing the ball, movement,” Kizza said. “But then those other things like the drills we do, like some in the weight room, are gonna help us with explosiveness, change of pace, turning and stuff. Everything is a process for everything we want to work on during the preseason.”
The Pitt news crossword 5/31/18
Offseason, pg. 7
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SGB, pg. 9 teach you just as much as you learn in the classroom,” Stillman said. “So to enter the world after college and take it head on, experience with diversity is really invaluable for any student here at Pitt.” Board Member Albert Tanjaya Tanjaya is a junior computer science major and was previously the recording secretary for the SGB assembly. He was the Asian Student Alliance advocacy chair, involved with Jumpstart and ran
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his candidacy on the 582 Bridges slate. He campaigned on expanding the electronic room booking service to include more buildings and floors on campus, adding more trash and recycling bins and finding a better way for students to track the status of SGB projects. “Without student government, there would be such an overhaul of chaos and communication going back and forth [between administration and students] whereas student government is a centralized place for all of these communications,” Tanjaya said.
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Jahari Mercer celebrates after hearing the results of the 2018 SGB election. Mercer will be SGB’s executive vice president next year. CHRISTIAN SNYDER | EDITOR IN CHIEF
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column
RESPECT LAS PALMAS: STOP PURCHASING ‘TRENDY’ ETHNIC FOOD Jeremy Wang
Las Palmas doubles as a taqueria, serving cheap tacos stuffed with meats such as chicken, steak, ground beef and carnitas on doubled-up corn tortillas. Jeremy Wang | SENIOR STAFF COLUMNIST
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Senior Staff Writer Nestled away on Atwood Street is an Oakland gem that’s the stuff of legends — Las Palmas. As a big fan of Tex-Mex and home cooking, I do most of my grocery shopping at this small Mexican grocery store, where I can find ingredients such as jicama or prickly pears that conventional stores don’t carry. If I have any questions about what certain products are or how to best use them, the employees all grew up using them and can help. Las Palmas also doubles as a taqueria, serving cheap tacos made with doubled-up corn tortillas and a variety of meats like chicken, steak, ground beef and carnitas — all that you can customize with countless salsas, toppings and spices. But restaurants like Las Palmas don’t get the hype they deserve. With depressing regularity, tacos and other “ethnic foods” are being pitched by Americans to Americans as a trendy,
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cultured, heritage-infused dining experience for monetary gain. The authenticity of Las Palmas tacos represents an easily accessible and affordable escape from these mainstream trends. For entire communities that grew up eating non-American dishes, they never had to tell a story about their cuisine’s creation to justify their consumption of it. For them, it was just another great meal. Traditional Taiwanese food that my mother painstakingly made for me to bring to elementary school used to get me the stink eye for not being an “ordinary” lunch like a cold and sad ham sandwich. Today, those same dishes are painted as a new trend — and Americans devour it, not realizing such food has been cooked and eaten by minority communities for generations. Sadly, most might not realize that eating watered-down versions of “ethnic food” is far from a new and trendy experience to communities that cook that food for ordinary meals. Because See Wang on page 19
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By Christian Snyder | Editor in Chief
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Wang, pg. 16 they have no experience consuming traditional ethnic food, they often don’t recognize knockoff versions of it and accept those as adequate representations of the entire cuisine. But the difference is clear. Las Palmas tacos sold me with their authenticity. As a rising senior, I go at least three or four times a week, and the man who operates the grill already knows what his next order will be the moment he hears my Western boots clacking down the sidewalk an entire block away. Being the amateur taco enthusiast that I
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am, I found my interest piqued when a video about tacos al pastor showed up in YouTube recommended videos feed. It follows a bar owner in Manhattan telling the story of the cultural history and heritage behind tacos al pastor and serving them as a bar snack. The price tag? A jaw-dropping five dollars per taco. What about this taco justifies a five dollar price tag? Everything about the taco in the video felt accessible and achievable by a quick run down the block to Las Palmas at half the price. This jarring disconnect between tacos presented as a trendy bar food and the Las Palmas tacos I know and love came to a head when I recently visited Chicago during a layover.
While there, I visited a restaurant “inspired by authentic Mexican street food” that supposedly specialized in tacos and boasted a 4.4 star rating through over a thousand Google reviews. I looked over the menu to find pork, beef and beer-battered fish tacos commanding a $4 price tag — fairly hefty but perfectly justifiable if they were great tacos. And seeing the Google ratings, I had no reason to think I would be let down. I was wrong. The battered fish fillet — while crispy and well-seasoned — was paired with plain cabbage and a meager helping of sauce over a single, cold tortilla. The other tacos struggled to do better with disappointingly
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small helpings of toppings. Worst of all, the salsa bar I could always depend on to add more life to taco was absent at this restaurant. After taking a mere six bites — two per taco, that’s how small they were — I looked at my empty plate, still hungry and feeling defeated. Despite being “inspired by authentic Mexican street food,” the tacos themselves couldn’t be further from it. The promise of tacos inspired by authentic street food lured me in, but I ended up eating a bland, small, watered-down rendition of what could have been an excellent meal. It wasn’t the culinary aspect of the tacos that people were paying for — it was the story of the taco being told. While we may not be able to single-handedly reverse this trend, we should use our awareness of it to be better consumers — and teach our friends and family to do the same. Poke around your neighborhood to find hidden gems in hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Research the cuisine’s backstory to understand its heritage. While it may be a new, exotic experience for you, it’s someone else’s everyday meal with generations of history behind it. Most importantly, if there’s some dish commanding a steep price that’s ultimately justified by its over-the-top cultural story, don’t buy the hype. You can always find better and still have enough in your wallet for seconds.
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THE INNOVATION INSTITUTE Is There an Entrepreneur Lurking Inside of You? Michael Yeomans The Big Idea Center at the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute can help you find out. Whether your life plan includes launching your own business or nonprofit, or leading new initiatives inside a larger organization, such as a new product launch, or succeeding in a personal endeavor, like starting a band or creating a new program at your church or community center, learning the skills of entrepreneurship will make you stand out from the crowd. The Big Idea Center is open to all Pitt students of any level from across the University and provides a host of experiential learning opportunities throughout the academic year. From startup weekends to pitch competitions with cash prizes to accelerator and incubator programs, free legal seminars for those considering starting a new enterprise, office hours with entrepreneurs in residence and more, the Big Idea Center is Pitt’s hub for student entrepreneurship. The Big Idea Center debuted this spring with a $2 million seed gift from Pitt trustee Bob Randall. Mr. Randall and his children have long been champions of entrepreneurship education at Pitt. Ten years ago, Mr. Randall established the Randall Family Big Idea Competition, which awards $100,000 in prizes to Pitt students of any level, making it the largest student pitch competition in the region. Over the past four years since the creation of the Innovation Institute — the University’s center for technology transfer, faculty and student entrepreneurship and small business assistance — a host of new resources and programs have been created around the Big Idea competition to meet the rising demand for entrepreneurship education. “The growth of student entrepreneurship at Pitt has been amazing,” said Babs Carryer, the center’s founding director. “We had nearly
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1,200 students participate in our programming last year and have had more than 10 student teams launch startup enterprises in each of the past three years since the creation of our Blast Furnace accelerator.” This year, one of those teams, Four Growers, the $25,000 top prize winner in the Randall Big Idea Competition, won second place in the annual ACC InVenture Prize competition in Atlanta, and it was one of the first two teams from Pitt ever to be accepted into the prestigious Rice Business Plan Competition in Houston. The cross-disciplinary team of students from the schools of engineering, business and law has been accepted into a highly competitive accelerator program to grow and test their tomato harvesting robot. “We encourage all Pitt students to learn about the opportunities available at the Big
Idea Center,” said Carryer. “You don’t need to have your own idea for a new enterprise to participate. One of the goals of the center is to bring students from different disciplines together into teams.” How to get involved: Big Idea Center launch party Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018 O’Hara Student Center Ballroom Come to our kickoff event for the 2018-19 academic year where you will meet our staff and entrepreneurs in residence and learn about the Big Idea Center programs, competitions and resources. We will be raffling off prizes and tickets to the Thrival music and innovation festival and giving away some great swag. Startup Blitz Friday and Saturday, Oct. 13 and 14 School of Computing & Information,
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Third Floor Join us for this 24-hour startup-athon. We provide the food and mentorship. You bring the ideas and the energy. No idea? No worries. Come ready to join a team and compete for cash prizes in a pitch competition at the end of the program. Global Entrepreneurship Week Nov. 12-16, 2018 Pitt and Carnegie Mellon collaborate to bring a series of events to celebrate entrepreneurship, including an intra-university pitch competition, an event where roles are reversed and students play the role of venture capitalist investor, along with a panel on social innovation. Visit www.innovation.pitt.edu to learn more, or email Babs Carryer, bcarryer @ innovation.pitt.edu, or Susan Dorff, sdorff@ innovation.pitt.edu.
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LYKE’S PLAN: NEW HIRES IN PITT ATHLETICS Joanna Li Staff Writer In her first year as Pitt’s athletic director, Heather Lyke quickly received a sixyear extension to her contract at the end of April. Jumping right into a hectic season, Lyke hired six new head coaches to begin leading in the 2018-19 season, each one building their own unique coaching staffs. The whole process reflects Lyke’s plan of building what she said would be a new “Golden Era” for Pitt Athletics — a future endeavor rooted in Lyke’s new hires and the “Victory Heights” facility visions. Men’s Basketball Lyke hired previous Duke assistant coach Jeff Capel to help bring the men’s basketball team back to its own golden era. From his experience working under current Duke head coach Mike Kryzyzewski, Capel comes to Pitt with a reputation as a top recruiter, landing Duke the No. 1 class in the country in four of the past five seasons. Capel previously served as head coach of Oklahoma, and head coach of Virginia Commonwealth University before that. Capel rounded out his coaching staff during the same time women’s basketball head coach Lance White was hired. His hires included Tim O’Toole and brother Jason Capel as assistant coaches, and Milan Brown as associate head coach. Women’s Basketball New Pitt women’s basketball head coach Lance White was hired mid-April after 15 years at Florida State working under Sue Semrau. White helped lead the team to the NCAA tournament in 13 of the past 14 years, and helped several players get drafted into the WNBA, including guard Brittany Brown who was drafted last year. He was named the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association National Assistant Coach of the Year during the 201617 season. About a month after being hired,
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Jeff Capel, previous Duke assistant coach and notorious top recruiter, is Pitt’s newest head men’s basketball coach. Mackenzie Rodriguez | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER White announced three members to his coaching staff — Danielle Atkinson and Terri Mitchell as associate head coaches, and Josh Petersen as an assistant coach. And after three years with White at FSU, Atkinson and Petersen will quickly rekindle old chemistry as the three are reunited — but this time, coaching the Panthers. And with the addition of Mitchell — the prior women’s head coach at Marquette with record-holding wins — who took a four-year hiatus from coaching, the team expects a push to success from all four coaches. Gymnastics Samantha Snider was hired mid-June 2017, taking the position over from Debbie Yohman, who had retired a month prior. Snider came to Pitt from Arkansas, her alma mater. While a student she competed in two NCAA championships, and quickly earned the title of director of op-
Keith Gavin, a 2008 Pitt graduate, now serves as the wrestling team’s 11th head coach.
erations at Arkansas after graduating, leading the team to five NCAA regional competitions. Snider was also named the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches/Women South Central Region Assistant Coach of the Year in 2016. Snider works alongside assistant coaches Dave Kuzara and her husband Ryan Snider. In her first year leading the program, the gymnastics team set several new program records and had numerous historical performances. Holding secondbest overall score in program history, it was no surprise the team attended the 2018 NCAA Regional Championship for the first time since 2013 — and finished in fifth place. Women’s Soccer Pitt hired Randy Waldrum after the program announced that Greg Miller was released as the women’s soccer head
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PHOTO COURTESY OF PITT ATHLETICS
coach. Waldrum has 14 seasons of experience as head coach at Notre Dame with an overall record of 399-108-29. Prior to his tenure with the Fighting Irish, Waldrum also coached at Baylor for three seasons and Tulsa for six seasons. Furthermore, he was also named the head coach of the Houston Dash in the National Women’s Soccer League — working with seven national team players that eventually went on to the Rio Summer Olympic Games. Waldrum announced his soccer staff a few months after it was announced that he would act as head coach. The staff includes Ben Waldrum and Dustin Stein — both as assistant coaches. Wrestling Keith Gavin, a 2008 Pitt graduate, was named the wrestling program’s 11th head coach — and was Lyke’s first hire as Athletic Director. Prior to this position, See Lyke’s Plan on page 29
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INVOLVED IN OAKLAND: VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATIONS AT PITT Brittany Zortman
dent at Fulton Elementary School in Highland Park — playing games and building a relationship. In his time volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters, One of the first events new Pitt students are Saporito has come to value the relationships he’s encouraged to attend every fall is the volunteer fair built with his littles. in the William Pitt Union. Volunteer organizations “They sometimes share a lot with you, espefrom around campus set up tables to distribute inforcially as the relationships grows,” he said. mation about their missions to interested students. Big Brothers Big Sisters is just one of a numWandering around the open ballber of student volunteer organizations room as a first-year, Matthew on campus that aim to help Saporito discovered an people locally, nationally organization he and globally — among would eventuwhich are more than ally become 35 Greek life orpresident ganizations that of — hold fundraisPitt’s Big ing and philanBrot h thropic events ers Big on campus Siste rs throughout the club — year. and along For students the way, not involved with learned how any particular volunvaluable volunteer organization, Pitt teering can be for holds an annual college students. day of volunteer “It really shows Pitt student Malcolm meets with his little, service — Pitt you how lucky we are Chauncey, at school to play games and Make a Difference to go to Pitt. Stepping build a relationship. Day. Last year’s outside of that bubble PHOTO COURTESY OF BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER PITTSBURGH PMADD saw and expanding your more than 4,000 perspective is by far the most valuable thing I’ve students across Pitt’s main and branch campuses conlearned from this, in my three years of Big Brother tribute to volunteer projects across the country. The Big Sister,” Saporito said. event is organized by Students for Civic Engagement Saporito, now a senior majoring in marketing, Council and the Office of PittServes every year. spends an hour each week with his “little” — a stuPitt offers more local outlets for students includFor the Pitt News
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Pitt student Kassidy meets with her little, Jaidyne, to spend time together as part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentorship program. PHOTO COURTESY OF BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER PITTSBURGH
ing its Make-A-Wish chapter. Pitt’s Make-A-Wish club works closely with the national organization which aims to help children with terminal medical conditions afford memorable trips. “They can wish for almost anything they want. They can wish to be anyone, wish to go anywhere, wish to have anything, wish to meet anyone they want to and we make it happen,” Samara Silverstein, one of Make-AWish’s Pittsburgh Development Coordinators, said. The club teamed up with the Chi Omega fraternity for their Believe Campaign this past year, an effort by the fraternity to promote increased fundraising and volunteering with the organization. As a part of this effort, the Pitt students filmed a promotional video for Make-A-Wish, which has yet to be released.
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The club hopes to make efforts to recruit more students in the coming year, as well as plan a large fundraising event. “The hopes for it is to bring awareness about Make-A-Wish, as well as participate in volunteer opportunities through our organization, and to fundraise ultimately,” Silverstein said. Pitt’s volunteer organizations extend far beyond the city, too. Pitt’s branch of Mary’s Meals, an international organization that provides meals to students in their place of education, is led this year by Mackenzie White, a third-year grad student studying social work and public health. The Pitt branch focuses primarily on fundraising See Volunteer on page 23
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Volunteer, pg. 22
Pitt student Nikki and her little, Bobbi, at a local park. PHOTO COURTESY OF BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF GREATER PITTSBURGH
and sharing Mary’s Meals’ mission with the public through open discussions and documentary screenings, but White and Mary’s Meals will spend the next year raising money to build a kitchen in the Bvumo Primary School in Malawi. “Mary’s Meals has a really cool way of how they let people fundraise for them. What they do is in schools they’ll create kitchens which is where they then make the meals,” White said. “Groups commit to a kitchen for a year, [and] they have to raise some money.” So far, the club has been successful — the club estimates the money it raises in the next year will feed over 500 children for an entire year. “It’s a really great way to get away from school a little bit and all the homework, and do something that will really make a difference in people’s lives,” White said.
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